OK, so the LFA is back, bringing you great fights as usual. They switched up their broadcast team a little bit. Pat Miletich is no longer present. I dont want to get political nor personal here, but Pat Miletich is a fantastic commentator. When he’s not biased to fighters that he knows, he calls great fights. Its a shame that they lost him IMO. They had the three person booth at LFA and…. for me…. it was just too crowded. The two person booth works so much better for a show like the LFA, and I’m not a fan of two commentators talking about their own Jiu Jitsu classes while a fight is going on. Ron Kruck is still there, and he had a good night quaterbacking the broadcast team, but 3 people -I just dont like it.
Anyway, we were in the LFA’s Apex for LFA 97 Browne vs Estrazulas. The fight went five rounds and Nick Browne beat Arthur Estrazulas by Unanimous decision to win the LFA Lightweight title
Nick Browne vs Arthur Estrazulas – Lightweight
Round 1
Estrazulas lands some leg kicks and Browne does a good job of fighting back and countering. Theyre on the feet for all of this round
Round 2
Browne tests the wrestling waters a little more and Estrazulas throws some hooks
Round 3
Just a mad war
Round 4
Estrazulas is gassed and gets on top of Browne and Browne throws small shots from the bottom
Round 5
Browne gets on top and puts a beating on Estrazulas.🚩 Nick Browne wins by unanimous decision
This was a fantastic High-level war. Sometimes I feel like I shouldn’t experience fights like these, because these guys arnt getting a lot of money at this level. -I actually feel kinda guilty. Browne was knocked out at one time and woke back up to wrestle Estrazulas, and Estrazulas was running on fumes since round three. Both these guys are talent. They gave everything in that cage and they deserve to go to the next level. Browne is a grinder with a great engine and Estrazulas is a Muay Thai fighter that uses his Jiu Jitsu defensively for the most part.
Jose Martinez vs Jacob Rosales – Lightweight. Martinez missed weight
Round 1
Rosales is touching up Martinez and tries for an anaconda, then goes to a guillotine, and Martinez fights out of everything
Round 2
Martinez has his hands down and has horrible striking technique. Rosales drops Martinez with an illegal knee and then puts an unholy beating on him. The referee doesn’t stop the fight for the illegal knee, nor the beating!
Round 3
Both are tired and are striking. 🚩Rosales wins by unanimous decision
If a foul doesn’t contribute to stopping the fight, then the fight cannot be over turned?? That seems like a horrible rule, since referees can be incompetent and recognize an illegal blow, and not stop the fight when I guy is getting his face beaten in. I heard that rule on the broadcast, and I dont get it. Anyway, we see the same old Rosales, nothing changed, he has a tricky ground game, and a very stagnant standup game. Martinez is all around bad, he keeps his hands low and makes horrible mistakes. He’s a tough cat though. Tough guys are the ones that get hurt the most IMO. So… Looking on the bright side, Martinez has room to grow.
Kamuela Kirk vs Guilherme Santos – Featherweight
Round 1
Standing in front of each other. Santos doesnt want to move. Kirk sticks and moves and systematically breaks Santos down. 🚩Kirk wins by TKO
Guilherme Santos just thought that he was robocop and he was going to stand in front of Kirk and not move and get the win. Kirk looked slick in this fight, but really, Santos was not on his level
Kelly D’Angelo vs Loveth Young – Strawweight
Round 1
Loveth is winning the striking exchanges with raw power. D’Angelo is eating a lot of shots trying to strike with Young. The Nigerian terminator just hits harder
Round 2
Loveth turns it up, bloodies D’Angelo’s face and finishes her with strikes.🚩 Young wins by TKO
I saw some really good improvements from Young, she had a good sprawl in this fight and she dropped her left hand down to protect herself from the takedown. These are some fantastic improvements. D’Angelo took a beating in the 1st round, but never really made any real adjustments. lol Its always interesting when the commentators are biased towards a losing fighter
Jordan Mapa vs Michael Stack – Featherweight
Round 1
Stack is winning the striking exchanges, but he really wants to grapple. Mapa is very tentative, but he feeds Stack some elbows as stack pushes him up against the cage.
Round 2
Stack gets the takedown and grinds on Mapa. He delivers some ground and pound and flattens Mapa out in back-mount. 🚩Michael Stack wins by TKO
Stack has a good engine, and average to above average wrestling, he has OK striking and is pretty tenacious, but I feel like Stack puts himself in bad situations and his engine usually gets him out of trouble. Mapa needs to greatly improve his Jiu-Jitsu
Joe Boerschig vs Josh Quinlan Welterweight
Round 1
Boerschig has bad habits; Just throwing blind, coming in naked in the pocket and is generally sloppy. Quinlan throws a kick and gets taken down, but gets on top . They stand and throw wild punches, Quinlan cant deal with it.
Round 2
Quinlan is throwing one shot at a time, both are throwing hard and wild with no setup
Round 3
Boerschig gets a takedown and gets reversed. Quinlan beats him up on the floor.🚩 Quinlan wins by TKO
Boerschig is just a street fighter. I saw nothing technical, and it kinda puzzles me that Quinlan had some problems with the street fighter. I actually dont know what to make of Quinlan after this fight
Thomas Peterson vs Kino Luis – Heavyweight
Round 1
Peterson Throws one punch and drops Luis and wins by KO
Luis had his hands low, and I thought the referee was a little quick with the KO call, Not much to analyze here
Nick Browne and Arthur Estrazulas were unbroken at LFA 97