Bryant gets bronze at Golden Gloves, Rose takes kickboxing bout, more

Some very quick Utah Fight Game notes:

We neglected to mention that Top of Utah amateur boxer Jon Bryant (seen above at left) earned a medal in the recent national Golden Gloves tourney, 132 pounds. Jon will later this year attempt to earn a spot in the U.S. Olympics team qualifying competition.

Both Ignacio and Gabriel Chairez, Northern Utah professional boxers, are slated to fight against separate opponents on June 8 in Salt Lake City. Two other area competitors, professional boxers Larry Gomez and Christian Aguirre, headline a June 15 card in Wendover.

Utah MMA professional Clay Collard had his second professional boxing bout last weekend in Dearborn, Mich. Collard, a former UFC fighter, is now 1-0-1 after holding undefeated Tipton Walker, 6-0-1, to a six-round draw. Given that Walker is from Michigan, achieving a draw speaks well for Collard's effort.

On May 31 and June 1 at The Utah Stair Fairpark, Junior Olympics amateur boxing champs from Utah and three other Rocky Mountain States will be competing for a chance to go to the national tournament in Wisconsin.

Last weekend in Farmington, Cole Rose wrested a regional 170-pound Mountain Force Kickboxing pro title via a five round decision over former titlist Jarrett Kelton. Results of the entire card were posted May 19 on the promotion's Facebook page here.

And, in SLC on May 31, SteelFist has another professional/amateur MMA card. Tracy Hardy and Mike Jones headline the card in a professional bout. Other professionals competing include Thomas Hughes and Trevor Bradshaw. Entire card is here.

And last Thursday, Northern Utah MMA professional Steven Siler was defeated in his first bout in the 2019 PFL Featherweight MMA tournament. Siler, a finalist last year, dropped a decision to Gadzhi Rabadanov. Siler can still move further into this year's tournament with a win in his next bout this summer.

Kelton meets Rose in kickboxing title tiff

Tomorrow night, May 18, Mountain Force Kickboxing will be at the Legacy Events Center in Farmington. Main bout has promotional champ Jarrett Kelton defending his 170 pound belt against Cole Rose. It's an intriguing match. More information on card is at the promotion's Facebook page. ... In other kickboxing news, Kaecy Raddon, who is a Mountain Force champ, announced that he has been selected as a member of WAKO Team USA Kickboxing and will represent our nation at the World Championships in October at Saravejo, Bosna Herzegovina.

Last Friday night LFA 66 MMA card was at West Valley. Jon Neal met former UFC TUF fighter Tyler Diamond in the main bout. It was very competitive with Diamond earning a hard-fought decision. Neal started strong early but was stunned midway through round one and had to focus on defense to recover. Round two was more even with Diamond's ground game giving him an edge. Utah Fight Game scored round three for Neal, who rallied the final third of the round as Diamond seemed to be tiring. The decision for Diamond was unanimous. In the c-main Josh Burkman announced his retirement after losing a split decision to William Macario. Other bouts included Joe Rodriguez dropping a hard-fought decision to undefeated Trevino, and LJ Schulz being decisioned by undefeated Hunter Azure. The entire card results are here.

On that same night in Las Vegas, Top of Utah Fighters Hayden Brown and Tyson Craig earned TuffNUff amateur titles, Hayden at 185 pounds and Tyson at 155 pounds.The card results are here.

IN BOXING NEWS ... Utah professionals Larry Gomez and Christian Aguirre, who fought a memorable fight last year, won by Gomez via decision, have signed for a rematch June 15 in Wendover. And this weekend there is Junior Olympics state tournament amateur boxing at Foley's gym in Ogden. Bouts start at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Interview with MMA pro Joe Rodriguez, LFA MMA card Friday

It's a big night tomorrow for Utah MMA. Legacy Fighting Alliance is in West Valley City at The Maverik Center. The AXS TV card headlines Jon Neal, of Ogden, against Tyler Diamond. Also fighting in bouts are Josh Burkman, LJ Schulz, Westin Wilson, Kaytlin Neil, Zac Cavender, and Marco Sanchez. Also, Bobby King meets Fabio Serrao.

Also on the card is veteran 185 pounder Joe Rodriguez, who trains out of One Hit MMA and University of Grappling. He meets Emilio Trevino. We've followed Joe's successful career for years and appreciate him granting Utah Fight Game a pre-fight interview.

What does it mean for you to return to an LFA fight card, particularly one in Northern Utah?

Rodriguez:  I wasn't expecting to fight on a big show. After Glory kickboxing, an injury put me out for a year then I couldn't find any fights a year later for 185 lbs. (After) two years of not fighting I was about to call it quits. Beginning of 2018 I moved up to 205 lbs to fight a guy from Colorado, then I had another one after that and now LFA will be my 3rd fight at 205. I'm honored to fight for LFA given the fact that I am 41 years of age so maybe I do have some fight left in me.

