Fight Facts: LFA 70

Jay PettryJun 29, 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: 609
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA EVENTS: 71

The Legacy Fighting Alliance on Friday planted its flag in Wisconsin for the first time with a card that brought with it the second semifinal of the promotion’s inaugural tournament. LFA 70 featured two of the fastest knockouts in the organization’s history, a speedy triangle choke and an unusually unfortunate end to the main event.

AND THEY’RE OFF!: Of the 68 opening fights at LFA events, 53 have ended before the final bell, excluding three disqualifications. This finish rate of just under 78 percent is substantially higher than the promotion’s average finish rate of about 61 percent.

DHALSIM VS. E. HONDA: Pierre Walters and Renan Ferreira came into their fights with reach advantages of at least eight inches. Both lost.

SOMETIMES THESE THINGS DO HAPPEN IN MMA: The disqualification in the main event was the first headlining bout in company history to end that way. In comparison, no Ultimate Fighting Championship, Pride Fighting Championships or Strikeforce headlining bouts ended by disqualification. WEC 20 in 2006 ended by disqualification when Mike Kyle landed strikes after the bell on Brian Olsen, giving Olsen the World Extreme Cagefighting heavyweight crown. In Bellator MMA, Eric Prindle landed an axe kick to Thiago Santos’ groin at Bellator 75 in 2012 to earn a disqualification in a heavyweight tournament pairing.

DON’T FLIP OUT: Despite the LFA 70 headliner coming in as the sixth disqualification under the Legacy Fighting Alliance banner, it was not the first at heavyweight. That came at LFA 36 in 2018, when Andrew Chatman knocked out Irvins Ayala and then did a back flip off of Ayala’s body; he was then disqualified for “unsportsmanlike conduct.”

WHERE EVERYTHING’S MADE UP BUT THE POINTS DO MATTER: Prior to the fight’s ending, Ferreira was deducted two points for his first series of strikes to the back of Brett Martin’s head. This was not the first occasion in the LFA where a fighter lost two points at once for fouls. Ken Beverly lost two points after landing repeated strikes to the back of Nate Jennerman’s head at LFA 61 earlier this year.

SIX OF ONE, HALF A DOZEN …: Following Mark Lemminger’s second-round guillotine choke of Isaac Steele, the LFA cage has seen 30 guillotines performed inside of it. Exactly 15 have taken place in the first round, with the remaining 15 coming in Round 2 and Round 3.

I GUESS THAT’S WHY THEY CALL ME: Jake Childers blasted James Krause-Simmons with a knee and picked up a 13-second stoppage win, tying Austin Lingo for the fourth-fastest knockout in LFA history.

THEY CALL ME THE WORKING MAN: Childers’ knockout in 13 seconds was the fastest from a knee inside the LFA cage.

I GUESS THAT'S WHAT I AM: “The Working Man” advanced his record to 7-0 with his quick knockout of Krause-Simmons, having finished his opponent in five of those seven wins. The knockout was the first in his career.

A MATCH MADE IN … SOMEWHERE: Childers was originally slated to face Askar Askar, and Krause-Simmons was to fight Taylor Moore at this event, with both bouts taking place at bantamweight. As both Askar and Moore fell out of their fights, the two remaining combatants were matched one division higher to keep the fight intact.

WHY IS THE OBTUSE TRIANGLE ALWAYS UPSET? (BECAUSE IT’S NEVER RIGHT): By coaxing a tapout from Gonzalo Ponce at 2:43 of the first round, Lloyd McKinney scored the fastest triangle choke submission victory in promotional history.

POLIZZI MAKING IT LOOK EASY: In putting away Walters with elbows and punches in 3:27 of the opening stanza, Alex Polizzi remained unbeaten at 4-0. All four of his wins have come by stoppage within two rounds.

AND YET STILL YOU DIDN'T SHOW IT: On the untelevised prelims, Collin Anglin made a triumphant MMA debut by flattening Morgan Sickinger with punches in 14 seconds. With the win, he earned the sixth-fastest knockout in company history.

ONLY FOR THE HOME CROWD: Anglin’s 14-second knockout as the professional prelim opener marked the fastest recorded finish for a card opener in LFA history.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into LFA 70, the organization had never traveled to Wisconsin, Ferreira had never competed outside of Brazil (six fights) and Dante Schiro had never gone the distance (four fights).

Sherdog contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012 and working 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.