No quit in either of these two!
#LFA96 pic.twitter.com/8XnWtPmx6L— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass)
December 5, 2020
The
Legacy Fighting Alliance crowned a new welterweight champion
during its final event of 2020. In the end, it was the hand of
Maycon
Mendonca that was raised after the main event of
LFA 96. The title win came after a hard-fought battle with
Batsumberel
Dagvadorj that delivered plenty of fireworks.
The action started early as Mendonca (11-4) rocked Dagvadorj (7-1)
shortly after the fight began and followed-up with huge knees that
visibly hurt the Mongolian. Mendonca kept up the pressure, but that
wound up backfiring as Dagvadorj landed a big right hand that
floored the Brazilian. Mendonca would bounce back in a big way in
Round 2 as he bloodied up “The Mongolian Falcon” and end the round
with a flying knee. Dagvadorj continued getting tagged in the third
frame, yet walked forward like a zombie and managed to snag a few
takedowns in between getting rocked. The championship rounds saw
Dagvadorj eat countless knees and punches while still firing back.
After five rounds, the judges awarded Mendonca the well-deserved
championship with scores of 50-45, 49-46, and 49-46 in his
favor.
The co-main event saw the undefeated Anthony
Romero face off against journeyman Zach
Juusola at lightweight. Despite Juusola (11-7) taking the fight
on short notice, the veteran made Romero (9-0) work and made the
fight much closer than most expected. Even after two rounds, Romero
would eke out Round 3 according to two of the three judges taking a
split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).
Bantamweight prospect Mo Miller
stayed undefeated against Regivaldo
Carvalho. Miller (5-0) was able to repeatedly take Carvalho
(5-3) down and put on a wrestling clinic. The “Mo Show” eventually
hit a huge slam at 2:57 of Round 2 that knocked out
Carvalho.
The wrestling of former Ohio State wrestler Mark Martin
proved to be too much for Matthew
Colquhoun. While Colquhoun (8-5) came on late in Round 3,
Martin (5-1) already had two rounds in the bag and took a trio of
29-28 scorecards as a result. Martin has now won four straight
fights.
Mitzi
Merry missed weight for her flyweight bout and opponent
Lisa
Mauldin made her pay. Mauldin (4-2) was able to easily control
Merry (2-2) over three rounds and landed the better punches on the
feet as well. All three judges scored the fight 30-27 in favor of
Mauldin.
Viacheslav
Borshchev and Will Starks
had a back-and-forth battle over three rounds. Borshchev (2-1) was
able to control the action on the feet in Round 1, but Starks (4-1)
took down “Slava” to win Round 2. It came down to the third frame,
which saw Starks land a late takedown and take two out of the three
29-28 scorecards from the judges for a split decision win.
In the opening bout of the night, Joseph
Holmes made a statement against Ryan
Leininger. “Ugly Man” rocked Leininger (4-2) with punches early
on and
a huge knee finished the Nebraskan at 1:38 of the first round.
The victory brings Holmes’ record to 3-1.