Maycon Mendonca Captures Welterweight Title at LFA 96 in Fight of the Year Contender

No quit in either of these two! #LFA96 pic.twitter.com/8XnWtPmx6L

— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) December 5, 2020

The Legacy Fighting Alliance crowned a new welterweight champion during its final event of 2020. In the end, it was the hand of Maycon Mendonca that was raised after the main event of LFA 96. The title win came after a hard-fought battle with Batsumberel Dagvadorj that delivered plenty of fireworks.

The action started early as Mendonca (11-4) rocked Dagvadorj (7-1) shortly after the fight began and followed-up with huge knees that visibly hurt the Mongolian. Mendonca kept up the pressure, but that wound up backfiring as Dagvadorj landed a big right hand that floored the Brazilian. Mendonca would bounce back in a big way in Round 2 as he bloodied up "The Mongolian Falcon" and end the round with a flying knee. Dagvadorj continued getting tagged in the third frame, yet walked forward like a zombie and managed to snag a few takedowns in between getting rocked. The championship rounds saw Dagvadorj eat countless knees and punches while still firing back. After five rounds, the judges awarded Mendonca the well-deserved championship with scores of 50-45, 49-46, and 49-46 in his favor.

The co-main event saw the undefeated Anthony Romero face off against journeyman Zach Juusola at lightweight. Despite Juusola (11-7) taking the fight on short notice, the veteran made Romero (9-0) work and made the fight much closer than most expected. Even after two rounds, Romero would eke out Round 3 according to two of the three judges taking a split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).

Bantamweight prospect Mo Miller stayed undefeated against Regivaldo Carvalho. Miller (5-0) was able to repeatedly take Carvalho (5-3) down and put on a wrestling clinic. The "Mo Show" eventually hit a huge slam at 2:57 of Round 2 that knocked out Carvalho.

The wrestling of former Ohio State wrestler Mark Martin proved to be too much for Matthew Colquhoun. While Colquhoun (8-5) came on late in Round 3, Martin (5-1) already had two rounds in the bag and took a trio of 29-28 scorecards as a result. Martin has now won four straight fights.

Mitzi Merry missed weight for her flyweight bout and opponent Lisa Mauldin made her pay. Mauldin (4-2) was able to easily control Merry (2-2) over three rounds and landed the better punches on the feet as well. All three judges scored the fight 30-27 in favor of Mauldin.

Viacheslav Borshchev and Will Starks had a back-and-forth battle over three rounds. Borshchev (2-1) was able to control the action on the feet in Round 1, but Starks (4-1) took down "Slava" to win Round 2. It came down to the third frame, which saw Starks land a late takedown and take two out of the three 29-28 scorecards from the judges for a split decision win.

In the opening bout of the night, Joseph Holmes made a statement against Ryan Leininger. "Ugly Man" rocked Leininger (4-2) with punches early on and a huge knee finished the Nebraskan at 1:38 of the first round. The victory brings Holmes' record to 3-1.