OK, So fury FC 39 kicked off in Houston at the Bayou Event Center. The promotion has been putting on a lot of fights, they’ve been traveling, and they’ve been attracting a lot of talent. They will be in the DFW area soon, and I hope to go to the show, but there is sooooo much MMA in DFW at the moment. Anyway. Great fights. The “amateurs” on this card do work.
Main Event
Leomana Martinez vs David Rivera – Bantamweight
Round 1
Rivera shoots in and Martinez jumps guillotine. Martinez eventually kicks his opponent off and gets up. Martinez drops Rivera twice and puts an unholy beatdown on him until the round ends. The fight really could’ve been stopped here.
Round 2
Martinez rocks Rivera and then baptizes him in the corner.🚩 Martinez wins by KO
I’m very late to the Leomana Martinez show, I know he’s highly rated, and the crowd was chanting U-F-C, but I haven’t seen anything about him that blows me away. Maybe its his competition. Rivera didn’t offer much resistance in this fight, so this is a pretty hard one to break down, but he does have some power in those bantamweight hands.
Jonathan Taylor vs Gaby Echavarry – Featherweight
Round 1
Echavarry lands a spinning back kick. Taylor runs up and clinches and Echavarry takes him down and beats him up on the ground. I think the ref couldve waited a littler longer to see if Taylor had a competent defense. 🚩 Echavarry wins by TKO
Echavarry is big, its a little hard to believe that he is 155. He looked good, but I didn’t see a lot to be fair. I wish the ref gave Taylor just a little more time
Daniel Peet vs Eduardo Anaya – Bantamweight
Round 1
Peet has a Machida Point-karate kinda style. Peet gets the takedown and then glues himself to Anaya
Round 2
Peet gets Anaya down and smothers him. He takes the back and beats up Anaya on the ground
Round 3
Peet tries to glue himself to Anaya, and Anaya comes to life and fires some strikes. Anaya tries for a D’arce and Peet is able to outlast it. They stand and strike until the bell. 🚩 Peet wins by unanimous decision
Anaya should’ve realized earlier that he was in a fight
Paris Moran vs Daniel Gabriel – Bantamweight
Round 1
Moran is letting Gabriel pay for everything that he tries. He grounds Gabriel and beats him up on the floor. Gabriel looks incredibly flat. They stand and Moran nails Gabriel with a vicious head-kick. Moran just dominates
Round 2
Moran is hurting Gabriel on the feet. He puts him down, lets him stand up and then baptizes him with a left. 🚩 Moran wins by KO
This was domination. This is Moran’s first “amateur” fight, but the man doesn’t fight like an amateur. I feel bad for other amateurs that have to face him. I’ll definitely keep an eye on him
Erick Hendricks vs Alden Coria – Bantamweight
Round 1
Hendricks likes to keep his hands down. Hendricks goes for a takedown, and Coria reverses and gets on top and does damage.
Round 2
Coria grapples well and reverses position when he gets taken down. He goes to full mount and beats up Hendricks.
Round 3
Coria lands some strikes. Sprawls and gets on top and beats up Hendricks. 🚩Coria wins by unanimous decision.
Coria is super technical on the ground. Hendricks would just put himself in a bad place whenever he went to ground with him. All I saw from Coria was technique. His stand up game didn’t look super dynamic, and I’d like to see him be more ruthless with submissions, but this is his second fight. I’ll be looking to see more from him. I like him at 135, he has room to bulk up and get a bit thicker, and he has a lot of time to develop a striking game to compliment his ground work. He is talent.
Dominic Wiltz vs Mikey Patterson – Welterweight
Round 1
Patterson clinches and Wiltz throws some knees. Patterson gets the takedown and lays and prays.
Round 2
Patterson gets some takedowns, stays heavy on top, then ground and pounds his opponent to get the win. 🚩 Patterson wins by TKO
Patterson had a better wrestling game and was just more active in the clinch.
