Knockdown Daily 10/23/21: Preview of UFC, Bellator and RIZIN
A preview of this weekend's top MMA events leads the MMA headlines for Saturday
Welcome to the Saturday edition of the Knockdown Daily. Today’s issue will preview the top MMA events happening in the next 24 hours, and will also provide a recap of last night’s LFA card.
News
Former LFA Title Challenger Josh Fremd Earns Decision Win, Bounces Back From Loss
Josh Fremd returned to the win column in Friday night’s LFA main event, using his striking and a small bit of wrestling to defeat Renato Valente via unanimous decision. The fight headlined LFA 116, which took place at the Dobson Arena in Vail, Colorado, USA.
Fremd was able to out-land Valente for most of the first round. The former title challenger scored a knockdown two minutes into the round, sitting Valente down with a lead jab.
The best moment on the feet for Valente was in the final minute of the first round, knocking Fremd down with a left hook.
Valente’s output, which was already less than Fremd’s in the first round, continued to drop off as the fight progressed in the second round.
Fremd scored the only takedown of the fight early in the third round, allowing him to earn control time and land some ground and pound periodically.
Friday’s main event put Fremd back on the right track after a recent loss.
Fremd lost an LFA Middleweight Championship challenge in his previous fight, getting defeated by now-UFC fighter Gregory Rodrigues in May. He was on a strong run up the middleweight division before that loss, scoring three consecutive first-round finish wins in LFA.
Valente had scored his first LFA win in his previous bout, defeating then-undefeated Chibwikem Onyenegecha via split decision in July.
A full report on LFA 116 can be read here.
Here are the quick results:
Preliminary Card
Bout 1: David Evenson def. Bryant Ireland via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 0:09) (Amateur)
Bout 2: Luis Gurule def. DeMarcus Patterson via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 1:45) (Amateur)
Bout 3: Isaiah Diggs def. Gabe Parrot via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 1:22) (Amateur)
Bout 4: Jota Ninomiya def. Jovan Gasper via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 1, 0:42) (Amateur)
Bout 5: Kelsey Arnesen def. Brittany Camozzi via TKO, Strikes (RD 3, 3:32)
Bout 6: Jena Bishop def. Helen Lucero via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 1, 3:38)
Main Card (10:00PM EDT / 8:00PM MDT) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 7: Josiah Reyes def. Llorrvic Acevedo via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 4:45)
Bout 8: Jacobi Jones def. Logan Paxton via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 9: Haris Talundzic def. Brock Smith via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 2, 1:57)
Bout 10: Marnic Mann def. Pauline Macias via Submission, Triangle Choke (RD 3, 3:57)
Bout 11: Michael Stack def. Jackson Filho via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 12: Dan Argueta def. Rodney Mondala via Submission, Armbar (RD 1, 3:32)
Bout 13: Josh Fremd def. Renato Valente via Decision, Unanimous
Preview
Bellator 269: Fedor vs. Johnson
Heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko will have a home-field advantage in his return when he fights Timothy Johnson on Saturday. Emelianenko’s fight, which is his first appearance since 2019, will be in front of his home country at the VTB Arena in Moscow, Russia.
Bellator’s show on Saturday features many international names that have been building up their records in the promotion. This includes Anatoly Tokov, Usman Nurmagomedov, Vitaly Minakov, and others.
A full breakdown of the Bellator 269 card can be seen here.
Here’s the running order:
Preliminary Card (12:00PM EDT / 7:00PM MSK) (Youtube)
Bout 1: Gadzhi Rabadanov (16-4-2) vs. Alexander Belikh (9-4) (Featherweight)
Bout 2: Aiden Lee (9-5) vs. Aleksandr Osetrov (8-2-1) (Featherweight)
Bout 3: Grachik Bozinyan (11-4) vs. Alexey Shurkevich (12-4) (Welterweight)
Bout 4: Brian Moore (14-7) vs. Nikita Mikhailov (7-1) (Bantamweight)
Bout 5: Irina Alekseeva (3-1) vs. Stephanie Page (5-2) (Catchweight 130 lbs)
Bout 6: Darina Mazdyuk (3-1) vs. Katarzyna Sadura (4-4) (Flyweight)
Bout 7: Kirill Sidelnikov (12-6) vs. Rab Truesdale (10-7-1) (Heavyweight)
Main Card (3:00PM EDT / 10:00PM MST) (Showtime)
Bout 8: Anatoly Tokov (29-3) vs. Sharaf Davlatmurodov (18-3-1) (Middleweight)
Bout 9: Usman Nurmagomedov (13-0) vs. Patrik Pietila (11-8) (Catchweight 160 lbs)
Bout 10: Vitaly Minakov (22-1) vs. Said Sowma (7-2) (Heavyweight)
Bout 11: Fedor Emelianenko (39-6) vs. Timothy Johnson (15-7) (Heavyweight)
UFC on ESPN+ 54: Costa vs. Vettori
Both returning for the first time since losing a fight against UFC Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya, ranked middleweights Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori will fight in UFC’s main event. However, they won’t fight at middleweight. Due to weight-cutting issues admitted by Costa earlier this week, they’ll fight 20 pounds heavier at light heavyweight when attempting to get back into the win column.
