Breakdown: Legacy Fighting Champioship LFC 61: Updated

A pair of Championship fights headline Legacy Fighting Championship’s Dallas card at the BombFactory, October 14^th. 14-4 Steven Peterson puts his Bantamweight Title on the line versus undefeated, Mark De La Rosa and former LFC champ, Damon Jackson takes on 4-0 Levi Mowles for the Featherweight strap at LFC 61.

               

McKinney, Texas’s Steven Ocho Peterson is on a six fight win streak (5 in LFC) including two TKO’s and two wins by Submission. Ocho is on a roll, in June he choked Manny Vazquez to sleep in the fourth round (3:08) to become the BW champion at LFC 56. The Superman logo tattooed across Peterson’s chest reflects the confidence the Twenty-six year old displays in the cage. For good reason, his well-rounded game has resulted in finishes in ten of his fourteen wins (6 by Sub). Peterson faces 7-0 Mark De La Rosa in the Main Event.

               

Fighting out of Fort Worth, De La Rosa enters the Legacy FC cage for the first time. The Twenty-two year old competes for the third time in 2016: he won a Unanimous Decision over Arthur Oliveira April 2^nd at Superior Combative Championships and collected his third career submission win in January when he cinched a Rear-Naked-Choke on Kashiff Solarin’s neck at 2:58 of the first round.  

               

Damon The Leech Jackson submitted WEC and UFC veteran, Leonard Garcia at LFC 33 (7/18/14) in a first round (1:32) Arm-Triangle to become the LFC 145lbs champ. Jackson got called, one month later, to face Yancy Medeiros as a late replacement at UFC 177. Getting the call to the big show was bittersweet, Jackson got caught in Medeiros’s second round choke for his first career loss. Jackson got another shot at UFC Fight Night 67 against Brazilian, Rony Jason. A first round Jason sub was later overturned due to Jason testing positive for a banned diuretic. The Leech was granted one more chance (1/30/16) at UFC on Fox 18, but the bout resulted in a draw versus Levan Makashvili. Jackson returns home to Dallas to try to recapture the LFC FW Title and start another run. He faces undefeated, Levi Mowles in a five rounder.

               

Twenty-one year old, Mowles is in his fourth fight with LFC, at LFC 56 (6/24/16) he out-pointed Edwin Figueroa earning the UD victory. Prior to that, in his only non-LFC fight, Mowles scored a TKO ten seconds into the second round at DWTC (1/9/16). The Undefeated, Mowles single submission win, the rare Twister, stopped Jake Norsworthy in the opening frame (3:26) at LFC 46 (10/2/15).

               

In the Women’s Strawweight Division Arlington’s Montana Stewart faces Phoenix fighter, Mackenzie Dern. 5-2 Stewart dropped her first two pro career fights, before rattling off four straight wins by Submission and a UD over Mellony Geugjes (6/3/16) most recently. Weeks earlier (5/21/16) she caught Francis Hernandez in a Rear-Naked-Choke in the third round (1:58) at XFL Xtreme Fight Night 30. She faces a different kind of grappler in BJJ World Champ, Mackenzie Dern.

               

Twenty-three year old Dern competes in her second pro MMA fight, she won a UD at LFC 58 (6/22/16) over Kenia Rosas in her debut. Dern began training BJJ at three years old, her father is famous BJJ Black Belt, Wellington Megaton Dias. Dern, who competes at 115lbs Friday, defeated Gabby Garcia in a semifinal match up at ADCC open weight tournament. (Garcia competes at over 200lbs). With Dern’s pedigree, a future star in the women’s SW division may be on the rise.

                A pair of Texas sluggers battle it out in the Heavyweight Division when 4-1 Jeremy Hardy meets Dallas’s Rashad Coulter. Twenty-nine year old, Hardy is on a two fight win streak and has stopped each of his four wins by first round TKO. Hardy fights for the third time in 2016 Friday: in April Brad Faylor couldn’t answer the bell following the opening round and at LFC 50 he stopped Dale Mitchell in the first 3:20.

                5-1 Rashad DayWalker Coulter has also finished all of his wins by TKO, four in the first round. In his last fight at Bellator 135 he ended Jeremiah O’Neil’s night in the opening 1:44 and he stopped Alex Madrid at 2:52 in Xtreme Knockouts 23 (10/18/14) to start his first round TKO win streak. Don’t blink, someone’s eyes are sure to close in this one.
               
                Update: BW Champ Steven Peterson missed weight and was forced to vacate the title, De La Rosa made weight and can still become the champ with a win, but a Peterson win will result in a vacant BW Title. Also, Mackenzie Dern missed her Strawweight limit of 115lbs by three pounds, opponent Montana Stewart made weight.

LFC 61 airs live on AXS-TV check your listings