Jason MacDonald’s Pure Fighting Championship IV had everything a fight fan could desire, as the 1,500 fans in attendance at the Westerner Agricentre were treated to a buffet of action.
“We had a little bit of everything tonight,” said MacDonald. “We had decisions, we had knockouts and some tough fights. I think that is what you want out of a fight card.”
In the main event of the evening, Lethbridge’s Jordan Mein put on an impressive display of ring generalship and power in stopping an overmatched Andrew Buckland of Calgary at 1:26 of the first round.
Mein, 13-6, set the tone in the opening seconds of the first round, landing vicious leg kicks and roundhouse kicks to Buckland’s body. The Lethbridge fighter followed up with a left hook and roundhouse kick to the head, and then on two separate occasions threw Buckland to the canvas. Buckland, 12-6, tried to fight back with his own left hook and round house to the head, but the Lethbridge fighter increased his torrid pace landing a huge right hand to Buckland’s body that dropped the Calgary mixed martial artist, and then Mein followed up with four left hands to the head, forcing legendary MMA referee John McCarthy to step in and stop the fight.
In the semi-main event, Red Deer’s George Belanger appeared to be on his way to a loss against Lethbridge’s Victor Daychief, when he miraculously pulled out the victory with an unexpected strike.
The opening round saw Day Chief, 4-5, forcing the action, landing right hands to the head and scoring a takedown against the retreating Belanger. The Lethbridge mixed martial artist came out strong in the second round, landing three solid right hands to the body, followed by a right to the head. But Belanger was able to counter the last right with an elbow to the head that opened a deep cut on Daychief’s scalp.
Daychief tried to employ a guillotine on Belanger, 4-2, but Belanger escaped to top mount, which Daychief reversed to top position. The Red Deer Pure Fitness martial artist then shrimped his way out and as he retreated he launched a heel kick to Daychief’s head, catching him in the eye socket. The Lethbridge fighter was unable to continue giving Belanger the victory.
“I think George made that fight a little tougher than it had to be,” said MacDonald. “George is one of those guys who really likes to get caught up in a dog fight. I am proud of him, and happy for him.”
The first bout of the evening gave fans as competitive a bout as you could ask for, as Red Deer’s Jessie Fox and Rob Roy of Fernie, B.C., put on a back-and-forth, crowd-pleasing performance. In the first round Roy, 3-3, opened aggressively, slamming Fox, 3-3, to the canvas. From there Fox almost secured a triangle, but Roy escaped.
The chess match continued in the second round as Roy had the edge with a takedown and a vicious knee to the head.
In the third round the Red Deer martial artist came back, landing strong counter right hands and shooting for a takedown. Just when Fox seemed to be on his way to dominating the round, he slipped throwing a right hand and Roy capitalized and took top position.
The bout could have gone either way, with the Fernie fighter receiving a split-decision victory in the 145-pound contest. Throughout the bout both fighters showed tremendous sportsmanship, congratulating each other by touching gloves at the end of each round.
“I don’t look at fighting as I like the guy, I hate the guy,” said Fox. “We’re both going in there to have fun. It just happens to be that we are punching each other in the head. You know I am going to go out and have a beer with the guy after and we will probably be friends from now on.”
The KO of the night had a wobbled Kelly Gervais of Lloydminster, 3-0, land the perfect right hand to the jaw of Tyler Wright of Red Deer at 29 seconds of the first round in 155-pound action. The submission of the night featured 170-pound Brent Dewsbury of Lethbridge stopping Josh Smith of Fort McMurray by triangle choke, and the fight of the night — featuring non-stop ebb and flow action — saw Owen Carr of Lloydminster score a split-decision victory over Tyler Davis of Edson in the 145-pound division.
In other action Ryan Bringham of Lethbridge stopped Jesse Seburg of Fort McMurray with body shots, and Tim Tamaki of Lethbridge stopped Red Deer’s Derek Clarke with elbows from top mount.