The 205-pound bout headlines a show that will take place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The long card has numerous prospects making their debut on the prelims, including Zviad Lazishvili, David Onama and Daniel Lacerda.
Here’s a full preview of the show.
The lineup looks like this:
Preliminary Card (1:00PM EDT / 10:00AM PDT) (ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass Canada)
Bout 1: Jonathan Martinez (13-4) vs. Zviad Lazishvili (12-0) (Bantamweight)
Bout 2: Livinha Souza (14-3) vs. Randa Markos (10-11-1) (Strawweight)
Bout 3: Jeff Molina (9-2) vs. Daniel Lacerda (11-1) (Flyweight)
Bout 4: Khama Worthy (16-8) vs. Jai Herbert (10-3) (Lightweight)
Bout 5: Laureano Staropoli (9-4) vs. Jamie Pickett (11-6) (Middleweight)
Bout 6: Tabatha Ricci (5-1) vs. Maria Oliveira (12-4) (Strawweight)
Bout 7: Mason Jones (10-1) vs. David Onama (8-0) (Lightweight)
Bout 8: Park Jun-yong (13-4) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (10-3) (Middleweight)
Main Card (4:00PM EDT / 1:00PM PDT) (ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass Canada)
Bout 9: Nick Negumereanu (10-1) vs. Ike Villanueva (18-12) (Light Heavyweight)
Bout 10: Dwight Grant (11-3) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (26-8) (Welterweight)
Bout 11: Alex Caceres (18-12) vs. Choi Seung-woo (10-3) (Featherweight)
Bout 12: Jessica-Rose Clark (10-6) vs. Joselyne Edwards (10-3) (Bantamweight)
Bout 13: Grant Dawson (17-1) vs. Ricky Glenn (22-6-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 14: Paulo Costa (13-1) vs. Marvin Vettori (17-4-1) (Light Heavyweight)
RIZIN 31
RIZIN Featherweight Champion Yutaka Saito will aim to defend his belt for the first time when facing DEEP Impact champ Juntaro Ushiku in the main event of RIZIN 31.
The card is also set to include 2017 RIZIN Super Atomweight GP winner Kanna Asakura, who will face DEEP Jewels Super Atomweight Champion Saori Oshima in the co-main event. Lower in the lineup, names like former sumo wrestling Tsuyoshi Sudario or Muay Thai ace Yoshinari Nadaka will appear as well.
All of the fights will take place at the Pia Arena MM in Yokohama, Japan.
A full preview of RIZIN 31 can be read here.
Here’s how the late-night JMMA programming lineup looks:
Main Card (1:00AM EDT / 2:00PM JST) (Live-Now / RIZIN Live)
Bout 1: Ryuya Okuwaki vs. Ryuto Oinuma (112 lbs) (Kickboxing Bout)
Bout 2: Seiichrio Ito (13-4-2) vs. Kunta Hashimoto (7-1) (126 lbs) (MMA Bout)
Bout 3: Yusaku Nakamura (16-8-1) vs. Yuki Ito (8-2) (126 lbs) (MMA Bout)
Bout 4: Yoshinari Nadaka vs. Naoki Ishikawa (117 lbs) (Kickboxing Bout)
Bout 5: Rikuto Shirakawa (10-8-1) vs. Takuya Yamamoto (7-1-1) (146 lbs) (MMA Bout)
Bout 6: Daisuke Nakamura (30-20-1) vs. Suguru Nii (12-10) (146 lbs) (MMA Bout)
Bout 7: Daichi Abe (9-4) vs. Akira (15-8-4) (157 lbs) (MMA Bout)
Bout 8: Masanori Kanehara (27-14-5) vs. Takahiro Ashida (24-10-2) (146 lbs) (MMA Bout)
Bout 9: Tsuyoshi Sudario (3-1) vs. SAINT (2-0) (265 lbs) (MMA Bout)
Bout 10: Kanna Asakura (18-5) vs. Saori Oshima (6-2) (108 lbs) (MMA Bout)
Bout 11: Yutaka Saito (20-4-2) vs. Juntaro Ushiku (19-8-1) (RIZIN Featherweight Championship) (MMA Bout)
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