What a fight! We are headed to the 5th and
final round!
#LFA94 pic.twitter.com/VIcmA3eToT— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass)
October 31, 2020
Inaugural
Legacy Fighting Alliance strawweight champion
Crystal Vanessa Demopoulos came up short in her first title
defense against Lupita
Godinez at
LFA 94.
From the opening bell, Godinez (5-0) had a clear advantage on the
feet against Demopoulos (5-3). “Loopy” continued landing at will in
Round 2 and bloodied up the champion. “Lil Monster” showed
tremendous heart as she never stopped coming forward. Godinez would
drop Demopoulos in Round 4, but the champ would fire back for her
best round of the fight to that point.
Thanks to Kansas using open scoring, it was known that the champion
needed a finish if she wanted to retain the belt. Demopoulos hit a
takedown mid-round, which gave her a clear path to victory.
However, Godinez was able to hang on and reversed position. After
five rounds of action, Godinez earned a well-deserved majority
decision victory with scores of 49-46, 48-47, and 47-47.
The co-main event saw Joe
Giannetti and Aaron
McKenzie put on a fun grappling battle. Round 1 saw Giannetti
(9-4-1) threaten with submissions for most of the frame, although
McKenzie (9-2-1) was able to mount his opponent and inflict damage
at the end. With the momentum firmly in McKenzie’s favor, the
Oklahoma fighter would go on to dominate the second round. Round 3
was more of the same and McKenzie took home a unanimous decision
with a trio of 30-27 cards.
Chase
Gibson slightly missed weight for his featherweight bout
against Thai Clark,
but he was fighting with a heavy heart after the loss of his twin
brother Cooper
Gibson last month. Gibson (10-5) would lock in a D’Arce choke
on Clark (8-1) in Round 2 that
led to a technical submission stoppage at the 4:18 mark.
Bantamweight Fernando
Garcia was fired up for his bout against Ryan Hayes,
who missed weight by 2.6 pounds. Despite some solid leg kicks from
Hayes (9-7), Garcia (8-1) was able to land the best shots on the
feet. As a result, “Fernie” was awarded a split decision victory
with two 30-27 scorecards, while Hayes had one 29-28 verdict in his
favor.
Osman
Diaz made an impressive promotional debut against Logan
Woods. A big right hand dropped Woods (3-1) and Diaz (4-1)
kept on the pressure to force the referee to end the fight just
1:36 into the bout.
In the opening bout of the main card, Miles Amos
took on Jalin
Fuller in a middleweight bout. The wrestling of Amos (3-1)
looked great in Round 1, but Fuller (4-0) was able to rock “The
Black Santa” in the second frame. It was Fuller that had more left
in the tank and he was able to
sink in a front choke in 1:59 of Round 3.
In preliminary action, Edwin
Cooper Jr. (3-1) won a unanimous decision (30-26, 29-27, 29-27)
over Ethyn
Ewing (0-1), and Lovethpatra
Young (2-1-1) knocked out Reena
Norville (0-1) in just 2:16.