XKO was at Texas Live! with 10 fights. The show was called XKO 47: Friday night fight night. I think Texas live is a definite upgrade to the Gas Monkey venue. The Arlington complex is a Sports play ground. Its just restaurants, drinks, and giant TVs, and they try to mix the outdoor with the indoor as best as they can. XKO is such a strong promotion. They dont use a lot of gimmicks, and they just put on good fights. They are not afraid of having an all female prelim card and a female main-card all in one night, bold, I love it
The adult fun-land of beer and TVs has a hotel attached to it and is semi-attached to the new Texas Rangers Baseball stadium that is currently under construction
Main Event
Deborah Kouzmin vs Rainn Guerrero – Featherweight
Round 1
I’m not even sure this was at Featherweight, because both of these girls looked thick, in the fighting sense, of course. It starts off with Kouzmin looking nice on the feet and showcasing a come-forward style. Guerrero is trying to clinch but Kouzmin shrugs her off several times.
Round 2
Both these ladies have a very fan-friendly style. Kouzmin is all stand and bang, she has a come-forward tank style with just a little bit of footwork. Guerrero floats around and mixes it up a little more
Round 3
Guerrero has a big round, she takes Kouzmin down and takes her back for a portion of time. She also drops Kouzmin with a left hand.🚩 Guerrero wins by unanimous decision
Kouzmin is a Fortis MMA product, so she has world class training, but, she needs to have more levels to her MMA game. She has a fantastic style, but she needs to develop better footwork, and introduce more threats to her opponents. Guerrero is very game, she fought a more well rounded MMA game, and just used more tools. Both ladies look very good, and I’ll be looking to see more from both of them
Alfredo Leija vs Joel Guzman – Muay Thai – Heavyweight
Round 1
Guzman is looking faster and Leija is just looking to end it with one punch
Round 2
I love that XKO puts on Muay Thai fights. Its supersmart. It gives the fans of 16 oz gloves something to look foward to, and it just displays a contrast in the art of Striking, and full MMA
Round 3
Both guys are going hard. Guzman is still a little faster, but Leija is a tank. 🚩 Guzman wins by unanimous decision
Guzman gets the win, but we were all winners here. It was a back and fourth tactical battle with Leija looking to land a power-shot, and Guzman throwing more variety. It was all Muay Thai for MMA
Jeremy Metcalf vs Chad Box – Muay Thai – 165
Round 1
Chad box is heavily tatted and has his hair braided in Viking-esque pattern. Box is using a lot of leg kicks and is staying behind his jab
Round 2
Metcalf comes out hot, but Box is able to stay behind his Jab and use his push kick
Round 3
Box comes out and looks exhausted. He drops to his butt in the corner. 🚩 Metcalf wins due to injury
Box was winning this fight, so I know that the injury must have been serious. I would actually like to see more from Box. This was just unfortunate
Josh Nealy vs Edmaicon Moraes – Featherweight
Round 1
Moraes comes out with kicks and takes Nealy down, he transitions to the mount very easily. He locks up a mounted triangle, then he transitions to a super tight armbar. 🚩 Moraes wins by submission
If you dont tap to that armbar, Edmaicon takes that arm home with him. The man just played to his strengths and executed on the ground. I think he needs some striking in his life though.
Audrey Wolfe vs Erica Torres – 140
Wolfe clinches and just lets Torres feel the strength that she has, and I’m pretty sure Torres didn’t like how it felt. She separates and lands a punch and a hard kick to the body. She hits Torres with a head-kick and starts to tee off and the ref comes in and stops it. A little early with the stoppage in my opinion. 🚩 Wolfe wins by TKO
Wolfe is known for her physicality. She just uses her physical tools to just crush and impose her will. I believe 145 should be her weight-class, and there are not a lot of girls for her there. She might need to travel. I haven’t seen her face real adversity yet, but I’ll be watching
Brandon Bennett vs Landry Ward – Lightweight
Round 1
Ward comes out and gives his opponent several different looks. Ward gets hit with a 1, 2, then the Fort Worth man composes himself and sits Bennett down with a straight right. Bennett tries to grapple for a while and Ward closes the show with a left hook. 🚩 Ward wins by KO
Ward looks slick on the feet, and I think his future is going to be at 170. I haven’t seen him face any note-worthy wrestling, and maybe that’s because the kid has a good sprawl. Damn, he’s exciting. After his KO, the crowd was chanting “Lone-star-kid” Its the stuff dreams are made of.
Destiny Oldenkamp vs Kristin Kotinek – 118
Round 1
Its such a weird weight-class. I’m thinking someone missed weight and they just wanted to make this happen. Kotinek starts off and clinches. Oldenkamp gets the takedown and land some ground and pound at the end of the round.
Round 2
Clinching by Kotinek and Oldenkamp gets another takedown at the end
Round 3
The two clinch with Kotinek looking a little more stronger in the clinch. 🚩 Kotinek wins by split decision.
I’m glad that these are amateur fights, because Oldenkamp has real talent, she could have done a little more to get herself off the cage, but this was a great learning experience. At times Oldenkamp can be real technical and very scrappy on the ground. She really did lose this fight though, IMO. Kotinek looks good, but all I saw from her was raw strength
Jennifer Chanthavong vs Marisa Ramos – Strawweight – Muay Thai
Round 1
Chantavong is doing a little more on the feet
Round 2
During round too I missed some of the action and I had some Barbecue from Lockhart BBQ, right beside the cage. The brisket wasn’t tender enough for my liking, but the potato salad was good and spicy. I had a $11 dollar Revolver: Blood and Honey
Round 3
🚩 Ramos turns it on and Ramos picks up the win.
Early days for both these ladies
Ashlee Cooks vs Crystal Tolentino – 125
Round 1
Knees to the thigh in the clinch by Tolentino. The ref separates them for some reason
Round 2
Cooks clinches and tries for a takedown, and Tolentino reverses position.
Round 3
They clinch and Tolentino has the better of the positions. 🚩 Tolentino wins by unanimous decision
Both ladies look relatively low level at this point. Tolentino just expressed her physicality, and we didn’t get to see any technical work from either of these ladies.
Destiny Rogers vs Candace Rodriguez – Lightweight
Round 1
I always like the Lightweight division for women, because its a realistic and healthy weight-class for a lot of females. I’m pretty sure more females are a healthy 155 in contrast to 115. Anyway, Rodriguez immediately gets to side control and beats up Rogers, she pulls off a weird armbar and gets the win. 🚩 Rodriguez wins by submission
Great win for Rodriguez. Rogers looked a little lost, technically. Early days for these 2 ladies
Edmaicon Moraes was unbroken