Rafael
do Nascimento established himself as a bantamweight to watch
after emerging victorious in the
LFA 227 main event.
Legacy Fighting Alliance’s final event of February saw the
promotion pit two of its top bantamweights against one another.
While Shuya
Kamikubo attempted to make a name for himself in the
three-round fight, the night was do Nascimento’s instead. Early on,
Kamikubo (16-3-1) repeatedly tried to take the fight to the ground,
but the takedown defense of “Mulisha” was able to keep it mainly on
the feet. Kamikubo repeatedly got his opponent down as the fight
went on and looked for submissions, but both men were bloodied up.
Late in the third round, do Nascimento (12-3) would land a spinning
elbow that almost led to a finish. However, the Japanese fighter
survived a rear-naked choke attempt to make it to the bell. After
15 minutes, all three judges scored the fight 29-28 for do
Nascimento.
The co-main event was marred by a weight miss as Arnold
Jimenez came in 2.4 pounds over the bantamweight limit for his
fight against Allan
Begosso. Punishing his opponent for the miss, Begosso (10-3-1)
used his sharp striking to regularly connect. After several
knockdowns, “Mini” flattened Jimenez (12-5) at 3:34 of Round 2 to
secure a TKO win.
In a middleweight contest, Bellator veteran Theo Haig
looked to rebound from his first career defeat by going up against
Lance
Wright. While competitive on the feet, Haig (7-1) was able to
use his superior grappling to take the back of his opponent. After
Mariana
Poltronieri Piccolo faced undefeated prospect Zoe Nowicki
at flyweight. It was a clinch-heavy fight, although the sharp jabs
of Piccolo (6-3) regularly damaged the face of Nowicki (3-1). After
three measured rounds, the judges awarded a unanimous decision win
to Piccolo with scores of 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
Kohl
Laren took on fellow hard-hitting lightweight Luis Gomez.
It didn’t last long as the power of Gomez proved to be too much for
Laren (6-5), who went out at just 1:44 of the first round after
some brutal ground and pound. With the win, Gomez improved to
10-6.
More LFA 227 results:
Shealor
Ladd pounded out fellow light heavyweight Isaiah
Pinson with
a series of punches at 3:17 of the second round; Roman Puga
overwhelmed fellow featherweight Hamzeh Trad
with
a series of punches to get a TKO win at 4:11 of Round 2;
Kyle
Clark finished Sam
Fournier with punches after landing a flying knee at 3:40 of
Round 1; Dupree
Stewart submitted Jon Tabarez
with an armbar at 4:32 of the first frame; and Ryan
Firinaiu finished Christopher
Collins with punches at 0:26 of Round 3 in the opening bout.