Superhero Phoenix Jones to Fight His Brother Caros Fodor on WSOF 32

Photos by Nick Wong

There are plenty of siblings that compete alongside one another under the same fight banner. There are the Pettis brothers, Anthony and Sergio, who both compete in the UFC, the Nogueira twins who fought on the same UFC 190 card last year, and from the pugilistic side of things, former heavyweight champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko—the first brothers to simultaneously hold world titles in this history of the sport. Seldom do brothers actually fight against one another—in fact the Klitschkos turned down multi-million dollar proposals to do so during their careers—but this upcoming July may be the first time it will happen on a major promotion.

The World Series of Fighting announced yesterday that MMA veteran Caros Fodor will be facing off against none other than his brother Ben Fodor at the upcoming WSOF 32 event in Everett, Washington. For those unfamiliar, Ben Fodor is also a crime-fighting masked superhero that goes by the name "Phoenix Jones" who made his debut on the WSOF in April of last year. Tensions between the two have been apparently mounting for some time now.

"I suspected for a while that it was eventually going to happen, but it's coming at a good time because we're not getting along very well," Caros Fodor said in an interview with Yahoo Sports. "I'm excited. My career has been up and down and so this will be a good fight for me. I can get in there and make some money."

The career of Caros Fodor has indeed been a bit of a rollercoaster. At 10-5 with 7 wins inside the distance, he's traversed through most of the major MMA fight promotions, beginning with Strikeforce, then a one-fight stop at the UFC, and eventually becoming the lightweight champion for the Asian-based fight promotion ONE-FC. More recently, Caros made his debut on the WSOF this past January and dropped a unanimous decision against Luiz Firmino. The loss is actually what opened the possibility to facing his brother later this year.

When asked about the fight, younger brother Ben Fodor had similar things to say about the ongoing sibling rivalry.

"One hundred percent, it's going to make our Mom cry," Ben said. "That's a guarantee. But we've been circling each other for years. This was inevitable."

Despite the media hype surrounding Ben Fodor's debut last year, his actual showing at the higher levels of MMA have been split, and quite literally given his 1-1 ledger with the WSOF. The bout against his brother has been set at a catch-weight of 162-pounds which favors the masked superhero since he normally campaigns at a higher division between the two, but in terms of experience, the former ONE-FC champion holds an obvious advantage.

It should also be noted that Ben Fodor and Caros Fodor are not biologically related; instead they grew up together raised by the same foster parent. The scenario, however, is probably the closest thing to the film "Warrior", where Tom Hardy plays a hard-luck Marine turned MMA fighter who ends up fighting his older brother in the final showdown of the movie. The suspicion here of course is that too much of the scenario sounds scripted for Hollywood, and that it serves as a marketing gimmick for the WSOF. Caros, however, maintains that the rivalry is real.

"I understand the skepticism people have about seeing two brothers fight. I get that. But people who have known us our whole lives, it makes perfect sense to them. I know there will be talk that it's a circus act or that we'll go in there and pretend, but they'll be surprised."