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Heading down to the Ozarks for the second time, the Legacy Fighting Alliance on Friday brought a card to Branson, Missouri, that seemed light on name recognition but delivered some serious action. LFA 42 featured a bevy of undefeated fighters running into walls, a fighter who cannot seem to catch a break and a lightning-quick knockout that catapulted itself into the promotion’s record books.
Total number of LFA Fights: 377
Total number of LFA Events: 43
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE: Six fighters started their night undefeated at LFA 42, and only Lucas Clay stayed unbeaten when it was all over. Terry Britton, Mike Breeden, Erick Murray, DiMarcco Hutchison and Ryan Erickson all suffered their first career losses at the event. Clay faced off against Breeden, so only one of them could take home a loss.
A RARE DECISION: With a combined 33 wins between main event fighters Derrick Krantz and Kassius Holdorf, a stunning 31 of those wins had come by stoppage prior to their bout. Krantz had only won twice by decision, and Holdorf had stopped his opponent in every one of his wins.
D-ROCK SHOW: Appearing for the fourth time in the LFA, only five fighters in LFA history have competed more with the company than Krantz: Damon Jackson, Bobby Lee, Brandon Jenkins, Maikel Perez and Nate Jennerman. Krantz has also appeared on the AXS-TV network a whopping 12 times, with an impressive record of 9-3 on the station.
YOUNG GUNS: Krantz, a 10-year, 31-fight veteran entering the event, won his first title with Legacy Fighting Championship in 2015. Out of the first eight fighters to compete on the LFA 42 main card, only Britton had begun competing as a professional at that time.
THE KNEE AND THE DAMAGE DONE: Jaleel Willis stopped Chel Erwin-Davis in 70 seconds with a powerful knee and follow-up punches. It was just the seventh knee-strike knockout in LFA history.
FUS RO DONE: In dropping a decision to Jaimelene Nievera, Katy Collins has started her LFA career off with three straight defeats. Collins became the sixth fighter in company history to lose three fights, the fourth fighter to lose three in a row and the first female fighter to start 0-3 in the LFA.
GIRL POWER: Even after Nievera took Collins to the scorecards, only one-third of the 24 women’s bouts in the LFA have gone the distance. The current finish rate of 66.6 percent is substantially higher than Invicta Fighting Championships finish rate (51 percent) or the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s finish rate (38 percent) in women’s divisions.
BUZZSAWED: Charles Johnson made short work of Andrew Kimzey, stopping him with strikes in 101 seconds and picking up the third-fastest finish in the LFA’s men’s flyweight division.
I LIKE YOU, BUT YOU’RE CRAZY: Francisco Cortez knocked out Ryan Erickson on the untelevised prelims in 16 seconds, scoring the third-fastest finish in LFA history.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Entering LFA 42, Nievera had never competed outside the state of California in 10 professional and amateur appearances, Erwin-Davis had never been stopped in six appearances and no LFA fighter had ever lost three straight bouts by decision (Collins).
Jay Pettry is an attorney and 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 UFC result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on twitter at @jaypettry.