THE CANADIAN PRESS
ENOCH, Alta. — Welterweight Douglas (The Phenom) Lima spoiled local favourite Ryan (The Real Deal) Ford’s return to the Maximum Fighting Championship, winning by armbar at MFC 26 on Friday night.
Ford was aggressive in a takedown attempt and ended up on the ground with Lima on his back. Lima (15-4) slickly shifted position and slapped on the submission 48 seconds into the second round.
"That looked nice, I like it," said the Brazilian-born Lima, who fights out of Atlanta, after watching the replay.
In the co-main event at the River Cree Resort and Casino, veteran Antonio (Mandingo) McKee defended his MFC lightweight title by stopping Brazilian Luciano Azevedo on cuts at 3:11 of the first round.
Ford (12-3) spent most of the first round on top of Lima but was unable to do much damage out of respect for the Brazilian’s prickly jiu-jitsu.
Ford was making his return to the MFC after a four-fight stint with The Fight Club, a rival local promoter. Those four wins lasted less than seven minutes in total.
He left the MFC after losing a split decision to Pat Healy at MFC 20 in February 2009.
Earlier, McKee (24-3-2) took Azevedo (16-9) down early and carved open his forehead twice with the elbow. The referee halted the action and the ringside physician ended the fight.
The 40-year-old McKee has not lost since February 2003, when he dropped a decision to Karo Parisyan. He is unbeaten in 15 fights since, winning 14 of them.
"I’m just happy to be here to kick his young ass," McKee said of the 26-year-old Brazilian.
McKee said he would retire if he was unable to win in dominant fashion.
Azevedo’s claim to fame is being the only man to beat Jose Aldo, currently the WEC featherweight champion. That was five years ago.
American Jessie (J.T. Money) Taylor (16-6) used his wrestling skills to end English middleweight Tom (Kong) Watson’s eight-fight win streak via unanimous 30-26 decision.
"He’s tough, I couldn’t finish him," said Taylor.
Watson (12-4) was unable to get his striking game going and found himself on the defensive, on the ground. Taylor was good on six of eight takedowns during the fight.
Thanks to his wrestling skills, Taylor dominated a first round that saw a point deducted from Watson early on for grabbing the ropes to stop takedowns. The Brit survived a lengthy rear naked choke attempt in the second round.
Middleweight David Heath (16-6) knocked out (King) Solomon Hutcherson (11-7) in a battle of former UFC fighters. Heath dropped Hutcherson with a superman punch and then hammered away at his fallen foe until the referee stepped in at 3:46 of the second round.
Hutcherson knocked Heath down with a left to the chin in the first round and had the best of the ground battle until Heath, from the bottom, cracked Hutcherson’s nose with an elbow late in the round.
The two came out swinging in the second, with Heath bloodying Hutcherson again and then scoring with a spinning back fist before putting him down for good.
It was Heath’s first fight at 185 pounds since moving down from light-heavyweight.
Light-heavyweight Dwayne (D-Bomb) Lewis of Fort McMurray, Alta., made short work of (Big) Mike Nickels, dropping the tattooed American with an uppercut as he clumsily shot in for a takedown.
Lewis (12-5) punched away at a turtled Nickels until the onslaught was ended at 1:30 of the first round. Nickels (8-4) took the fight on three weeks notice.
Lightweight Curtis (The Demon) Demarce (10-8) of Brandon, Man., handed Saskatoon’s Tyson (The Man of) Steele his first pro loss in seven fights, forcing him to tap to a triangle choke at 4:09 of the second round.
Steele (6-1) had won all his previous fights by submission in the first round.
The card was originally slated to be in Brandon but was moved to Edmonton for poor ticket sales.