Melvin Washington vs Tyson Williams – Welterweight
Round 1
Williams is jacked. Like superhero jacked. He looks so different than the other guys at the event. He gets the takedown, goes to full mount, takes the back, and chokes Tyson Williams with a kinda “side naked choke” to get the win. 🚩 Williams wins by submission.
Kinda hard to make an assessment. Hot knife through butter here
Ben Gomez vs Isaac Moreno – Welterweight
Round 1
Side kick by Moreno, then Moreno rocks Gomez. Gomez clinches, and I just feel that Moreno is just trying to do work here.
Round 2
Moreno starts to whoop ass with kicks and punches and Gomez basically gets broken down and quits. 🚩 Moreno wins by TKO.
I watched this entire show because of Isaac Moreno! -and he is an amateur. Its crazy! The kid is exciting, and he has very accurate striking, and I think he has a little bit of a dog in him. He wanted to get some work in, in the fight and he didn’t want to finish it. That’s the feeling I got from this fight. He wanted to just beat up his opponent. Gomez got broken by him, not only beaten, broken, and these were three minute rounds. I think that there was a little bit of heat between him and his opponent, but that definitely got settled here. I’ll be looking for him to fight for the Ammy title in his next fight, and move to pro. He is the most exciting amateur I’ve ever seen.
Michael Aswell vs Christian Lopez – Featherweight
Round 1
Aswell gets a quick takedown and is just working Lopez with pace.
Round 2
Furious pace. A lot of missed punches by both guys. Aswell has lot of forward pressure and 2 takedowns.
Round 3
Aswell is just slugging and Lopez is fighting off takedowns. 🚩 Aswell wins by unanimous decision
Aswell was just throwing everything, it was all volume. I dont know if this was the gameplan for this fight in particular, but he could run into a lot of problems if he tries do do that in every fight. He needs to be just a little more accurate. I feel like Lopez was just reacting in this fight.
Tony Martinez vs Hector Saenz – Lightweight
Round 1
A very big 155 Saenz lands a left and drops Martinez, and then pounds him out. Saenz was bouncing around karate-style before he landed the big punch. 🚩 Saenz wins by TKO
Not a lot to analyze here. Saenz just came out, and put the guy out.
Tony Toro vs Cameron Smotherean – Featherweight
Round 1
Toro bounces well and looks fast. Smotherean land some knees and lands one a little low, the action restarts and Smotherean rocks Toro with a knee, and punches as the round comes to an end.
Round 2
Smotherean comes out aggressive and Toro is looking to clinch. Smotherean deals with it well and lands some knees. They strike on the feet and Toro clinches and goes for takedowns.
Round 3
Toro grounds Smotherean , but he can’t seem to hold him down. Smotherean rocks Toro with some hooks and Toro takes Smotherean down as the fight comes to an end. 🚩 Toro wins by split decision.
Smotherean can hold his head high. He won that fight on my scorecard. The thing is, he wasn’t flashy, he didn’t really do anything that put his stamp on the fight. He needs to be a little more brutal, and punish fighters that want to clinch with him. He looks to have technical wrestling, and he looks to have good instincts, Smotherean is definitely talent. Toro was not looking to strike on the feet at all, he was looking for the takedown, maybe he knew what the judges were looking for, and he went that route.
Justice Torres vs Brandon Cancino – Featherweight
Round 1
Torres lands 2 over-hand lefts and puts Cancino down, he then finishes him on the ground with ground and pound. 🚩 Torres wins by TKO
Torres looks good. He looks like talent. Early days though
This fight card was the fight card of hot Ammys. A few of these guys should be professionals. There are a few names on this card that I must follow.
Alex Morono calling the action is unbroken. Current UFC fighter Morono calls the action very well, he gives fantastic technical insight, and he’s almost a historian for the Houston MMA scene. He should be on the Fury FC mic ALL THE TIME.