Elijah Johns Crowned Featherweight Champion with Unanimous Decision Win at LFA 176

Elijah Johns is the LFA featherweight champion! #AndNew 🏆 pic.twitter.com/CQCzAV4Vmz

— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) February 10, 2024

Legacy Fighting Alliance now has a new featherweight champion.  

Dallas, Texas, native Elijah Johns fought his way to a dominant unanimous decision victory against Alfred Walker in the LFA 176 main event for the vacant featherweight title on Friday at the Arizona Financial Theatre in Phoenix.  

While the second round was arguably close with Walker (11-7) managing to land a solid head kick-knee combo on his adversary, Johns’ (10-3) relentless takedowns and back control ultimately proved to be too much for “Freight Train” to handle.  

As the fight progressed, an exhausted Walker found himself on the canvas for the majority of the last three rounds, unable to land any offense on Johns. In the end, Johns walked away with the vacant featherweight title thanks to a unanimous decision victory on the scorecards (49-46, 48-47, 48-47).   

In the co-main event, An Tuan Ho (6-0) walked away with a unanimous decision victory against Miguel Sanson (4-2) in their flyweight clash. While both fighters displayed an incredible ability to scramble and compete for control on the canvas, it was Tuan Ho’s impressive defense and incessant submission attacks that gave him the edge.   

Tuan Ho managed to threaten his opponent with fight-ending submissions throughout the fight, including an inverted triangle in the first and a kimura from bottom in the third. In the end, the promising Vietnamese prospect secured a unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) victory on the scorecards. 

In the only middleweight clash on the card, Mansur Abdul-Malik (4-0) recorded a swift knockout win against Allan St-Gelais (1-1) at the 1:40 mark in Round 1. Malik, who was the shorter fighter, was quick to close the distance against St-Gelais and take him down with a body lock. After settling his opponent on the canvas with relative ease, the Maryland native found the perfect opportunity to unleash a barrage of punches from the standing position to secure a vicious knockout victory.   

Meanwhile, in a women's strawweight clash on the main card, Arizona native Leslie Hernandez (3-1) walked away with a Round 1 technical knockout victory against Britanny Camozzi (1-3). Hernandez’s superior striking advantage was clear from the outset, but she also displayed her well-rounded game by threatening her opponent with a heel hook after being taken down. Towards the end of the round, Hernandez’s forward pressure forced Camozzi to shoot for a takedown that would mark the beginning of the end for the Factory X product. Hernandez managed to stuff the takedown attempt with ease and with 30 seconds remaining in the round began to unload a series of vicious strikes on her opponent, forcing the referee to step in at the 4:58 mark of the first round.  

In the first bout on the main card, Robson Junior (5-2) wasted no time against promotional debutant Carlo Ricci (3-4) in their lightweight clash. Junior first dropped his opponent with a right-hand counter while catching a kick to set the tone for the fight. A few moments later, the Brazilian caught Ricci with a slick right check hook counter that sent him crashing to the canvas once again. From there, Junior jumped on his opponent's back and proceeded to flatten him out. Hoping to escape Junior’s submission attempts and ground-and-pound, Ricci soon found himself being mounted by the 22-year-old. Ricci eventually submitted to an arm-triangle choke at the 2:01 mark of Round 1.  

In other action, Paul Marghitas submitted Lucas Hightree with a rear-naked choke 1:14 into the first round their featherweight clash; Chance Ikei stopped Keynan Davis via TKO in Round 1 at the 3:29 mark; Aline David was awarded a split-decision win against Grace DiFrancesco in a women's strawweight tilt; Nicholas Gjelaj also secured split scorecards over Jared Braun in a flyweight contest and Johan Rodriguez earned a unanimous decision win against Jeremiah Humphrey in a welterweight clash that served as the opening bout for the event.