(PRESS RELEASE) -- Maximum Fighting Championship heavyweight title-holder Anthony Hamilton retained his belt Friday night with a workmanlike five-round unanimous decision win over Darrill Schoonover at MFC 39: No Remorse.
The victory was Hamilton's sixth in a row and put an end to Schoonover's four-fight run of success.
In the co-main event, Kurt Southern had his shot at the MFC lightweight title slip through his fingers. Southern squared off against Tom Gallicchio, though Gallicchio was ruled ineligible for the belt after failing to make weight. Southern did make the 155-pound limit, leaving him in the hunt for the title, but Gallicchio secured the victory by registering a submission via rear-naked choke at 4:31 of Round 2.
Gallicchio (18-8) scored the win despite taking a good amount of punishment from Southern's punches in Round 1. Southern (13-5) will get a second crack at Gallicchio as an automatic rematch will take place at MFC 40 on May 9.
In the fight of the night, Gilbert Smith made a triumphant debut in the Maximum Fighting Championship as he dominated the opening two rounds and then survived Jason South's late rally to take a unanimous decision in their welterweight clash.
Smith (8-2) used his power to stay on top of South in the first two rounds, inflicting major damage with ground-and-pound. A bloodied South (10-2) nearly pulled things out late as he had Smith in all sorts of trouble with a guillotine choke in Round 3, but Smith held off the attack to take a clean sweep of the judges' cards (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).
Opening up the AXS TV Fights broadcast, submission specialist Andrew McInnes (4-1) notched the fourth tapout of his burgeoning career and picked up the Submission of the Night with a rear-naked choke stoppage of Dan Ring (5-3-1). And in the curtain-raising preliminary bout, Cody Krahn (14-8) notched the Knockout of the Night when he polished off Clay Davidson (8-6) with a slam just 1:04 into their matchup.
Other results:
Marcus Edwards (7-2) def. Sean Powers (8-4) - tapout via rear-naked choke, 4:50 of Round 1
Sean O'Connell (15-4) def. Markhaile Wedderburn (11-11) - tapout via rear-naked choke, 1:48 of Round 1
Jared McComb (6-3-1) def. Paul Grebinski (1-1) - verbal submission due to strikes, 2:37 of Round 1