What do you know about your opponent?

Rodriguez: I know my opponent has a karate background, fights southpaw and orthodox. Doesn't matter to me, I've trained with the best southpaw in Utah (Jordan Smith) for years. He hasn't fought the level of guys I have fought so I'm sure I'll be a challenge for him but I will not underestimate him.

How has training gone? It's at One Hit MMA and University of Grappling.

Rodriguez: Training has been good, One Hit MMA (Aldo Oreggia) and University Of Grappling (Marc Brewer). I train and spar with all my guys, big and small with experience from both gyms. It's good to have a variety of styles and people always making the movement different.

Where do you hope to be in your career a year from now?

Rodriguez: I am 41 years old. I didn't imagine fighting this long so where I'll be in a year, I really can't say. I've accomplished something that I never would have imagined doing, Fighting Bellator twice, RFA, Glory Kickboxing and now LFA. Not many people can say they've done what I have starting at 34 years old with absolutely no fight experience, not knowing a thing about MMA.

Good luck Joe, tomorrow night, as well as the others on the card. 

A couple of extra notes. As we mentioned last week, Utah MMA amateur Hayden Brown fights for a Tuff-N-Uff title Saturday in Las Vegas. Also, last week, MMA fighter Rowdy Akers scored a first round stoppage in his debut as a professional kickboxer, winning a Bare Knuckle Combat League title. And last weekend in Georgia, Kaecy Raddon, formerly of Utah now living in Colorado, who is a Mountain Force Kickboxing champion, scored a kickboxing win over Mexico's Luis Espinosa in international competition sanctioned by the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations (WAKO).

Lattimer, Munoz among SteelFist winners, LFA card nears

(The poster above advertises one of the pro bouts from LFA on Friday May 10, at The Maverik Center in West Valley. Ogden's LJ Schulz fights Hunter Azure in a bantamweight bout. This card is, to use a cliche, stacked. Ogden's Jon Neal meets Tyler Diamond in the main event. Here is the card on Tapology. Fighting against various tough opponents are Josh Burkman, Joe Rodriguez, Westin Wilson, Katlyn Neil, and two others, Bobby King and Fabio Serrao, meet in a highly anticipated bout. Although Tapology does not include, undefeated pro Zac Cavender is also on the card. His bout shows on MixedMartialArts page. The card will be televised on AXS, which is carried by Dish and DirectTV.

-- Last weekend SteelFist results -- Two of our better 155 pound regional vets, Kerry Lattimer and Troy Dennison, headlined. It was Lattimer's night, winning via submission in round one. In another pro bout, middleweight Eric Munoz went to 2-0 with a first round stoppage of Nick Martinez. And Munoz's son, Jordan, won his amateur debut in a competitive bout with Jayden Marshall, via third round stoppage. In two amateur title bouts, Michael Eastwood stopped Jordan Marshall in round one (115 pounds) and in a brutal bout, Tanner Hinds stopped Cole Shafer in round 2, 165 pounds. The entire card results are here. Also, you can watch the card here via YouTube. The next SteelFist card is May 31 in SLC. Tracy Hardy fights Mike Jones in the main bout. Also fighting is professional Thomas Hughes. Card is here.

Layton amateur middleweight MMA fighter Hayden Brown travels to Las Vegas travels to Las Vegas on May 10 to fight Theo Greenidge for the Tuff-N-Uff belt.

... In what was an extremely close professional boxing match in Las Vegas recently, Midvale's Larry Gomez, 8-1, dropped a split decision to 7-1 Kevin Johnson. You can see excerpts from the bout, courtesy of the promoter, Final Fight Championship, on Larry's Facebook page here. On that same card, in an MMA bout, Utah professional Clay Collard also won. Some local pro fighters, Christian Aguirre, Gary Cobia, Gabriel Chairez, and Bladimer Estrada, have recently said they will be back in the ring soon.

Jon Neal to headline LFA card at Maverik Center

Some quick recent takes from the Utah fight game:

On May 10, undefeated MMA featherweight Jon Neal headlines an excellent pro card in West Valley City. Neal meets Tyler Diamond in a bout that will be televised through the AXS network. Also competing on the card in bouts are Joe Rodriguez, LJ Schulz, Westin Wilson and Josh Burkman. Another excellent match on the card (here) is Bobby King versus Fabio Serrao.

On April 27, on a UFC card telecast on ESPN Plus, 170-pound pro Court McGee fights Dhiego Lima.

On April 26 at the Union Event Center in Salt Lake City, veteran 155 pound pro Troy Dennison and Kerry Lattimer headline the SteelFist MMA card. Another pro bout matches Eric Munoz versus Nick Martinez. Card is here.

