If Dana White truly is “Lookin’ for a Fight,” he surely found some
on Sunday at Fury FC 46. The Ultimate Fighting Championship head man and his
partners in scouting, Din Thomas and
Matt
Serra, witnessed a card topped by three Fury Fighting Championship title fights and
stacked with UFC and Dana White’s Contender Series veterans getting
a second look, as well as a hearty helping of rising local
prospects.
In the main event, Nikolay
Veretennikov (9-3) needed less than a round to put away
Anthony
Ivy and capture the Fury welterweight title. Veretennikov, a
Kazakhstani by birth but longtime Texas resident, fought off Ivy’s
attempts to bring the fight to the floor and punished him with
knees in the clinch. The beginning of the end came when
Veretennikov shucked off a double-leg attempt, then landed a knee
to the ribs that doubled “Aquaman” over. Sensing his foe was hurt,
Veretennikov followed Ivy to the ground, but landed only a punch or
two before referee Jacob Montalvo intervened for the stop at 2:00
of Round 1. The crowd voiced its displeasure, as did Ivy, who came
up immediately protesting, but it goes into the books as a TKO win
for the new champ. With the loss, Ivy, who debuted on short notice
in the UFC last June but went 0-2 against Christian
Aguilera and Bryan
Barberena, falls to 8-5.
Martinez Snipes Johnson
In the co-main event, Fury bantamweight champ Leomana
Martinez (8-2) delivered his second straight knockout since his
unsuccessful appearance on the Contender Series last year.
“Manaboi” picked up another highlight for the reel, this time at
the expense of fellow Contender Series veteran Jose
Johnson. After a few early exchanges, Martinez blasted Johnson
with a right-hand counter that dropped him in place like a puppet
whose strings had been cut. The champ dove in and tacked on a
couple more blows before referee Kerry Hatley had seen enough. The
knockout win came officially at 32 seconds, underscoring Martinez’s
freakish power for the weight class and keeping his perfect 100%
finish rate as a professional. Johnson, who had won a bounce-back
fight of his own after his loss on the Contender Series, falls to
12-7 in defeat.
Padilla Overwhelms Graves
Fernando
Padilla captured the Fury featherweight title, using his size,
volume and forward movement to bust up Cameron
Graves early in the second round of their feature fight.
Graves, a protégé of UFC welterweight Alex Morono,
was game throughout, but Padilla simply landed more and harder
shots. After getting the worse of the first round, Graves came out
aggressive in the second, but immediately came up against the
superior power and volume of Padilla once more. The finishing
sequence was set up by a knee to the body and a flurry of punches,
and punctuated by a vicious level elbow strike that dropped the
champ in a daze. No follow-up was needed, as referee Montalvo waved
off the fight immediately. With the win, the 24-year-old Padilla
moves to 13-4 and looks to have found a permanent home at
featherweight. Graves falls to 9-4 and sees his modest two-fight
win streak come to an end.
Silva Pummels, Throttles Robinson
Two-time Contender Series veteran and former Fury flyweight champ
Jacob
Silva put on a masterful “club and sub” performance, hurting
Rashaad
Robinson with strikes before executing a lightning-quick back
take and choke for the finish in the second round of their
125-pound showcase. The fight was fast-paced from start to finish,
and competitive until it wasn’t anymore. Early in the second round,
Silva hurt Robinson with several punch combinations, then
absolutely pancaked a double-leg takedown attempt. From there, the
“Lil’ Animal” spun to the back, cinched up a rear-naked choke and
got the tap within seconds. The electrifying win improves Silva’s
record to 7-5 with seven finishes, and snaps a three-fight skid
that included both of his DWCS appearances last year. Robinson goes
to 3-3.
Williams Taps Out Black
In a match between two lightweights who had last fought in 2017,
Alec
Williams (7-2) used superior wrestling and an apparent strength
advantage to get the better of the much taller Alex Black
(11-6). That is not to say that it was all one-way traffic; Black
won a wild first round of scramble-heavy grappling, thanks to
several submission attempts that appeared to have Williams in
legitimate danger. However, Williams caught a kick early in the
second round, drove the lanky Black to the canvas, and that was the
beginning of the end. Williams took Black’s back, sunk the hooks,
and applied something between a face crank and a rear-naked choke
that elicited the tap at 2:26 of Round 2. While Williams’
post-fight interview had the expected pitch for the UFC president,
he also had some words for reigning Fury lightweight champ Le’ville
Simpson, who defeated him by decision at Fury FC 14 in 2016.
