HOUSTON, TX, December 26, 2011 – It was the most event-filled year ever for the Legacy Fighting Championship. From exciting fights to landmark moments and it’s national television debut on HDNet, 2011 sure was fun for everybody involved with Houston’s premier promotion and Texas’ foremost standard-bearer when it comes to MMA quality and consistency.
Without further adieu, let’s spare the preface and take a look at what the Legacy Fighting Championship in 2011 through this TXMMA year-end recap.
By the Numbers – Legacy Fighting Championship in 2011
5 – Total Number of Events Held (Legacy Fighting Championship 5-9)
50 – Total Number of Professional Fights
6 – Number of Title Fights
16 – Number of KO/TKO Finishes
13 – Number of Submissions
21 – Number of Decisions
58% – Percentage of Fights Ending Before the Judges’ Scorecards
0:25 – Quickest Knockout (Spratt over Flores at Legacy Fighting Championship 7)
0:41 – Fastest Submission (Morono over Garcia at Legacy Fighting Championship 5)
0:45 – 2nd Fastest Submission (Mackles over Robichaux at Legacy Fighting Championship 7)
A Year on the Move and a Bright Future Ahead
Entering this past year, Legacy was four events deep since their inception. They more than doubled that in 2011 with five events on the year. On top of that, Mick Maynard and Legacy FC also entered into a partnership to be a part of the HDNet Fights family.
“It all starts with a great promoter who does what they say they are going to do,” HDNet Fights CEO Andrew Simon remarked a Legacy Magazine interview this past July. “Mick was aggressive for years letting us know what he was doing. It gave us time to send out the Inside MMA cameras to get a feel for what the production looked like and whether Legacy Fighting Championship was ready to be seen by a national audience. I hear from countless promotions every week about how great they are – Legacy Fighting Championship has an opportunity July 22 to show all those other promotions why they have been chosen for this opportunity.”
And show them they did.
Since that point, Legacy has now had 3 shows (Legacy FC 7, 8, and 9) televised on HDNet’s Friday Night Fights in 2011 and are gearing up for their most ambitious offering yet on February 24, 2012.
2011 Highlights – Knockouts
It was the delayed reaction seen around the nation on July 22, 2011 when Pete Spratt hit Antonio Flores with a perfectly-timed looping overhand left that found his temple and saw him grasping for air. Ending in a mere 0:25 of the first round, this shot was good enough to be Legacy FC’s fastest knockout of the year and also a contender for the 2011 TXMMA KO of the Year award.
The promotion saw many more devastating finishes worthy of mention in 2011.
One came just one event prior to Legacy’s HDNet debut when Daniel Pineda put a stamp on his reputation with an overpowering KO victory over former 155 champion Ray Blodget. Fresh off wins against two other former champs in Levi Forrest and Rey Trujillo, “The Pit” would score his most dominant performance yet against Ray, running right through him and leaping up in the air in jubilation afterwards.
A trio of notable performances at Legacy FC 8 are also worthy of mention with Larry Crowe, Cody Williams, and Lee King all scoring impressive KO finishes over their opponents.
Capping off KO performances for the year was Daniel Pineda once again just a few weeks ago at Legacy FC 9. He put an exclamation point on the best year of his career with a spinning backfist KO of Gilbert “Pitbull” Jimenez. That performance plus a win over Frank Gomez in addition to his aforementioned wins over Forrest and Blodget make a strong case for Pineda to win 2011 TXMMA Fighter of the Year honors.
2011 Highlights – Submissions
Legacy FC had its share of submission finishes in 2011. Ironically enough, it was once again Daniel Pineda who started the year off with a bang at Legacy FC 5 with his first-round finish tap of Levi Forrest in their champion vs. champion bout. The 145 champion at the time, “The Pit” went up in weight to fight the former 170 champion at 155 and pulled off the heel hook to end things in exciting fashion. Also scoring submission finishes on the Legacy FC 5 card were a pair of young fighters in Alex Morono and Justin Reiswerg. That one by Justin was particularly notable as it was his first fight back after an almost 2-year absence from the sport. Taking on Rey Trujillo, he was seen as the definitive underdog in that fight but played it cool all the way through the third-round arm bar finish.
Moving on the July on HDNet, submissions would be the choice finish of the evening at Legacy FC 7 with half the card ending by way of tapout. This card actually produced a 2011 Upset of the Year candidate as the largely unheralded Jonathan Mackles came into Chad Robichaux’s hometown to pull off the surprising guillotine choke finish over the BJJ black belt. Also on the card, both the main and co-main event ended in submission with Pineda beating Frank Gomez by RNC and Carlo Prater marking his Houston return with a kimura over UFC-vet Cameron Dollar. Jared Chaffee and Larry Crowe would finish off the evening with submission finishes over Alex Black and Jermaine Anugwom respectively.
Moving on to Legacy FC 8, Dallas resident Steven Peterson made a statement in his Legacy debut with a guillotine finish over Steve Garcia while Jeff Rexroad continued his ascent up the 170 ladder with a choke of his own against John Malbrough. Capping off the year in submissions for Legacy FC were a trio of subs on December 16th with Noel Ligon, Jesus Rivera, and Jeff Rexroad all getting due credit for their efforts.
2011 Highlights – Memorable Fights
Where do we begin? The whole year was full of intriguing matchups and exciting storylines – all of which paid off in the cage. Much credit has to be given to Legacy matchmaker Collin Cantrell for the year he’s had in putting these cards together. Below is a listing of some our personal favorites from each event of 2011. Feel free to comment some of your own if you feel there were any great ones we missed.
► Legacy Fighting Championship 5 – Daniel Pineda vs. Levi Forrest, Angel Huerta vs. Andy Sandoval, Jeff Rexroad vs. Ricardo Talavera (FOTY Candidate), Brian Melancon vs. Derrick Krantz
► Legacy Fighting Championship 6 – Tim Snyder vs. Alex Black, Jeff Rexroad vs. Alex Morono, Andrew Craig vs. Bubba Bush
► Legacy Fighting Championship 7 – Justin Reiswerg vs. Marc Ramirez, Jesus Rivera vs. Rey Trujillo, Daniel Pineda vs. Frank Gomez, Carlo Prater vs. Cameron Dollar
► Legacy Fighting Championship 8 – Andrew Craig vs. Eric Schambari, Bubba Bush vs. Josh Foster, Alex Morono vs. Evert Gutierrez
► Legacy Fighting Championship 9 – Jorge Patino vs. Mike Bronzoulis, Jeff Rexroad vs. Larry Crowe, Jonathan Harris vs. Ricardo Talavera, Jeremy Mahon vs. David Armas
A Very Memorable Moment
Walking out in full Muay Thai regalia and stomping the cage for his love of fighting, 4 OZ Fight Club trainer Bob Perez seemed keenly focused, as a fighter would be, in facing his biggest-ever cage opponent – marriage. Across from “The General,” bride-to-be Jennifer Josey looked beautiful in her wedding dress as she stepped through the Legacy cage threshold. The moment they locked eyes, one could tell there was nowhere else they’d rather be. Although there may have been a thousand onlookers watching on, for a split moment in time it seemed like it was only those two in the arena as they exchanged vows on April 9, 2011 in what would officially become Houston’s first MMA wedding.
2011 in Pictures – Legacy Fighting Championship
Below are just a few photos from Legacy Fighting Championship in 2011. For the full selection of photos from our “2011 in Review” of Legacy FC, visit this album on our Facebook page.
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