The LFA road show travel to Branson, Missouri to put on some fights. The marquee on the LFA 67 card are the big boys. Patrick Martin and Daniel James throw down.
Main Event
Patrick Martin vs Daniel James – Heavyweight
Round 1
The two big men clinch and Martin backs James up against the cage. Martin then tries to throw James, but James is able to shift his body weight to land on top of Martin. James is able to avoid some strikes on the ground and get to his feet. He clinches with James up against the cage, and the stupid ref breaks them up. James is able to take Martin down and hammer him with strikes. Elbows open Martin up and the ref stops it. 🚩James wins by TKO
Daniel James is a very athletic big man. I usually like to see the big guys go a full three rounds to access them. I personally think James is UFC ready, given the type of heavyweight talent in the UFC currently. Patrick Martin is also a great heavyweight, but he’s not very technical, and I’d like to see him add some jiu jitsu to his game, especially defensively. He had a tough loss, but I can see him bouncing back.
Dakota Bush vs Jaleel Willis – Lightweight. Willis missed weight by .4 lbs
Round 1
Bush takes Willis down and Willis gets back to his feet very easily. Willis clinches and glues himself to Bush.
Round 2
Willis glues himself to bush again and takes him down. They stand, and Willis takes his opponent down again.
Round 3
Willis takes bush down, and grinds on him. The two stand with 10 seconds left and slug it out. 🚩 Willis wins by unanimous decision
Bush needs to get into some serious Jiu Jitsu. At a certain level, wrestlers can just take down fighters that are uninitiated and smother them (The technical term is wrestle-fuck them). Bush is a fantastic MMA fighter, but his opponent was just a wet blanket. Willis needs to diversify his game as well. I’d like to see him add a Kimura to his repertoire, I’d like to see him look to finish with a head and arm choke. He just needs to make his ground game more deadly.
TJ Brown vs Ken Beverly – Featherweight
Round 1
Beverly looks stiff. Brown dumps Beverly after a kick and then goes to work on the ground. Brown is just more technical. The two get to their feet and brown hits Beverly with a jumping high kick to the face. 🚩 Brown wins by KO
Beverly is unconventional, tough and scrappy. How do you beat that? You beat it with being technically sound. Brown is technically sound, or at least that’s what he looked like in this fight. Brown looked polished and very advanced. — I need to see more
TeeJay Britton vs Solo Hatley Jr.
Round 1
The height difference in this fight is crazy. Britton is super tall, also, Britton has a 10, yes – ten, a ten inch reach advantage. Hatley has poor head movement, but he uses his speed to get out of the way. Hatley slips a straight left from Britton and then hits him win a one-two, the left hand drops Britton. Hatley then pounds out his opponent FTW. 🚩 Hatley Jr wins by TKO.
Britton does not use his length very well. The name of this fight should be “kicks galore”. The match-up is a Muay Thai fighter’s wet dream, but instead he got KOed. Hatley Jr is a prospect, he looked very fast , but there’s still a lot I need to see from him.
Chel Erwin-Davis vs Mike Breeden
Round 1
Davis looks stiff and Breeden lands a head kick which puts Davis down. Its unbelievable that Breeden was unable to pound him out. Davis was an inch close to losing all consciousness. The pace slows towards the end of the round.
Round 2
A bunch of random exchanges until Breeden lands a clean uppercut, both guys are gassed, with Breeden throwing a little bit more. This is an all kickboxing affair
Round 3
Breeden hits Davis to the body and then goes in for the kill. He finds the body again and hurts Davis. Breeden tells the ref to stop the fight and the ref obliges. Strange ending. 🚩 Breeden wins by TKO
Davis is slow and does not move his head very well. He has a very long way to go. There are so many bad habits. Breeden doesn’t look like he’d light the world on fire either. He looks pretty accurate, but I’d like to see him have better footwork.
Garrett Armfield vs Ronnie Lawrence – Bantamweight
Round 1
Armfield is moving well and Lawrence is looking to make this fight a little dirty. They clinch and Lawrence is beginning to look a little more wolf-like, he’s beginning to try to exploit weakness and throw strikes with bad intentions. He starts to throw a lot more kicks to Armfield’s body.
Round 2
Lawrence is attacking the body and the legs, and Armfield is not utilizing his footwork well. Lawrence is throwing hard knees and Armfield isn’t elusive enough. Lawrence also seems to have a nice variety of strikes. Armfield gets taken down at the end one the round.
Round 3
Lawrence gets a takedown early. Armfield goes for an armbar and they both get up, but Lawrence punishes his opponent in the transition. More knees and body kicks from Lawrence ensue. Lawrence then tries to slap on an arm triangle which Armfield defends. The furious pace ends with a furious firefight on the feet. 🚩 Lawrence wins by unanimous decision.
Armfield is 22 right now, and this fight can be a turning point in his career. This was a “pro” MMA scrap with a fighter that was not playing games. Armfield looks solid, but his footwork is off. He lacks variety in his strikes and I just didnt see the killer instinct in him. His pace and his will in this fight was incredible, so I know he can come back much stronger. Lawrence looked like the real deal, I like his wolf-like mentality of scouting weak areas in his opponent and attacking those, I like his variety of strikes, and I like his punishing mentality. I’ll be watching him very closely.
Ronnie Lawrence was unbroken