By TXMMA Staff
Paradigm’s Leroy Vasquez retains 155 title in main event; Danny Bennett hands AJ Hoffman first MMA loss and more from Cage Combat 19
HUMBLE, TX – Houston MMA fans saw another amateur fight night come and go last Friday, March 13th with Cage Combat 19 taking place at the Humble Civic Center. This Garcia Promotions event included 14 bouts, with a lightweight title matchup featuring Leroy Varquez (Paradigm) defending against Gustavo Gomez (GB Champions) in the main event. Aside from that bout, CC19 featured a whole host of up-and-coming amateurs looking to make their names known in the local scene.
Impressively, out of all 14 fights, only two bouts made it to the judges’ scorecards. And the ones that didn’t end in a finish weren’t any less exciting.
This included the main event with incumbent champion Leroy Vasquez defending against Gustavo Gomez. Both of these guys were reputed to favor striking and going for the knockout versus any type of submission game and they delivered on those reputations for five straight rounds, for the most part. Both Gomez and Vasquez had their moments throughout the fight in the striking exchanges. A little veteran savvy however proved to be the different with Leroy retaining his belt and moving up to 5-1 overall as an amateur.
Meanwhile in the co-main event of the evening, ESPN Radio host AJ Hoffman would fall for the first time as an amateur fighter to late replacement out of Elite MMA, Danny Bennett. Prior to the bout Hoffman had already fought twice so the crowd may have had an idea of what to expect from the well-rounded moonlighter. Meanwhile Bennett was more of an unknown but did end his first amateur fight viciously in under two minutes. He would do it again this time around, ending AJ’s night via TKO just a minute into the fight. Now it remains to be seen what is next for these two but Hoffman had hinted previously that this was his last amateur fight so fans will have to wait and see if the radio host / Houston MMA personality will test himself at the pro level. Meanwhile the sky’s the limit for Bennett and he too should be one to watch as a legit prospect moving on through the rest of 2015.
As for the rest of the card, with 12 finishes out of 14 fights it’s kind of hard to pick just a few select highlights. A lot of these fighters did well.
Kendrick Holloway scored the only true KO finish of the night according to TDLR, scoring a one punch knockout of Edward Gonzales deep into the third and final round of their fight.
Morgan Oriahi showed promise to score his second finish in two amateur fights, as he finished Michael Rodriguez using a wide arsenal of strikes.
Reshal Malik came back from his last KO loss at Cage Combat 18 to win by submission over Mykel Lawson.
The list goes on and on. Check out the complete results below and stay tuned to TXMMA.com for more on Houston MMA in the near future.
Cage Combat 19 – Quick Results from March 13, 2015
- Jonathan Bacon def. Chris Dobbins by TKO, RD2
- Alex Tirado def. Jeff Hoppas by Submission (Guillotine Choke), RD1
- Robert Perez def. Tony Biernesser by Submission (RNC), RD2
- Reshal Malik def. Mykel Lawson by Submission (Triangle Choke), RD2
- Mitch Stockdale def. Nick Lengyl by Submission (RNC), RD1
- Shakeem Richardson def. Garvens Brun by TKO, RD2
- Sam Harris def. Sha Whittington by TKO, RD1
- Jonathan Walker def. Dequette Reed by Submission (Armbar), RD2
- Morgan Oriahi def. Michael Rodriguez by TKO, RD2
- Kendrick Holloway def. Edward Gonzales by KO, RD3
- Josh Wilson def. Antonio Townsley by Unanimous Decision
- Craig Grove def. Alonso Sanchez by TKO, RD2
- Danny Bennett def. AJ Hoffman by TKO, RD1
- Leroy Vasquez def. Gustavo Gomez by Unanimous Decision * 155 TITLE