Elijah Johns is the LFA featherweight
champion!
#AndNew 🏆 pic.twitter.com/CQCzAV4Vmz— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass)
February 10, 2024
Legacy Fighting Alliance now has a new featherweight
champion.
Dallas, Texas, native Elijah
Johns fought his way to a dominant unanimous decision victory
against Alfred
Walker in the LFA
176 main event for the vacant featherweight title on Friday at
the Arizona Financial Theatre in Phoenix.
While the second round was arguably close with Walker (11-7)
managing to land a solid head kick-knee combo on his adversary,
Johns’ (10-3) relentless takedowns and back control ultimately
proved to be too much for “Freight Train” to
handle.
As the fight progressed, an exhausted Walker found himself on the
canvas for the majority of the last three rounds, unable to land
any offense on Johns. In the end, Johns walked away with the vacant
featherweight title thanks to a unanimous decision victory on the
scorecards (49-46, 48-47, 48-47).
In the co-main event, An Tuan Ho
(6-0) walked away with a unanimous decision victory against
Miguel
Sanson (4-2) in their flyweight clash. While both fighters
displayed an incredible ability to scramble and compete for control
on the canvas, it was Tuan Ho’s impressive defense and incessant
submission attacks that gave him the edge.
Tuan Ho managed to threaten his opponent with fight-ending
submissions throughout the fight, including an inverted triangle in
the first and a kimura from bottom in the third. In the end, the
promising Vietnamese prospect secured a unanimous decision (30-27,
29-28, 29-28) victory on the scorecards.
In the only middleweight clash on the card, Mansur
Abdul-Malik (4-0) recorded a swift knockout win against
Allan
St-Gelais (1-1) at the 1:40 mark in Round 1. Malik, who was the
shorter fighter, was quick to close the distance against St-Gelais
and take him down with a body lock. After settling his opponent on
the canvas with relative ease, the Maryland native found the
perfect opportunity to unleash a barrage of punches from the
standing position to secure a vicious knockout
victory.
Meanwhile, in a women’s strawweight clash on the main card, Arizona
native Leslie
Hernandez (3-1) walked away with a Round 1 technical knockout
victory against Britanny Camozzi (1-3). Hernandez’s superior
striking advantage was clear from the outset, byt she also
displayed her well-rounded game by threatening her opponent with a
heel hook after being taken down. Towards the end of the round,
Hernandez’s forward pressure forced Camozzi to shoot for a takedown
that would mark the beginning of the end for the Factory X product.
Hernandez managed to stuff the takedown attempt with ease and with
30 seconds remaining in the round began to unload a series of
vicious strikes on her opponent, forcing the referee to step in at
the 4:58 mark of the first round.
In the first bout on the main card, Robson
Junior (5-2) wasted no time against promotional debutant
Carlo
Ricci (3-4) in their lightweight clash. Junior first dropped
his opponent with a right-hand counter while catching a kick to set
the tone for the fight. A few moments later, the Brazilian caught
Ricci with a slick right check hook counter that sent him crashing
to the canvas once again. From there, Junior jumped on his
opponent’s back and proceeded to flatten him out. Hoping to escape
Junior’s submission attempts and ground-and-pound, Ricci soon found
himself being mounted by the 22-year-old. Ricci eventually
submitted to an arm-triangle choke at the 2:01 mark of Round
1.
In other action, Paul
Marghitas submitted Lucas
Hightree with a rear-naked choke 1:14 into the first round
their featherweight clash; Chance Ikei
stopped Keynan
Davis via TKO in Round 1 at the 3:29 mark; Aline David
was awarded a split-decision win against Grace
DiFrancesco in a women’s strawweight tilt; Nicholas
Gjelaj also secured split scorecards over Jared Braun
in a flyweight contest and Johan
Rodriguez earned a unanimous decision win against Jeremiah
Humphrey in a welterweight clash that served as the opening
bout for the event.
