The Texas based LFA was in Vail, Colorado for LFA 65. It was a very good show with some interesting fights
Adam Martinez vs Cory Galloway – Bantamweight
Round 1
Galloway drops Martinez early and the hurt fighter quickly goes to the clinch. the two come apart and Galloway rocks Martinez with some striaght punches and hits him with some knees as he tries to finish him off. Martinez looks terrible on the feet
Round 2
Martinez continues to come forward and get punished. He takes Galloway down and takes his back but Galloway is able to get out of it. Martinez continues to eat shots. Galloway Takes Martinez down at the end of the round.
Round 3
Martinez clinches, and then eat shots after the clinch. He gets knocked down. He then knocks Galloway down with a wild left. He sets up a Guillotine and taps out Galloway.🚩 Martinez wins by submission.
Martinez needs to get a whole lot better if he wants to move to a higher level. He could’ve easily been knocked out in the fight and was just zombie fighting – He got rocked several times. Galloway does not have a lot of stamina and is not yet ready for higher competition. Both guys need to improve
Adam Stroup vs Hayward Charles – Middleweight
Round 1
Charles pulls guard and gets beat down on the ground for a little bit, Stroup lets him up and then rocks him with a combo and hammers him with knees. Stroup then drops Charles with an elbow.
Round 2
Charles gets rocked and put down. Its an elbow fest with Charles taking all the damage.
Round 3
Charles decides to wrestle, he eats some more combos from Stroup. At this point Stroup is gassed, there is a lot of clinching ad phonebooth fighting. Charles pulls guard again and gets pummeled at the bell.
🚩 Stroup wins by unanimous decision
Hayward Charles probably lost some years off his life with this fight. His corner should have thrown in the towel. At one point Charles was a benchmark for fighters in the South West Region – Not anymore. Stroup has good ground and pound and a good stand up game. He stuck to the fundamentals in this fight, and he didnt really get tested.
Pauline Macias vs Sarah Shell – Strawweight
Round 1
Scrappy fight. A lot of clinching and striking. Macias looks to have the upper hand.
Round 2
Shell lands some strikes and then gets taken down by Macias, but Shell fights well of her back, and she is beating Macias up from the bottom. Macias lets her opponent back up and the round comes to an end
Round 3
Shell gets take down again, but she almost invites the take down. She hits Macias with elbows from the bottom. They stand and trade to the end. Close fight.
🚩 Macias wins by unanimous decision.
Shell is a little robotic and slow on the feet, and she actually does more damage when she is on the bottom. She should work on her bottom game. She should make her elbows more crisp and improve her BJJ from that position, since she’s so comfortable with it. Macias has terrible stand up. She only has a competent Judo game, which will only take her so far.
Youssef Zelal vs Matt Jones – Featherweight
Round 1
Both guys move well on the feet, but Jones is looking to impose his will more. Jones gets the better of the positions when the two are clinched up against the cage.
Round 2
Jones goes for a takedown, but Zalal escapes and makes it back to his feet. They clinch and Jones has better positions when clinched up
Round 3
Zalal is getting the better of the clinching exchanges in this round.
🚩 Jones wins by split decision
Zalal needs to work on his his wrestling. I feel that fighters always want to test his strength in these types of fights, and he usually does not past the test. Jones seems to have good striking, but this was a very wrestle-heavy fight from him. A nice BJJ game would compliment his wrestling.
Joanderson Brito vs Chepe Mariscal – Featherweight
Round 1
Joanderson throws a jumping kick that hits Mariscal in the groin. He then follows it up with a right and almost KOs the man. The referee was late coming in to break it up after the illegal blow. The fight gets restarted and Brito comes out looking super aggressive with that Chute Boxe style. He throws some hands and KOs Mariscal, the hammer fists were unnecessary but Brito threw em anyway. 🚩 Brito wins by KO
The knock out was vicious. There are too many fighters in MMA that are playing games with their lives – Brito was not. He came to do damage, and that’s what he did. The hands were fast and the intentions were very very bad.
Brandon Royval vs Joby Sanchez
Round 1
Royval starts with his hands down, throwing kicks in a point karate style. Sanchez is able to get in close and snap down Royval. Sanchez starts controlling Royval’s head and is looking for a D’arce. He cant finish it, Royval sweeps Sanchez and gets him in an armbar. Sanchez taps.
🚩 Royval wins by submission.
I don’t know what to make of this fight. Royval looks like he has zero fighting style. He looked good at times, he looked bad at times and he was always unpredictable. Those fighters intrigue me. Sanchez looked a little basic
The Brito KO was unbroken