Nelson (photo via Spike / UFC)

By FCF Staff

The Maximum Fighting Championship has announced that rising Canadian featherweight Graham Spencer will take on Hawaiian, UFC vet Shane Nelson at the promotion’s upcoming October 26th event in Edmonton.

The bout will kick off the MFC’s newly created featherweight division and will be broadcast live on AXS TV.

Nelson (15-6) hasn’t competed since February, when the BJ Penn trained fighter was submitted by Takasuke Kume while fighting for Shooto. The defeat ended the three fight win streak that Nelson had put together, following a unanimous decision loss to Matt Wiman at UFC 107 in December, 2009.

“I intend on making a statement. I’m not taking Graham lightly but I’m not coming to lose,” Nelson was quoted saying in a press release from the promotion. “I’ve been wanting to come to the MFC for a while and now I’m very glad to get pen to paper and get the deal done.”

The 27 year-old-veteran and TUF 8 vet is 7-3 in his last 10 fights and has scored wins over George Roop, Aaron Riley and Jai Bradney during that stretch.

“I’ve heard that Graham is a grinder but I’ll say right now that he’s going to need a better plan than that to beat me,” offered Nelson. “He’s not going to be able to lay on me and hold me down. It doesn’t matter if I’m on top, on the bottom, or standing, I’m going to hurt him and he’s going to understand that he’s in a fight.”

Spencer (8-1) will arrive in the MFC having gone undefeated in four straight bouts. Most recently, the Impact MMA fighter scored a submission win over Shawn Albrecht, while fighting for Battlefield Fight League in February.

The Nanaimo, British Columbia resident also holds wins over Mukai Maromo and Bruno Capdeville.

MFC 35 will be hosted by Edmonton’s Mayfield Conference Centre, and will feature a middleweight bout between Elvis “The King” Mutapcic and Joseph “Leonidas” Henle for the vacant MFC title.