By TXMMA Staff // Tom Roush
Esquivel Takes Straw Weight Belt In Decisive Victory
The last time Itzel Esquivel and Karla Hernandez met in the octagon, Hernandez pulled out a victory by decision. Their rematch on Dec 17 was the headliner at the 27th edition of Garcia Promotions’ Cage Combat series and it required no input from the judges; Esquivel landed a perfect head kick moments in to the first round.
Before the head kick, both ladies sparred aggressively and Hernandez covered and counterpunched well. Esquivel had both the height and reach advantage which she clearly planned to use. When Esquivel launched off her back leg, Hernandez did not cover and consequently took the undefended shot right below her left ear, which dropped her. The referee stepped in, handing Esquivel the victory.
Proceeding Esquivel’s win were three other title fights that ended with divisive victories.
The human wrecking ball known as Juan Adams made short work of James Hatcher to take the heavy weight belt. At 6’5’’, Adams is a very big heavy weight who moves well and continues to improve with each fight. After a short bout of trades with Hatcher, he executed a takedown, took Hatcher’s back and then started dropping the fist bombs.
The ref stopped the fight moments later, giving Adams the TKO victory.
Reshal Malik and Jose Solis tried several techniques on each other in the first round of their title fight including a big overhand by Solis, a great takedown by Malik, and a quick series of hammer fists by Solis.
In the second round, Malik turned on the wrestling and tangled Solis up in a series of holds. After a protracted grappling match, Malik secured a leg triangle up high, essentially making it a choke and Solis tapped, giving Malik the bantam weight belt.
In the featherweight division, Alonso Sanchez retained his belt with a decisive win over Yan Digilov. Both fighters landed some heavy hands until Sanchez was able to tie Digilov up and sink in the guillotine choke.
Other notable fights on the evening included a decisive win by newcomer Emilee Hoffman over the Cage Combat veteran Amber Schoech. Hoffman showed strong grappling skills and took Schoech to the mat and sunk in the rear naked choke, winning in the first round.
Bruce Whitehead executed a similar plan in his contest with Hunter-Scott Gregg. An early take down led to the rear naked moments later, ending the fight in the first round.
Freddy Leal Jr. won in the exact same manner over Alex Triana, sinking the rear naked in the first round after a short series of trades.
COMPLETE RESULTS:
- Itzel Esquivel v Karla Hernandez: Esquivel by TKO
- Juan Adams v James Hatcher: Adams by TKO
- Alonso Sanchez v Yan Digilov: Sanchez by guillotine choke
- Reshal Malik v Jose Solis: Malik by triangle choke
- Yadier Del Valle v Alejandro Patino: Del Valle by rear naked choke
- Skylar McMellian v Chantz Gibson: McMellian by decision
- Jayden Rodriguez v Steven Vera: Rodriguez by decision
- David Olvera v Chris Tovar: Olvera by decision
- Emilee Hoffman v Amber Schoech: Hoffman by rear naked choke
- Johnny Thomas v Juan Zamudio: Thomas by TKO
- Derrick Fields v Norge Gonzales: Fields by rear naked choke
- Bruce Whitehead v Hunter Scott Greg: Whitehead by rear naked choke
- Freddy Leal Jr. v Alex Triana: Leal by rear naked choke
- Hussein Nazal v Caleb Burris: Nazal by TKO
- Hector Molina v Jeremy Little: Molina by rear naked choke
