So, its LFA 80, its the new year. Its a new Fight Pass production, its more fights, more prospects and same old face punching, the LFA rolled into Albuquerque, New Mexico to check out their talent
Main Event
Chepe Mariscal vs Steve Garcia Jr. – Featherweight
Round 1
Garcia rocks Mariscal twice on the feet and wildness ensues. Garcia look bigger and stronger, but he also looks very sloppy. Mariscal is wild, and breaking all the rules when it comes to fighting, sometimes he gets punished, sometimes he gets away with it.
Round 2
Garcia gets his opponent down and hits Mariscal with some hard ground and pound shots, they stand and Garcia starts to hammer Mariscal with shots up against the cage and the ref stops it.🚩 Garcia Jr. wins by TKO
It was a very poor stoppage by the referee. Mariscal ate some shots, but he was absolutely intelligently defending himself. This is a fight. Even though Garcia was probably winning on the score cards, I feel like we all got robbed by referee Raul Peralta.
Kendrick Latchman vs Jerome Rivera – Flyweight
Round 1
Rivera just looks bigger than Latchman, and is looking to pressure his opponent. Latchman just seems to be reacting to Rivera and fighting defensively for the most part.
Round 2
Rivera is able to get Latchman in a triangle, he then works to get into a mounted triangle, and he gets the submission. 🚩 Rivera wins by submission
Latchman just looked out of his depth. He looked like he wanted to have a breather, and Rivera wasn’t giving it to him. Rivera also didn’t impress me too much, he left himself wide open when he was coming on the inside, and he wasn’t very brutal in the clinch
Carrington Banks vs Chris Brown – Lightweight
Round 1
Banks starts imposing a clinch game on Chris Brown. He takes Brown down and just grinds on him. Brown fights off some of the attempts but stays on bottom for the majority of the time
Round 2
Chris Brown gets grinded out
Round 3
Chris Brown gets grinded out. 🚩 Banks wins by unanimous decision
As a professional MMA fighter, you NEED to have a gameplan for wrestlers. You need to have front chokes, knees, elbows guillotines. You need to punish them for wanting to get in on you so close. Banks was just able to impose his wrestling game and Chris Brown didn’t even get started
Josh Marsh vs Luis Gavinho – Featherweight
Round 1
Marsh starts off by putting pressure on Gavinho, and throwing volume. Gavinho stays out of the way of most of the strikes and fires some accurate shots of his own.
Round 2
Gavinho starts to impose his will a little more, and the fight starts to look like a real high level matchup. Gavinho shows off his fantastic accuracy, but Marsh has a very intense work-rate
Round 3
Marsh comes on a little stronger, and is the obviously fresher fighter. Its a little too late. 🚩 Gavinho wins by split decision.
I thought Marsh won this fight, and it could’ve easily been a draw. I scored the first round for Marsh, and I would not have been upset if the judges scored it 10-10. I scored round 2 for Gavinho, and I scored the third for Marsh. Marsh had a very very very high work-rate, I was super impressed. I think his work-rate helped balance out the fact that he didn’t move his head much. Gavinho was lacking in the work-rate department, but he was more technically sound.
Gabriel Checco vs Jordan Wright -Middleweight
Round 1
Wright throws some hard body kicks at Checco and sits him down with a punch at one point. Checco is really interested in putting Wright in his guard and beating him that way, I think its a little strange
Round 2
Checco tries to dive on one of those body kicks and gets kneed in the face. He goes down and Wright pounds him out on the ground. 🚩 Wright wins by TKO
Checco’s nickname is Zangief, and he fights like Zangief too. His footwork is terribly poor and his head movement is little-to-non-existent. Wright is…OK. He had a gameplan and wasn’t really letting the fight come to him in the first round. He bounces around well, but he makes too many technical mistakes. Its a very good win for Wright though.
Tyler Ray vs Josh Streacker – Welterweight
Round 1
Ray gets his opponent down, takes his back and beats him up. The ref stands them up for some reason.
Round 2
Ray boxes to get the takedown. Takes Streacker’s back and finishes him with the RNC. 🚩 Ray wins by submission
I feel like Ray was fighting against Streacker and an incompetent referee in this fight, and he beat both of them. He has some improvements to make, but I think the improvements are all mental. Ray was looking for the takedown, when he had Streacker dead to rights on the feet. He needs to practice throwing more volume, he just looked a little lazy with his standup. His defenses look on point, and he looks to have a strong grappling game.
Sean Cerveny vs Edwin Cooper Jr. – Featherweight
Round 1
Cerveny gets rocked with a kick, and goes down, he tries some submissions from his back and he gets pounded on. Cerveny throws up an armbar and the referee stops it. There is a little controversy here as Cooper pleads his case that he did not tap. 🚩 Cerveny wins by submission
I’ve been meaning to see Cerveny in action for a while now, and I’m not impressed, he looked comfortable eating shots to the face while on the ground, and I’m not a fan of that. Cooper looked good for the most part, but I think he should’ve been listening to his corner and throwing the elbows on his grounded opponent. The controversial stoppage kinda lets this feel more like a draw
Pat Miletich on the broadcast was unbroken