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TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA FIGHTS: 522
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA EVENTS: 60
The Legacy Fighting Alliance on Friday returned to Phoenix for the sixth time in the promotion’s short history, staging a card with some spectacular finishes and thrilling action. LFA 59 featured a rare stoppage from a body kick, a submission specialist who almost always keeps it out of the hands of the judges and a milestone for a pivotal personality.
MIKE ON THE MIC: Ring announcer Mike Kendall called his 100th televised MMA card at LFA 59. The veteran called Resurrection Fighting Alliance events prior to its merger with Legacy Fighting Championship.
TITLE DROUGHT: The three LFA events in 2019 have yet to feature any belts on the line, making this three-event stretch the longest since LFA 41 to LFA 45 to not have any championship bouts.
WELL THAT’S NEW…ELL: Jared Gooden defeated Steven Newell by unanimous decision and in doing so handed Newell the first loss of his 10-fight career.
GOODEN-OUGH FOR GOVERNMENT WORK: In his 12 pro victories, Gooden has knocked out his opponent four times, submitted four others and topped four more on the scorecards.
DOES NOT CARE FOR JUDGES: Daniel Madrid tapped Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Seth Baczynski in the first round. All 15 of his career victories have ended by stoppage, including 13 by submission. Madrid has only reached the scorecards one time in his 22-fight career.
DEMIGOD OF SUBMISSIONS: Following his guillotine choke submission on Baczynski, Madrid, aka “The Demigod,” has submitted his opponents in at least six different ways throughout his career, including a rare omoplata in a 2018 bout against Daviante Jones.
SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR: Although officially a clean knockout due to a head kick, if Kyler Phillips’ spinning back kick on Emeka Ifekandu had directly resulted in a finish, it would have been the first stoppage from a spinning back kick in promotional history. The head kick knockout was the 11th seen in the LFA cage but the first performed by a bantamweight.
LIVER: BROKEN: By dispatching Jaime Hernandez with a body kick and follow-up punches, Hunter Azure picked up the third finish via body kick in LFA history.
START WITH A BANG: The first pro bout of the event between Jered Gwerder and Anthony Rozema ended with the former scoring a 70-second knockout. Of the 60 event openers on LFA cards, 45 (75 percent) have ended with a finish -- far above the organization’s usual finish rate of about 61 percent.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into LFA 59, Newell had never fought outside of Brazil (nine fights), Ifekandu had never been knocked out (eight fights) and Reyes Cortez Jr. had never been defeated (three fights).
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.