Former PFL star Tyrell Fortune is back on the regional scene, and his next assignment is a 51-year-old veteran with over 100 fights.
The hard-hitting ex-Bellator star is taking on Tony Lopez in the main event of a local show at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona. Lopez last fought in a bare knuckle boxing match in 2023, which he lost by knockout just months before his 50th birthday.
That fight was against Sean Turner, Tom Aspinall’s teammate who the Brit once called his hardest-hitting man he ever sparred. Meanwhile, Fortune is trying to get himself back to the big leagues after leaving PFL following their merger with Bellator.
Tyrell Fortune to fight 51-year-old MMA veteran with over 100 fights
After his entire professional career played out in the big leagues of Bellator and PFL, wrestling standout Tyrell Fortune was let go last year after failing to make the play-offs. He has since headed to Shawn Merriman’s LXF, where he became heavyweight champion in May.
Regional royalty Tony “Kryptonite” Lopez has booked his 99th MMA fight vs. Tyrell Fortune. It’s his first MMA bout in 3.5 years. pic.twitter.com/nb4I8yBhG0
— Nolan King (@mma_kings) July 27, 2025
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He is staying active and fighting again on August 16, this time for RUF where he will compete for another title. His opponent will be 51-year-old Tony Lopez, who made his MMA debut 20 years ago and has since amassed 99 fights in the cage, as well as countless more across other codes.
Lopez appeared to be finished with MMA after 2022, and likely would have thought his fighting days were over after turning 50 in November of 2023. He won his last MMA bout by knockout against Ben Moa in February of 2022.
Tony Lopez’s last fight was against Tom Aspinall’s hardest-hitting teammate
Last time Lopez got into a ring was for a bare knuckle boxing match with Sean Turner. The Irishman is a professional boxer who has trained with Tom Aspinall, and the UFC heavyweight champion once even claimed he was the hardest puncher he had ever trained with.
The Brit has fought the best of the best in the UFC, and even sparred with Tyson Fury during his days as a boxer. But he claimed Turner, the little-known Dubliner, hit harder than anyone else.
“I’ve sparred with a lot of good boxers,” Aspinall told talkSPORT in May 2023. “I’ve sparred Rico Verhoeven a lot, who is the Glory Kickboxing champion, literally the best kickboxer ever, statistically.
“There was one guy in particular, who I sparred a long time ago, and his name is… I don’t even remember his name. They used to call him ‘Big Sexy’. Sean Turner, he is called. I don’t even know if he’s boxing anymore but I did a few rounds with that guy and that guy punches very hard.
“Extremely hard he punches, he’s definitely one of the heaviest punches I’ve sparred, for sure. I don’t even know if he’s boxing anymore, this was quite a few years ago I sparred him.
“Maybe, it’s because I didn’t know him. When I was sparring Tyson Fury, Joe Joyce, and Rico Verhoeven, people like that – these were renowned knockout artists – I was kind of expecting that a little bit more.
“This guy, Sean Turner, I didn’t really know who he was, and he hit me really hard, and I was like, ‘Wow! This guy is packing some serious power.’”