This past Saturday was another Knockout Fight League amateur MMA show. We had 2 fighters from our Subfighter on the card. Jeff Sutton — in his 3rd fight since training with us — and Andre Hudson, getting back in the cage for the first time this year. Andre hasn't been training lately due to work/school, but he took the fight to replace a fighter that pulled out when no other late replacement could be found.

There were also two fighters from Adam Lynn's Subfighter on the card. Diana Mendoza — fighting for the promotion's strawweight title — and Geoff Mellor, fighting for the featherweight CAMO state title. They were the last two of fourteen fights! Also, Adam Lynn & Justin Governale (the usual corners for Adam's team) were not there because they were cornering Mike Segura in a professional MMA show the same day. So Andrew Freelove and Erik Van Der Lee were on coaching duty for the team.

First up, we had Andre fighting #3 on the card. He spent the first round aggressively going for takedowns against the cage. He ended up getting taken down and while there wasn't too much to note in the round, his opponent definitely won it. In the second round, Andre was a bit more aggressive. He was mixing up some heavy punches with his takedown attempt. It was a back-and-forth round and judges could have potentially seen it either way. In the corner, we noticed Andre's opponent's reaction to Andre's punches and could see that he was not willing to trade with Andre. In between the second and third round, we told Andre to drop the takedown attempts and box the opponent. Andre came out swinging in the third round, prompting his opponent to go for a bad takedown. Andre reversed the takedown and ended up mounting his opponent. More than half the round was spent with Andre in mount and back-mount, switching between ground & pound and rear-naked-choke attempts. This round was clearly a 10-8, leaving the fight as a draw at worst for Andre. When it came time to announce the scores, it was a split decision in favor of Andre. Then as we are leaving the cage, we are told that the decision has been reversed and that Andre's opponent is the winner. We still don't know what happened...

Next up was Jeff Sutton fighting #9 on the card. The first half of the round was back-and-forth on the feet with both fighters landing some good shots. About halfway through, Jeff's opponent lands a solid punch and gets Jeff to go for a takedown. Jeff gets a body lock and gets immediately Judo thrown by his opponent into the mount. Jeff's opponent goes for the ground-and-pound for the finish. Jeff is defending well enough, but not escaping. He ends up giving his back because the ref is about to stop the fight from the mount. Jeff's opponent sinks his hooks in and flattens Jeff out while continuing with the ground & pound. The ref stops the first for the first round TKO. Jeff wanted to continue fighting as he wasn't getting punished too badly. But you can't let yourself get stuck in a position like that, especially in the amateur shows. He knows what his mistakes were and what to work on in the gym, so it's not a complete loss.

Fighting in the co-main event for the Knockout Fight League strawweight championship was Diana Mendoza. She was fighting Maraya Miller in a fight where one of them has to lose their undefeated streak. The first round was back-and-forth without any real notable moments, but with Diana probably winning the round on being the more aggressive of the two. In the second round, Diana lands a heavy punch that drops Maraya. Diana jumps on Maraya for the kill and ends up getting the win by second round referee stoppage to become the new champ!

And last up — fighting #14 in the main event — was Geoff Mellor fighting for the featherweight CAMO state championship. His opponent was Isaiah Culpepper — a fighter with a very similar style to Geoff's. In the first round, Geoff landed an early takedown. Geoff got reversed and ended up spending a good chunk of the round on his back. The second and third rounds went, for the most part, the same as each other. Isaiah would throw some heavy punches immediately into a clinch against the cage with strong head position and control. On top of the strong cage control, Geoff got cut on his head in the third round. After all was said and done, Geoff lost a unanimous decision and will hopefully come back stronger in his next fight.