The Riverina titles have long been one of the most popular in the country and this weekend is set to be no different with more than 150 of the sport's best descending on the city.

However, it is the excitement the youthful fighters are bringing to the mat that has got organiser Frank Cirillo counting down the hours until the first bout takes place at the Yoogali Club on Sunday.

"What's going to be exciting from my point of view is that we're going to get to see a lot of up-and-comers, and what I would call the new breed," Cirillo said.

"The Australian champions that come here have been around a while, but we're going to see the new growth the sport is capable of.

"It's funny, the new group are exposed to extreme sports, and that's actually translated to the mat now, rather than just slogging away. If they can do a back flip, they will (to win the fight).

"We're seeing a lot more aerobatics and jumping and spinning kicks. These new kids are a lot more exciting to watch because there's a lot of innovation."

The numbers have been affected slightly for this weekend's titles, with the earlier date clashing with several fighters that travelled to Spain for the World Cup.

"There are four World Cup fighters coming, but I think the other thing is mentally they probably didn't want to back up within the month," Cirillo said.

"Because realistically, if people want to enter a full-contact tournament they have to do a minimum of three months serious conditioning just to take part."

However, Griffith stars Nathan McLean and Leticia Ferres will take to the mat after returning from impressive first-round bouts in Spain.

McLean will battle it out in the lightweight full-contact class, however, Ferres has had to settle with fighting in the non-contact section of the tournament, after no other lightweights registered for the more brutal draw.