Arslan Bilalov Wins LFA Heavyweight Title in LFA 224 Main Event

Fighting for the vacant title were Matthew
Adams and Arslan
Bilalov, who sported a flawless 5-0 professional record coming
in. Adams (5-2) gave up a takedown early, which allowed Bilalov to
unload with punches. The Russian stayed in control by getting into
mount position and bloodying “Bad” with elbows. Bilalov
pivoted to a rear-naked choke in order to win the belt and
advance to 6-0 as a pro. The tap came at 4:47 of the first
round.

The co-main event saw welterweights Josiah
Harrell and Bekmyrza
Dosmatov battle for a likely title shot. In a wild fight full
of scrambles and hard punches being thrown, it was the grueling
pace of the undefeated Harrell (11-0) that proved to be too much.
An exhausted Dosmatov (13-3) gave up mount in the final round and
eventually succumbed to punches from “Muscle Hamster” at the 3:28
mark after
his corner waved off the fight.

In the lone main card women’s mixed martial arts bout, Giovanna
Canuto faced fellow strawweight Janaina
Silva. A heavy betting favorite, Canuto (7-1) had to work for
her victory over Silva (5-3), who was the busier fighter on the
feet. However, in the third round, Canuto was able to
lock in a face crank for the tap at 2:38.

In featherweight action, Shaheen
Santana took on the undefeated Taner
Trembley. Surprisingly, it was the grappling of Trembley (6-0)
that wound up impressing as he locked in
a tight guillotine choke on Santana (9-4). While “Shazam” gave
a valiant effort, he eventually tapped at 3:32 of Round 1.

Lightweight prospect Canon
Swanson needed less than a round to put Jimmy
Washington to sleep. After securing a takedown, Swanson (5-1-1)
secured
a tight arm-triangle choke. Washington (2-1) was too tough to
tap out, but a technical submission was called at 2:59 after he
went unconscious.

In the main card opening bout, Abbas
Abasov went up against Andy Waters
in a fight between young featherweights. The striking of Avasov
(5-1) wound up being the difference as he was able to knock out
Waters (4-3) with
a nasty head kick and follow-up punches. The stoppage came at
3:39 of the second round.

LFA 224 Prelim Results:

In preliminary action, Tyree
Overton took a hard-fought unanimous decision over Pedro
Trujillo with three 29-28 scorecards in his favor; Ezayah
Gomez Oropeza used a kimura to submit Braden
Peterson at 1:02 of Round 1; Noah Gasho
overwhelmed David
McKinney with
a flurry of punches to get a TKO win at 2:27 of the second
round; Mitchell
Wilson submitted Sedric
Richard with an arm-triangle choke at 1:20 of Round 1; McCoy
Tekautz needed just 21 seconds to put away Hykeem
Green via KO; Xavier
Judge outworked Alex Martin
to get three 30-26 scorecards in his favor; Cadin
Vowels took an unanimous decision victory over fellow
middleweight Armani
Webster (29-28, 30-27, 30-26); and Daysi Perez
submitted Jessie Hays
with a rear-naked choke at 1:26 of Round 3.