Friday night Prince George's Adriano Bernardo hopes to demonstrate that the talented grappler's transition into MMA continues to be productive, as the judo black belt and Murray Sholty Jiu Jitsu fighter, will challenger Saskatoon's Curtis Suter for the King of the Cage Canadian heavyweight belt. The title fight will headline the November 20th "Accelerator" card, which will take place in Edmonton, Alberta's Mirage Banquet. The 33 year-old Bernardo seems well aware of what's at stake come Friday night.

"My plans were to just take a fight," Bernardo said. "When it ended up a being a title fight I thought ‘wow, this is a tremendous opportunity," but my first intention was to just take a fight. When Ken (Kupsch) came up with this I was pretty excited."

Suter recently told KOTC Canada that he knows what winning and defending the promotion's heavyweight title can mean for a fighter's career, as former champion Tim Hague, has now had success fighting for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Bernardo agrees with Suter's assessment, and is keenly aware of how Hague's tenure as KOTC champion, opened doors for the Edmonton fighter.

"The opportunity is there most definitely," said Bernardo, who fought and lost to Hague in August, 2007. "Tim went on to the UFC to beat Pat Barry who is a well known kickboxer; known for just starching guys. It is a stepping stone for sure."

"After I fought Tim Hague I just shied away the mixed-martial-arts aspect," Bernardo added. "I did a judo tournament a few months back, kept doing the grappling, got more confidence in my abilities. Now that I'm a bit older now, if you lose, you know it's just a competition, there's a winner and there's a loser. Where as a few years back, you're so worried about losing that you're not fighting to win a fight, you're fighting not to lose."

Aside from his loss to Hague, Bernardo has had successes competing in MMA, most notably in January, 2007, when the 6'0 tall, 240lb. plus heavyweight won a tournament in Dawson Creek. En route to his tourney win that night, Bernardo tapped out the highly regarded veteran Bill Mahood with an armbar, before submitting Logan Jerral in the finals.

"It was pretty exciting," Bernardo said, while discussing his bout with Mahood. "It was tremendous opportunity to fight someone like Bill. I was lucky enough to submit him quickly I guess. It was a good learning experience. It was kind of sketchy doing three fights in one night. It was hard mentally but I hung in there and ended up winning the three fights."

Up next of course, Bernardo will face the 6'4, 250lb. plus Suter, who heading into Friday's title fight, has won 3 straight bouts.

"I think I saw him fight in Nanaimo," said Bernardo, when asked for his thoughts on Suter. "He's a pretty tough kid. It should be a good fight."

Suter recently told KOTC Canada that he's aware of Bernardo's extensive grappling experience, and although he feels he continues to improve on the ground, the former pro-hockey player would prefer to keep the bout standing.

"I'm pretty comfortable in all areas," Bernardo noted. "We've been doing a lot of cross training, so, I feel like I can fight from pretty much any position. I'd say my wrestling and my ground game are definitely the more advanced elements of my game for sure, but I've been doing a lot of sparring, working on a lot of kickboxing."

And as far as Bernardo's prediction on the fight?

"I just hope that we put on a good fight for the fans and that both Curtis and I fight to the best of our abilities."