Postby keithlewis » Sat Nov 13, 2010 7:03 pm
It's Lima Time!
New champ Douglas & brother Dhiego dominate MFC 27
Douglas "The Phenom" Lima lived up his nickname with a scintillating
performance that earned him the Maximum Fighting Championship's world
welterweight title at MFC 27: Breaking Point Friday night live on HDNet
Fights.
Lima (16-4) fought through the grinding wrestling of Jesse Juarez in the
opening two rounds and then let his submission skills go to work,
transitioning from attempts at an oma plata to a triangle choke, and then
eventually sinking in a fight-ending, picture-perfect armbar. Juarez (15-6)
was forced to tap at the 2:36 mark of Round 3 before a sold-out crowd at the
River Cree Resort and Casino, just outside Edmonton, Alberta.
For Lima, who hails from Atlanta, Georgia, it was his fifth straight win and
capped an exhilarating 2010 campaign that saw him enter the MFC in grand
fashion with a second-round submission win over Ryan Ford at MFC 26 and then
take home the belt just three months later. Juarez, who was trying to become
the third member of Team Body Shop to wear an MFC crown, had his nine-fight
winning streak come to a screeching halt.
The championship glory wasn't the only shining moment for the Lima family
however. In the opening bout of the televised main card, Dhiego Lima (4-0)
made his MFC debut a successful storyline when he dropped Bill Fraser (4-2)
to the canvas with a one-punch knockout at the 2:36 mark of Round 2.
And just to put a bow on things for the Limas, the duo walked away with both
the Submission and Knockout of the Night awards.
Ford (13-3) bounced back from his loss to Douglas Lima with a much-needed
victory in his grudge match with veteran Pete Spratt. Despite having the
home-town support, Ford got off to a slow start as Spratt (21-19) carried
the action in Round 1, using his striking and some surprising takedowns. But
Ford, who beat Spratt two years ago in a controversy-filled contest, found
his rhythm in Round 2, finally getting Spratt down, pinning him in a corner,
and alternating between ground-and-pound and submission attempts before
finishing the fight at the 3:07 mark with a bar-arm choke.
The three other fights on the main card all went to the judges' scorecards.
In a lightweight tussle, "Ragin" Kajan Johnson (18-11-1) was all over Ryan
Healy from the get-go, proving he had an impressive all-around game plan
that combined some effective striking, grappling, and takedowns. Johnson,
who now fights out of Las Vegas, Nevada, nearly ended the fight in Round 2
when he took Healy (19-9-1) down hard face-first to the mat, but the
hard-nosed Portland, Oregon, product showed his grit to force the fight the
distance.
Johnson ended up securing a greater-than-expected margin of victory from the
judges, taking it 30-26, 30-26, and 30-25.
Popular heavy hitter Dwayne "D-Bomb" Lewis of Fort McMurray, Alberta, inched
forward in his quest for a shot at the MFC light heavyweight crown as he
slipped past Razak Al-Hassan with a split-decision verdict. Lewis (13-5) was
unable to fire of his strikes as he would have liked but did just enough to
pull out the win over Al-Hassan (11-3), taking it 29-28, 28-29, 29-28.
Though he took the fight on short notice, Rodney "Sho Nuff the Master"
Wallace (10-3) was rewarded for his gritty effort. Wallace, who fights out
of Charlotte, North Carolina, was the more active striker and scored a
handful of takedowns to walk out with a unanimous decision over David Heath
(16-7). The judges favored Wallace at 29-28 across the board.
