Fight Facts: LFA in July

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all 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 EVENTS: 88
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA FIGHTS: 743
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA FIGHTS IN JULY 2020: 24
TOTAL NUMBER OF LFA FINISHES IN JULY 2020: 16

The Legacy Fighting Alliance returned from a COVID-mandated hiatus to put on four exciting shows during the month of July. LFA 84, LFA 85, LFA 86 and LFA 87 featured four new champions that will likely be whisked away to larger promotions, the first and second anaconda chokes in organizational history and one of the fastest submissions seen in an LFA title fight.

THE OCTAGON INSIDE THE PENTAGON: Prior to this four-event stretch at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the LFA had never before put on consecutive events in the same city.

YOU HAVE FIGHT PASS, USE IT: Despite a broadcasting agreement with UFC Fight Pass, the LFA held two untelevised bouts on the preliminary portions of LFA 86 and LFA 87. Both Calvin Harbaugh and Ryan Charlebois won on those dark matches in the first round.

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LFA 84

THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE AND COVID: With only four fights taking place thanks to the coronavirus wreaking havoc on the promotion’s plans, LFA 84 held the fewest bouts in company history. Prior to this show, no LFA card had less than six take place on fight night.

GOLD AT ALL COSTS: By finishing Jake Childers with a body kick and punches in the fourth round, Justin Gonzales picked up the third finish in Round 4 in company history. His stoppage at the 45-second mark was at the time the fifth-latest in the LFA cage.

ALL ABOARD THE J-TRAIN: Gonzales lifted his spotless record to 11-0 by finishing Childers in their LFA 84 headliner. Although “J-Train” sports a finish rate below 50 percent, four of his last six wins have come by knockout.

THINK OF THE CHILDERSEN: Childers suffered the first loss in his career when Gonzales finished him for the vacant lightweight throne. Prior to the loss, Childers had won all eight of his bouts, finishing six opponents before the final bell.

MENDONSUB: Hitting a triangle choke to tap out Kassius Kayne, Maycon Mendonca picked up his first career submission in victory.

RED CARD: Shawn West earned himself the ninth disqualification loss in LFA history, and arguably the most flagrant, when he sprinted towards a downed Boston Salmon and kneed him in the head. Six of the nine DQ results in company history have come by illegal knee strikes.

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LFA 85

ROSTER DISTANCING: With a scant six fights going down at LFA 85, this event holds the second-fewest of any LFA card. LFA 6 also saw that number of bouts, while LFA 84 had just four.

CLEAR AS CRYSTAL: Not to be outdone by Gonzales, Crystal Vanessa Demopoulos recorded a submission win over Sam Hughes to win the inaugural strawweight crown in the fourth frame. Her stoppage was the fourth to come in that fourth round, and by clocking in at the 2:21 mark, it was the fourth-latest in any LFA bout.

THAT GAVE JORGE FLASHBACKS: Demopoulos hit the first inverted triangle choke in company history when she put Hughes to sleep with one. In comparison, no fighter in Zuffa history has ever pulled off this kind of submission, while it has happened six times in the Bellator MMA cage – perhaps none are more famous than Toby Imada rendering Jorge Masvidal unconscious at Bellator 5 in 2009.

BROTATO CHIPS: Both Kevin Natividad and Christian Natividad competed at this card, marking the first time the brothers had ever fought on the same night as professionals. Both Natividads won by knockout.

CHECK PLEASE: Jordan Leavitt lifted his undefeated record to 6-0 by submitting Leivon Lewis. “The Monkey King” has tapped four of six opponents, and with his win, he earned a spot on Dana White's Contender Series.

HE SHALL BE LEIVON: Leavitt tapped Lewis with an anaconda choke, scoring the first in company history.

TACHI NEVER DIES: Mitchell Sipe scorched Darion Abbey with a knee and punches, and in the process, the heavyweight earned his fourth knockout across five wins.

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LFA 86

FIVE FOUGHT ANOTHER DAY: Five different fighters tapped out during the course of the night, tying the record with multiple other LFA cards for the third-most at a single event. Only LFA 13 and LFA 21 featured more submissions, with both seeing six submissions throughout their respective nights.

LIKE A FRED ASTAIRE MOVIE: Each of those submissions went down in the first round, and the lone event with more first-round subs than LFA 86 is LFA 21. All six tapouts at LFA 21 also came in the opening frame.

YOU WILL SUBMIT: Four straight fights from Mando Gutierrez-Jeff Jepsen to the main event ended by first-round submission. Three other events (LFA 21, LFA 28 and LFA 33) have featured four back-to-back tapouts, but none of those concluded the night in this fashion.

GONE FISCHIN’: Jimmy Flick needed 38 seconds to submit Greg Fischer with an arm-triangle choke. Notching the seventh-fastest submission in company history tied with Damon Jackson’s arm-triangle of Chris Pecero, Flick’s tapout of Fischer is the second-quickest in an LFA title fight. The only one that came faster was former flyweight king Brandon Royval, who put Nate Williams away with a 23-second armbar.

SACRIFICING POWER FOR SPEED: Each of the eight speediest submissions in company history have come in weight classes at lightweight or lower.

FLICK AS A BRICK: The submission for “The Brick” was his 12th across his 14 wins. Flick now posts a submission rate of 86 percent in victory, with each of his last 11 wins coming by tapout. Flick has never won a fight with strikes, and never lost a fight via submission.

KINGS FOR A DAY: Arthur Estrazulas dispatched Dominick Clark in the opening round with a rear-naked choke, and in doing so, the Brazilian advanced his finish rate to 83 percent. The Kings MMA product has stopped his opponent in his last seven triumphs.

NOT THE ITALIAN MODEL: Like Leavitt, Fabio Cherant also pulled off an anaconda choke. In doing so, he recorded the second ever seen inside the LFA cage.

ADDING PIECES OF BESKAR: Improving his young record to 4-0 by landing a rear-naked choke on Jepsen, Gutierrez has submitted all four of his opponents within two rounds.

OR DID HE?: On the lone unaired prelim, Harbaugh hit the fifth heel hook in promotional history by submitting Nate Morrow. Needing only 2:33 to pull it off, it is the fastest by any LFA fighter.

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LFA 87

SHOULD I CALL YOU LOGAN, WEAPON X?: Of the four LFA title fights this month, only Bryce Logan needed five full rounds to take home the belt. Logan captured a unanimous verdict over Jacob Rosales, and two-thirds of Logan’s wins have come on the scorecards now.

NEW MANSA, SAME AS THE OLD MANSA: Exacting revenge on the first man to beat him, Joaquin Buckley knocked out Jackie Gosh in the second round. Seventy percent of Buckley’s career wins have now come by knockout, while “New Mansa” has never won or lost a fight by submission.

INSTANT HAWAIIAN PUNCH, JUST ADD JUDGES: Bellator vet Kai Kamaka III made his successful promotional debut by taking a spirited decision over Michael Stack. All but one of Kamaka’s wins throughout his career have come at the hands of the judges, and his last six bouts have gone 15 full minutes.

INEXPERIENCE OR SOMETHING TO PROVE: Three of the four card opening fights ended by stoppage, including Charlebois’ first-round knockout of Andrew Lipp that was not televised. Throughout company history, 72.7 percent of all LFA card openers have ended by stoppage, which is far above the average finish rate in the promotion of 60.7 percent.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into these four events, six fighters had never been defeated, Fischer had never been finished (11 fights), four fighters had never been knocked out, two others had never been submitted and Zac Cavender had never lost on the scorecards (four fights).