The Ultimate Fighting Championship will present Fight for the Troops 2 at Fort Hood in Texas on Saturday, January 22.
The UFC will join with Spike TV and the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund in presenting the event.
The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund was established in 2000 to provide support for military personnel lost in performance of their duty. Over time, the activities of the Fund increased and IFHF became a non-profit in 2003.
Since 2003 the IFHF has provided close to $120 million to families of military personnel lost in service as well as support to severely injured veterans.
The UFC first got involved with the IFHF in December of 2008 when they put on an event at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina. That event, also referred to as UFC Fight Night 16, raised over $4 million for the IFHF.
Dana White spoke about the UFC's involvement with the IFHF during a media conference call.
“What happened was we got invited down there and I went down. It was the first time I'd ever seen anything like that… What these guys - the Fisher family who started this thing - what they’ve done for the troops here fighting in the United States, it's… I can't even put it into words for you,” White said.
“When these kids get injured, you know, you’ve got these 18, 19, 20-year-old kids that are getting injured over there, they come back - it's sad to say but the government doesn’t take care of them, which is mind boggling.
“Your kid gets his arms, legs blown off, his face is melted - the horrible things that happen to these guys - and they're laying in a hospital bed out in the middle of Nowhere, Virginia, what do you do? You know what you do - you quit your job, you lose everything you have and you drive out there and you live in your car and you sit in a chair in the bed next to them.
"The money this year will go towards research. And as far as what our expectations are it's whatever anybody can give. I don’t have this expectation where we're going to try to beat the $4 million we made last year. We know times are tough for everybody. Whatever we're able to raise is great and can go toward this great cause.
"We don’t do the ‘Star Spangled Banner’(before UFC events), but we do do it on the military base and all these guys are standing at attention. It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. So I'm actually very excited for this next event.”
The Fight for the Troops 2 card will be headlined by Evan Dunham vs. Melvin Guillard. The other main card fights will be:
Matt Mitrione vs. Tim Hague
Mark Hominick vs. George Roop
Pat Barry vs. Joey Beltran
Cole Miller vs. Matt Wiman
There will also be six fights on the preliminary card.
Spike TV will air Fight for the Troops 2 on Saturday, January 22.
Those wishing to donate to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund can visit: http://www.fightforthetroops.com/
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