Fight Facts: LFA 62

Jay PettryMar 26, 2019


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.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA FIGHTS: 545
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA EVENTS: 63

The Legacy Fighting Alliance on Friday returned to The Bomb Factory in Dallas with an explosive card containing terrific action and great matchups. LFA 62 featured the first champ-champ in the promotion’s short history, a record-setting rear-naked choke and a specialist who only wants to win by submission.

ALWAYS THERE WHEN YOU KNEED IT: LFA 62 became the third event -- joining LFA 52 and LFA 58 -- to feature multiple knockouts stemming from knees. This card was bookended by knee knockout finishes in the first professional prelim bout and the main event.

DUAL SPIRES: Austin Lingo and Victor Altamirano picked up their fifth victories inside the LFA cage, tying Brendan Allen and Nate Jennerman with the second-most wins in company history. They all trail Damon Jackson, who has six.

A FIGHTING ALLIANCE: With Lingo, Altamirano and Casey Kenney winning at this event, they became the only fighters to compete at least five times with the LFA and never lose.

NICE RING TO IT: Although both of his titles are of the interim variety, Kenney became the first fighter in LFA history to simultaneously hold belts in two divisions. As the interim flyweight champ, Kenney moved up to 135 pounds to vie for that division’s interim belt and prevailed.

CONSIDER YOURSELF SIGNED: Kenney’s 98-second knee knockout of Vince Cachero marked the second-fastest finish in LFA championship history. Only Ricky Simon’s 59-second knockout came faster. It was also for the bantamweight strap back at LFA 36.

A GOOD OMEN: Despite never competing for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Kenney was the 15th-ranked flyweight for the Las Vegas-based promotion. He did compete twice on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series in 2017, winning and then losing a bout by decision. Kenney has since signed to face Ray Borg on short notice at UFC on ESPN 2.

SIMPLY MERCY: With 39 seconds remaining in their contest, Levi Mowles forced Ahmet Kayretli to tap to a submission. The loss marks the fourth-latest submission in company history and the third-latest in a three-round fight.

REAR-NAKED MOWLES: By tapping Kayretli with a rear-naked choke, Mowles picked up his third submission of that type inside the LFA. He tied Dakota Bush for the second-most rear-naked choke victories with the promotion. They trail Jackson, who has four.

RAMEASY LIVING: Ramiz Brahimaj recorded a 55-second submission of Carlos Martinez via an arm-triangle choke. All eight of his victories have come by submission, with seven in the first round and five of those within the first 60 seconds. Both of his losses have come on the scorecards.

SIMPLE MAJORITY: The bout between Crystal Vanessa Demopoulos and Valerie Soto ended in a majority decision, becoming the fifth in LFA history to end with that result and the first among the LFA’s women's divisions.

LINGO 25: It took Lingo 25 seconds to put Angel Cruz to sleep with a rear-naked choke, breaking the record for the fastest technical submission victory in promotional history. The previous record was held by Jackson, who rendered Chris Pecero unconscious with an arm-triangle choke in 38 seconds at LFA 33.

NOT JUST A CANADIAN GAME SHOW: In forcing the referee to call a stop to the contest merely 25 seconds in, Lingo picked up the second-quickest submission win in LFA history.

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?: A Texas native, Altamirano has competed for the LFA in each of his five career bouts. They have all occurred at Dallas events, and all five have taken place on the untelevised preliminary cards.

SOMEBODY’S POISONED THE WATER HOLE: A whopping five fighters missed weight before LFA 61. Including previously scheduled catchweights, five of the eight pro matchups took place outside of standard weight classes. Only one other LFA event has had that many fighters miss weight: LFA 15 in 2017, when five fighters also came in heavy.

YOU ME YOU ME ME YOU YOU ME BOW BOW: Both Mowles and Kayretli missed weight before their bout, with Mowles coming in 0.8 pounds heavy and Kayretli showing up 1.8 pounds over the bantamweight limit. This marked the seventh time two fighters in the same LFA bout have missed weight. The heavier fighter has won five of those seven.

SO TOAST: Soto missed weight by 4.4 pounds for her strawweight bout, and due to commission rules, Demopoulos was required to rehydrate to be close enough in weight for the bout to go on. Soto lost.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into LFA 62, Cachero (six fights) and Fernie Garcia (five fights) had never been defeated, Mowles had never finished a fight in the third round (seven finishes) and Marquis Smith had never lost a fight in the first round (six fights).

Contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on twitter at @jaypettry.