The 818 Now

Gegard Mousasi, the Strikeforce mixed martial arts light heavyweight champion, is officially off the upcoming Glendale Glory 2 boxing card on Jan. 8.

Mousasi, regarded as one of the best light heavyweight MMA fighters in the world, was a possibility to make his pro boxing debut at the Art of Boxing Promotions card at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, even listed as one of the card’s fighters on boxrec.com.

However, Mousasi recently signed on to fight an MMA bout on New Year’s Eve in Japan, where he’ll take on veteran “Big Daddy” Gary Goodridge.

“We’ve been working on a [New Year's Eve] fight for [Mousasi] for a long time,” Apy Echteld, Mousasi’s manager, recently told mmajunkie.com. “From our side, we didn’t believe it [was going to happen], so we went to a boxing fight on Jan. 8. Two days ago, the Japanese gave me a call and asked me if he could fight. Then they come up with a kickboxing match, and they came up with some other things. Finally, we accepted Gary Goodridge as an opponent to fight.

“Kickboxing is what they proposed to do, and we asked for it to be an MMA fight.”

Mousasi, who has trained locally in Glendale, is 27-2-1, while Goodridge is 23-19-1.

For more information on Glendale Glory 2, visit www.artofboxingpromotions.com or visit www.boxrec.com.