#LFA102 pic.twitter.com/kUS5RPQP08— ShayMyName2 (@imstillshannon)
March 20, 2021
Legacy Fighting Alliance‘s second card of March saw Bruno Souza
make a statement at the expense of Elijah
Johns.
LFA
102‘s featherweight main event delivered as Johns (7-2) and
Souza (9-1), who came in 1.2 pounds heavy, went tit for tat over
three rounds. Both fighters displayed a well-rounded game as they
went back-and-forth in exciting striking and grappling exchanges
with Souza stuffing Johns’ takedowns late. Overall, the judges
favored Souza’s aggressive offense and awarded him a split decision
victory with scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28. After the win, “The
Tiger” expressed a desire to fight for the LFA 145-pound belt
next.
The co-main event saw Al Matavao
face Gregory
Rodrigues, who missed weight by 1.4 pounds, in the promotion’s
middleweight tournament semi-final. Matavao (8-4) came out looking
for a knockout, but his reckless swinging allowed Rodrigues (8-3)
to easily secure a takedown. Seconds later, Rodrigues delivered a
vicious slam that he was unable to capitalize on. Early in Round 2,
Rodrigues’ precise striking damaged Matavao, who barely had any
defense. A
huge right uppercut finished the fight at 1:02 of the second
frame. With the victory, Rodrigues will face Josh Fremd
for the vacant LFA middleweight championship.
Kazakhstani welterweight Nikolay
Veretennikov returned to the LFA Octagon for the first time
since 2017 against Steven
Jones. Kicks from Veretennikov (8-3) set the pace for striking
exchanges and kept Jones (8-2) at bay during Round 1. The second
round was more grappling heavy as Veretennikov showed off his
impressive judo throws before Jones landed a takedown of his own
and ended the round doing damage from top position. Despite the
momentum, Jones was visibly fatigued going into the final frame.
Veretennikov was able to land a huge knee and come close to
finishing the bout, but Jones valiantly fought through exhaustion
and was able to take his opponent down and finish the fight on top.
In the end, the judges preferred the offense from the Kazakhstani
fighter and awarded Veretennikov a unanimous decision with scores
of 30-27, 29-28 and 30-27.
Featherweights A.J.
Cunningham and Javier
Garcia made their promotional debuts against each other. Garcia
(6-3) proved to be the more technical fighter on the feet, but
Cunningham (7-2) was able to land takedowns in the first two
rounds. However, Garcia put it all together in the third as he
controlled the action on the feet and ground. That was enough for
Garcia to take a clear unanimous decision victory with scores of
30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 in his favor.
Brandon
Lewis fought for the first time since 2017 and showed why he’s
a bantamweight to watch against Jimmy Meza,
who came in 4.4 pounds overweight. Both men came out swinging
wildly, but it was Lewis (5-0) that got the better of the
hard-hitting exchanges. While the chin of Meza (2-1) was tested, he
never stopped coming forward and Lewis began to significantly tire
late in Round 2. Despite being exhausted, Lewis would hurt Meza and
take his opponent down in the final frame. After three thrilling
rounds, the judges gave a split decision verdict to Lewis via
scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 30-27.
Featherweight prospect Chris
Mecate suffered his first career defeat against Alberto “Angel” Rodriguez. Rodriguez (3-1) clipped Mecate (1-1) early
with a big right hand and was able to
swarm his opponent on the ground with punches until the fight
was stopped at 1:12 of Round 1. This is the first knockout win for
Rodriguez.
The main card opened with a battle between undefeated welterweights
as Haris
Talundzic took on Luis
Iniguez. The fight was closely contested on the feet, but
Talundzic (2-0) was able to take down Iniguez (3-1) throughout to
gain an edge. After three rounds of action, the judges gave three
29-28 scorecards to Talundzic.
In preliminary action, Archie
Colgan picked up a TKO victory over Andrew
Claborn at 3:49 of Round 3.