Englund Outstrikes Glenn
Former Fury lightweight champ Kolton
Englund showed sharp kickboxing skills in taking a unanimous
decision over Kenneth
Glenn. The only main card fight to make it to the final horn
was a competitive, back-and-forth affair, with both men getting in
their share of quality shots, but Englund appeared to outland Glenn
in all three rounds. The judges agreed for the most part, as “The
White Assassin” ended up earning 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 scores. The
win brings Englund’s record to 8-3 overall and marks him as a
person of interest once again in the division. Meanwhile Glenn, who
impressed by stepping up on short notice last month at Fury FC 45
and upsetting contender Will Morriss, goes to 9-6.
Moran Crushes Solis
Paris
Moran extended his win streak to three straight since dropping
to flyweight and reinforced his position as one of the Houston
area’s most intriguing young prospects, as he blasted Shawn Solis
with a picture perfect step-in knee. What had been a moderately
paced, deliberate striking match — especially by 125-pound
standards — ended in a flash when Moran lunged forward, stepping in
with his left foot and then bringing his lead right knee behind it,
landing flush on the shorter man’s jaw. Solis went down in a heap
and referee Hatley jumped in for the stoppage at 1:56 of the first
round. Moran goes to 4-1 as a professional, while Solis falls to
5-4.
Jimenez Face-Plants Smotherman
Carlos
Jimenez (1-0) put the brakes on what had been an incredible
2021 for Cameron
Smotherman (2-1), dropping him twice in the opening seconds of
their bantamweight matchup on the way to a quick TKO win. Jimenez,
who returned nine years after a promising amateur career to make
his pro debut on Sunday at age 34, showed impressive hand speed and
shocking power. After a couple of low kicks, Jimenez drove a lead
left hand through Smotherman’s guard and onto his jaw, dropping him
to his seat. As Smotherman sprang back up, Jimenez landed right
hand, then another left, causing Smotherman to drop face-first to
the canvas. Jimenez pounced, throwing a couple of punches and
trying to secure back control, when referee Montalvo dove in and
declared the fight over. Smotherman protested vehemently, but it
goes down as a 13-second TKO win for Jimenez. It was the first
controversial stoppage of the evening for Montalvo, but would not
be the last. The loss is the first for Smotherman, who turned pro
in March and quickly won his first two fights; Jimenez wins his
long-delayed debut in impressive fashion.
Prelims: Flores Wears Out “Tae Kwon” Crowe
For ever-popular local striker Larry Crowe
(10-8), it was a hero’s return after three years away. For Ty Flores
(8-3), it was a chance to bounce back from his loss to Dustin
Jacoby on the Contender Series last summer. Unfortunately for
Crowe, fortune very much favored the younger and more active man in
the light heavyweight prelim headliner. The fight more or less
played out as a muay Thai bout, and was fairly competitive early
on, but Flores’ size and reach clearly gave Crowe problems even
before cardio came into play. Once it did, the fight turned into a
rout, and an exhausted Crowe could barely stand to return to his
stool after the second round. He came out for the third, but had
almost nothing left to give, and he went down for a final time
against the fence under a flurry of blows from Flores for a TKO at
1:21.
In other preliminary action, Morgan
Oriahi (3-1) got the better of Mikey
Patterson (1-1) via TKO in a wild, 2 minute, 25 second
welterweight scrap; Michael
Aswell (1-0) took a unanimous decision over Jordan
Plutin (0-3) at featherweight; a 276-pound Juan Adams
(6-3) won by first-round TKO in his first appearance since his UFC
release as Jeremy
Hardy (6-5) fell to a knee injury and subsequent ground
strikes; Aaron
Reeves (7-2) knocked out Jared Foust
(2-2) in the first round of their welterweight affair; and Justice
Torres (1-0) won by unanimous decision over Andrew
Slater (0-1) in a battle of debuting lightweights.