Fight Facts: Legacy Fighting Alliance 'Phase 3'

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

* * *

TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA EVENTS: 95
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA FIGHTS: 794
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA FIGHTS IN PHASE 3: 23
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA FINISHES IN PHASE 3: 13

The Legacy Fighting Alliance carried out an October trilogy for its “Phase 3” of returning to full-swing event promotion. The trio of events had a lot to offer for all types of fight fans, and the series concluded with a title tilt in a new but burgeoning division. LFA’s Phase 3 events featured a few speedy knockouts in the lighter divisions, a rare finish at the bell and a slick front choke that deserves greater attention.

LFA 92

Good Name: Anderson dos Santos Jr. earned just his second career decision victory by taking a unanimous verdict over Bellator MMA vet Andre Fialho. The Brazilian lowered his finish rate to 78 percent with the win.

Always with the Technicalities: Fialho’s loss was his first ever three-round decision loss, as his previous defeat on the scorecards was a two-round bout in the Professional Fighters League to Glaico Franca.

The Hair Helps: Pulling off his fourth submission in the LFA cage, Dakota Bush tied Brandon Royval, Nate Jennerman and Ramiz Brahimaj for the second most submission wins in company history. Damon Jackson stands alone with six.

Eye for an Eye, Knee for a Knee: In the third round, Jacob Thrall suffered a knee injury to award the victory to Ricky Furar. Knee injuries account for half of all injury stoppages in LFA history, with others including an arm, an eye…and a heart stopping.

Ramrod Rodney: Rodney Kealohi ran through Mefi Monterroso in 30 seconds with a knee and follow-up punches. In doing so, Kealohi tied Jacob Silva for the quickest knockout in LFA flyweight history. The fastest still resides with Royval, who hit an armbar on Nate Williams in 23 seconds in 2019.

Hawaiian Punching: Kealohi has still never gone the distance as a pro, with each of his five wins coming by stoppage due to strikes. His lone defeat is a submission in 2016 to Sean Gee.

The Power of Christian Compels You: On the card opener, Christian Natividad clobbered Jose Holguin to earn a 29-second knockout. His finish is the fifth-fastest of all pro fights to start off LFA cards.

And His Brother Is in the UFC: Only two knockouts in LFA bantamweight history have come quicker than Natividad’s over Holguin. The fastest came in 2017, when Glen Baker sparked Natividad’s brother Kevin Natividad in nine seconds.

LFA 93

Contender Series Will Be Knocking: Aaron Jeffery smashed Andre Petroski with knees and punches to record the knockout in the headliner. All five of the Canadian’s wins have come by knockout, and he has elevated his finish rate to 89 percent with this win.

She Went on A Sampage: Sam Hughes rendered Danielle Hindley unconscious with a guillotine choke at exactly the 5:00 mark of the first round. “Sampage” is the first in the LFA to submit an opponent at the bell.

Besting the Buzzer: Each of the previous three 5:00 stoppages came between rounds, when Mario Bautista forced a doctor intervention, Ahmet Kayretli made his foe’s corner throw in the towel and Moses Murrieta had his adversary quit on the stool. Hughes is the first to finish an opponent at that time without the round ending.

Sleep Is as Sleep Does: Hughes is the first LFA fighter to ever win and lose a bout by technical submission. Her previous loss for the belt, Crystal Vanessa Demopoulos put her to sleep in July with an inverted triangle choke.

A Neck-Wrenching Stat: With her win, Hughes becomes the second woman to land a technical submission, but the first came against her in the aforementioned match with Demopoulos.

Mark It for Fortis MMA: Notching a decision win over Luke Faultersack, Elijah Johns earned his fifth win inside the LFA cage. Tied with several other fighters, only four have won more times inside the LFA: Austin Lingo and Royval with six apiece, and Jackson and Victor Altamirano with seven each.

A Family Win: Joshua DaSilveira made his LFA debut by tapping Fernando Alvarado with an arm-triangle choke in the third stanza. All three of the American Top Team product’s victories have come inside the distance.

A Good Run for Christians: Young into his career at 4-0 with a second-round submission of John Pham, Christian Rodriguez has finished all of his foes before the third round. This bout was his first to go out of Round 1.

Slowly Rebuilding the Lower Tier: The first bout on the card was an amateur contest between Jared Brown and Jake Wilson, and Brown won a decision. The last amateur bout on an LFA card was LFA 83, when Macy Breaux captured a unanimous verdict against Destiny Oldenkamp in March. Although Jeff Nielsen vs. Brady Minner was intended on being an amateur bout at LFA 88, Nielsen made his pro debut on a past Bellator show to force the bout into pro status.

LFA 94

How Was That A Draw? Winning the strawweight strap with a head-scratching majority decision over Demopoulos, Lupita Godinez is still perfect as professional. 80 percent of her wins have come on the scorecards.

Revisiting Tyranny of the Majority: The majority decision is only the second among all female LFA fighters. The first came when Demopoulos edged Valerie Soto at LFA 62 in 2019.

Can’t Always Squeak By: With her majority decision loss to Godinez and her prior win over Soto, Demopoulos is the first fighter in organizational history to win and lose bouts by majority verdict.

A Reddit MMA Star: For the first time in his career, Aaron McKenzie won a fight at the hands of the judges. Each of his prior eight wins came within two rounds, with seven of those taking place in the second stanza.

Chasing the Finish: Chase Gibson’s technical submission by brabo choke is the first in LFA history. Although five others have pulled off this move at past LFA shows, none had ever put their opponent to sleep until Gibson slept Thai Clark.

Blizzard of Ozz: Win or lose, Osman Diaz has yet to fight beyond the first round. Finishing Logan Woods in 96 seconds, the longest pro bout for “Ozzy” lasted just 4 minutes, 15 seconds.

Seems Oxymoronic: Jalin Fuller landed an unusual choke on Miles Amos described as a “front rear-naked choke” by the commentary booth. This is the first such front choke in LFA history.

Fined and Foiled: Three of four fighters that missed weight in these events lost. The only one to come in heavy and get his hand raised was Gibson, who hit the scales .4 pounds above the featherweight limit. The others that lost each passed their respective weight classes by at least two pounds.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into these three events, nine fighters had never been defeated, Thrall (10 fights) and Monterroso (six fights) had never been knocked out and Alvarado had never been submitted.