Photos by Jace Lancing Instagram: @trustmeimtheninja
X1#54 Champions 4 delivered a night of Fights to Remember. If you live on Oahu and missed this one, you missed out on one of the best fight nights in a long time. The X1 team put on 14 fights with fighters from Hawaii, Oahu, Kauai, Big Island, Alaska, Oregon, California, and Guam. Hawaii’s top talent was represented as five championship titles were put on the line.
Fight night started with Blake Cooper (Ray Cooper III’s brother) and a last minute opponent
Blake Cooper showed the crowd that he is ready to become a PRO MMA; he defeated Andru Davis-Henry from California early in the first round with
Akeem Coit and Jake Monroe surprise everybody with who won in the end. Coit won last time in X1’s March Madness’s Event. Jake Monroe is a fighter not to be underestimated.
Blake Perry defeats Vaughn Luilama rather quickly after few takedowns and a finishing choke.
One of the highlights of the night – Richard Barnard vs. Jeremiah Young, which lasted three rounds. Barnard did redeem himself on this fight, after having consecutive losses on the past. Young was not prepared for Barnard’s standup and who still won even though his shin was broken and bleeding from the beginning of the battle.
Tyson Nam defeats Donald Gonzalez in the second round. Gonzalez struggled to hide and couldn’t defend himself with Nam’s vicious attack.
Dustin Ching defeats Daylan Cummings in TKO, Ching came out very strong, and the fight was quick. However it ended at the very end of the first round with a referee stoppage at the 4:52 mark, we felt it could have headed to the second round as Daylan appeared to be still defending himself when the ref stepped in.
Ben Wilhelm, last fought in X1 “March Madness” and won, defeated Hugo Lujan from California this time. Wilhelm attacked Lujan like a monster. A very rough one. He also called out to “KOA CORPUZ,” for a shot at the strap. Ben is a hungry up and coming Hawaiian Fighter to watch. Let’s see what KOA says about that challenge.
Ryan
Ryan de la Cruz won by unanimous decision after three rounds; he got some excellent points from capturing Spencer Higa on a choke and solid hits. He is the new 145lb State Title Champion.
Marcus Gamble was not prepared for Al Matavao, Matavao hit him hard on the head on the first round. Early on the second round, he got hit again, and the fight was over. Al Matavo is the new X1 205lb World Title Champion
Adam Fugitt defeats Rene Remigio after three rounds, 1:30 by Submission. This fight was beautiful until the end. Fugitt and Remigio displayed an exceptional level of preparation, Remigio was overpowered by Fugitt in the last round by a rear naked choke. Fugitt captured the crowd (from comments on the Facebook live stream), and he is known as the “White Leg from Oregon.” The white leg was noticeable since he got some powerful kicks that Remigio was not able to get away from, as well as his knee kicks to Remigio’s head. Adam Fugitt is the new 170lb World Title Champion.
Justus Fa’aiu defeats Maika Graf, Fa’aiu was hungry to win his opponent, came out aggressive and defeated Graf on the first round by TKO. Graf had dislocated his shoulder and could not answer the bell. This had the making for a war it too bad it ended by injury. Justus was overweight for the weigh-ins so he did not receive the Championship Title.
Ricky Camp from Guam took the 135lb World Title from Rodney Mondala on the first round.
Tim “WAR” Teves defeats Isaac Shelton by Unanimous decision. He guarded himself well, and he protected the BELT from the start till ROUND 5, which not any good champion can do.
He played it safe in our opinion, the Tim “WAR” Teves we knew from the last fights was not present on that fight.
The fight received a lot of controversies from the Facebook Live Stream on why Teves has won. The crowd believed that Shelton should win the match but what do they know. What we know is, as a Contender, you must take the BELT either TKO or KO, as Ricky Camp did.
Thank-you X1 for putting on this show, and keeping local MMA alive and well in the islands. As we watched the live stream it was nice to see such quality coming out and X1 providing it for free. However, some of the fans in Hawaii are really quite rude. They did nothing but talk trash the whole time. Instead of supporting the promotion and the fighters they were determined to undermine everything and degrade everybody’s experience. It would be nice to see people support X1 and the fighters, and just enjoy the fights. It is sad to see these keyboard warriors hiding behind there screens blasting everybody and everything. X1 could be a force to be reckoned with in the MMA world but they first need the support of the Fans.
Also, we noticed that there was no major media the covered the fight. The news stations, the new paper, everybody was absent. Why local media doesn’t cover local events will forever be a mystery. Maybe its a pay to play system and X1 isn’t paying? Anyways let the haters hate and the corporate news do what they do. We have a great thing here with X1 World Events and encourage every MMA fan in the islands to get on board and support this local MMA movement.