.@NyquilNick
vs. @AEstrazulasMMA
is now up in the main event of
#LFA97!Who will talk away the
#andNEW LFA
#lightweight champion?@ShellsDotCom@USENDmoney@Krushmatized@PsoRite@GLCDirect2000@AthleticCBD@IncaKolaUSA@HartmanArena@UFCFightPass
pic.twitter.com/klYd0wKXzH— LFA (@LFAfighting)
January 16, 2021
The
Legacy Fighting Alliance lightweight championship is vacant no
more. The main event of LFA
97 saw Nick Browne
and Arthur
Estrazulas compete in the biggest fight of their professional
mixed martial arts careers. Even on the judges’ scorecards after
two rounds, Estrazulas (12-5) would rock Browne (11-1) with a huge
counter left hook to start Round 3. However, the wrestling of
Browne would let him recover as he managed to control his Brazilian
opponent. The two fighters continued to go back-and-forth in the
championship rounds, with each man landing damaging blows and
trading positions. After five grueling rounds, Browne was awarded
the LFA lightweight championship, with the judges scoring the bout
49-46, 49-46, and 48-46 in his favor.
Lightweights Jacob
Rosales and Jose
Martinez faced off in the lightweight co-feature (although
Martinez failed to make weight). Rosales (13-6) impressed with his
ground game as he transitioned into several submissions during
Round 1 but failed to put “Lil Juggernaut” away. The second round
saw Rosales mount his opponent and deliver dozens of damaging blows
after landing a blatantly illegal knee that wasn’t called by
referee Marcio Laselva. Martinez (11-5) would remarkably win Round
3 on two of the judges’ scorecards, but Rosales took a lopsided
unanimous decision with scores of 29-27, 29-27, and 30-25.
Kamuela
Kirk punished Guilherme
Santos for missing weight for their featherweight bout. Kirk
(10-4) dominated on the feet landing kicks and knees on the
Brazilian. In the end,
body shots would finish off Santos (8-4) at 4:25 of the first
round.
In women’s strawweight action, Kelly
D’Angelo faced off against Lovethpatra
Young. Young bloodied up D’Angelo on the feet and constantly
hurt her opponent to the body. Eventually,
a flurry from Young would knockdown her opponent, and the ref
would step in. The stoppage came at 1:36 of the second frame.
Featherweights Michael
Stack and Jordan
Mapa were looking to bounce back from setbacks in their prior
bouts. However, it was Stack (5-1) that impressed as he was able to
control Mapa (3-3) on the ground and picked up a TKO win. The
stoppage came at 4:00 of Round 2.
Undefeated welterweight prospect Josh
Quinlan faced Joe
Boerschig in the toughest fight of his career. Despite some
impressive pressure from Boerschig (6-4), Quinlan (4-0) landed the
more damaging blows in Round 1. The second round was more of the
same, and Quinlan was fully in control by Round 3. “The Renegade”
eventually mounted Boerschig
to force a stoppage from undefended punches at 3:28 of the
final round.
The LFA 97 main card kicked off with a bang. Thomas
Petersen (3-0)
needed just 19 seconds to finish fellow heavyweight Richard
Luis (2-3). A big left hand from Petersen floored Luis and the
fight was stopped immediately after.
In preliminary action, Claire
Guthrie (2-1) won a dominant unanimous decision over Nadine
Mandiau (1-2) with 30-27 scorecards across the board, and
Shane
Shapiro (1-0) submitted Cam Ansel
(0-2)
with a kimura just 1:44 into Round 1.