Eagle FC 47 main event ends after Junior dos
Santos dislocates his shoulder pic.twitter.com/DMRhp1j84D— Eagle FC (@EagleFightClub)
May 21, 2022
This was not the
Eagle Fighting Championship debut Junior dos
Santos envisioned.
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The affable Brazilian suffered a shoulder injury in the third round
of his
EFC 47 headliner opposite Yorgan De
Castro and could not continue, bringing a disappointing end to
their marquee matchup at the FLXcast Arena on Friday in Miami. Dos
Santos (21-10, 0-1 EFC) was forced to check out 35 seconds into
Round 3.
De Castro (9-3, 2-0 EFC) struggled to manage distance effectively
and wound up swinging at air more often than not. Dos Santos fed
him an unhealthy diet of leg kicks, body-head combinations and jabs
for the better part of 10 minutes. However, the former
Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholder overextended on a
right hand early in the third round and appeared to dislocate his
shoulder in the process. After some unnecessary confusion, De
Castro was declared the winner.
Meanwhile, the light heavyweight co-main event pitting former
Bellator
MMA champion Hector
Lombard against Thiago
Silva resulted in an anticlimactic no contest. Silva (21-9, 0-0
EFC) connected with an illegal knee 1:44 into Round 2, and the
cageside physician declared his counterpart unfit to continue.
Lombard (34-10-1, 0-0 EFC) had the Brazilian reeling with power
punches in the first round. He nailed Silva with a left hook,
backed him to the fence and drove him to the canvas under duress.
Lombard took top position and applied his ground-and-pound,
consolidating his efforts on the feet with effective work on the
ground. However, fatigue appeared to set in on the 44-year-old
judoka late in the period. Silva dropped him with a clean right
hand to the nose early in Round 2 but failed to control the
trajectory of the strike that followed, a glancing knee to the side
of Lombard’s head leading to the no contest.
Elsewhere,
Xtreme Couture’s Maki Pitolo
cut down Douglas
Usher with punches in the first round of their featured
middleweight attraction. Usher (13-4, 0-1 EFC) bowed out 30 seconds
into Round 1, the setback snapping his nine-fight winning streak.
He announced his intention to retire in the immediate aftermath of
his first defeat since Oct. 16, 2015.
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The 31-year-old Pitolo (15-9, 1-0 EFC) fought fire with fire and
did what he could to keep the aggressive Georgia native at bay with
kicks to the leg and body. Usher walked into a check left hook and faceplanted
to the canvas, where he was met with a volley of follow-up
punches before referee Wayne Spinola could arrive on the
scene.
Pitolo has rattled off back-to-back victories since being released
by the UFC.
Finally, former Fight Nights Global champion Akhmed
Aliev dazzled in his organizational debut, as he wiped out
Darrell
Horcher with punches in the first round of their lightweight
showcase. Horcher (14-6, 0-1 EFC) succumbed to blows 30 seconds
into Round 1, losing for the fifth time in seven appearances.
Aliev (21-7, 1-0 EFC) wasted neither time nor energy. He missed on a left uppercut, then connected with a
left hook before decked and dazed Horcher with a scorching right
cross. From there, Aliev drew the curtain with a burst of follow-up
shots on the onetime Cage Fury Fighting Championships
titleholder.
The 32-year-old Aliev has won 11 of his past 14 bouts.
In other action, Andrew
Sanchez (13-7, 1-0 EFC) cruised to a unanimous decision—30-27,
30-27, 30-27—over Gabriel
Checco (12-7, 0-2 EFC) in a three-round light heavyweight
confrontation; Islam
Mamedov (21-2, 1-0 EFC) submitted Zach Zane
(15-13, 0-2 EFC) with a rear-naked choke 1:50 into the first round
of their welterweight confrontation; Ronny
Markes (22-9, 1-0 EFC) was awarded a technical knockout when
Reggie
Pena (15-7, 0-1 EFC) submitted to a knee injury 1:21 into the
second round of their light heavyweight clash; Roosevelt
Roberts (12-3, 1-0 EFC) laid claim to a unanimous decision over
Alexandre
Almeida (21-11, 0-1 EFC) in a three-round lightweight
encounter, earning 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 scores from the cageside
judiciary; Paulo Silva
(7-6, 1-0 EFC) was awarded a split verdict—28-29, 29-28, 29-28—over
Sean
Soriano (14-9, 0-1 EFC) in a three-round lightweight tilt;
Adi
Alic (9-4, 1-0 EFC) took a unanimous decision from Shawn Bunch
(11-6, 1-1 EFC) in a three-round bantamweight affair, drawing 29-28
marks from all three judges; and Dylan
Mantello (5-2, 1-1 EFC) forced a doctor stoppage against
Dennis
Hughes Jr. (7-5, 0-1 EFC) in between the second and third
rounds of their lightweight pairing.
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can then stream UFC Fight Night 206 “Holm vs. Vieira” live on your
smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN
app.