Here are results from a card in Logan on March 30 from Mountain Force MMA. The promotion's kickboxing unit plans a card May 18 in Farmington that will headline Jarrett Kelton versus Cole Rose.

Results from the Fitcon MMA card April 12 in Salt Lake City included Dustin Clements stopping Eric Iman in a heavyweight pro bout and Mike Chavez taking a split decision over Lehi Dominguez for the promotion's 155 pound amateur title. Professional Mike Jones also logged a win.

Amateur middleweight MMA fighter Hayden Brown will fight for a TuffNUff middleweight title on May 10 in Las Vegas.

BOXING

On April 12, Rocky Mountain Golden Gloves met to determine who will send fighters to the nationals in Tennessee next month. Locals Jon Bryant, Diego Alvarez and Jay Wright are among those making the trip. A story on the bouts in SLC is here.

Utah professional boxer Christian Aguirre fought on national TV last Saturday against undefeated middleweight Money Powell IV. The bout was scheduled for six round. Early in round 6, Powell floored Aguirre and the fight was stopped.

Undefeated pro boxer Larry Gomez, of Midvale, announced this week he is fighting 6-1 pro Kevin Johnson is Las Vegas Friday, April 19.

Mountain Force MMA card Saturday in Logan

This Saturday night in Logan at the Cache County Event Center, beginning at 7 p.m., is Mountain Force MMA 9. The main bout matches Tyson Craig against Jeff Carson, 145 pounds, pro. The card, via Tapology, is here. It will be streamed for a price at The Fite app. It's an all-ages event. The promotion's website is here.

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In SteelFist's main event last weekend, Clay Collard stopped Lucus Montoya in round one. A competitive bout changed abruptly when Collard landed a shot to the liver, resulting in a slightly delayed reaction from Montoya, who was badly hurt from the shot. Collard got Montoya to the ground and the fight was stopped.

Results of the entire card in SLC are here. SteelFist's next card is April 26 at the Union Event Center in SLC.

Montoya, Collard main bout at SteelFist; more boxing, MMA results

SteelFist has a big fight Friday night at The Union Event Center in SLC. It matches comebacking former WSOF MMA fighter Lucus Montoya against SteelFist welterweight champ Clay Collard, who of course had a long stint in the UFC. Both these fighters are returning to where they excelled early in their careers and the winner will likely see a path back into the PFL, Bellator or UFC. Although Montoya has competed in grappling events, he hasn't been in the cage since he broke his forearm in WSOF 20, on nationally TV, almost four years ago. Collard, after winning a title at SteelFist, suffered a setback late last year Final Fight Championship 33.

The entire SteelFist card is here. Undefeated pro Zac Cavender fights at 205 pounds against Chris Thompson. In another pro bout for the women's 125-pound belt, Kaytlin Neil fights Shannon Sinn. In a 115 pound women's amateur title fight, Brittany Guillemin fights Sadie Ault. Others on the card include Ryder Newman and Zack Partridge in separate bouts.

A couple of weeks ago at the Utah State Fairpark, Fierce Fighting Championships had an MMA card. In the main bout for the promotion's 155-pound title, Bobby King stopped Nate Kearsley. In an actin-packed pro co-main that saw a lot of ebb and flow over five minutes, Randy Rowland, 155 pounds, stopped Thomas Hughes just prior to the end of round one, referee call due to strikes. The entire card is here.

BOXING

In SLC on March 8 undefeated Midvale pro welterweight Larry Gomez moved to 8-0 with a first round KO over veteran Mikhail Lyubarsky. Counter left hooks eventually left Lyubarsky stunned and on the canvas. In other bouts, former MMA fighter Eric Wahlen remained undefeated as a boxer, defeating Garrard Williams, heavyweights; Helaman Olguin defeated Anjel Osiris, heavyweights; Brandon Douglas defeated Mulapi Enjani, featherweights; In an amateur bout, Jay Wright defeated Emmanuel Gonzales, and amateur Gary Bailey also was a winner.

Last weekend at the Utah State Fairpark, there was the state Golden Gloves. Jon Bryant repeated as Utah 152-pound Golden Gloves champ with a decision on Saturday over Julian Ruiz. And 132-pound GG champ Diego Alvarez also repeated with a decision win over the aforementioned Wright, who fights out of Foley's gym. In the 165-pound GG final, Danny Galloway defeated Bailey for the state title. I don't have all Sunday results but here's a few: Carlos Padilla decisioned Isaac Lugo, 150; anfd Juan Higuera decisioned Robert Martinez, 201-plus pounds.

On Saturday, which included some semifinal bouts, winners were Eric Castanada, Dillan Neuyen, Alvarez, Kathryn Lopdez, Ruiz, Emmanual Gonzales; Carson Matthews; Jayden Lopez; Wright; Jesus Garcia; Galloway; Dan Butterfield; and Toa Piutua.