The Maximum Fighting Championship was back in action Friday night in Edmonton, Alberta, at the Shaw Conference Centre with MFC 37: True Grit.
The main event featured a fast and furious, back and forth battle that saw Anthony Birchak use insatiable tenacity to walk away with a well-deserved unanimous decision victory over the very game Ryan Benoit. Throughout the fight Birchak attempted submission after submission only to have Benoit find a way to escape and mount his own submission attack time and again all the way to the final bell. With the victory Birchak becomes the #1 contender for the MFC’s Bantamweight championship.
Luke “Hayabusa” Harris made a triumphant hometown return to the MFC ring, having lost out in a middleweight title eliminator bout against Joseph “Leonidas” Henle. Using his world class Judo to take Jason Zentgraf to the mat quickly in the first few seconds of the opening round, Harris methodically controlled his prey from top position eventually cinching up an impressively vicious fight ending neck crank from side mount just over two minutes into the fight.
Saskatchewan’s Kurt Southern also managed to get back into the win column, after having lost his first bout under the MFC banner against Jonatas Novaes back in February, as he made quick work of Mukai Maromo by submitting him inside the first round. The fight marked the second time that Southern beat Maromo having submitted him back in 2010, and it was the second consecutive defeat for Maromo via North-South Choke with the last one coming from Graham Spencer who also earned his second victory over Maromo in the process. Would anybody like seconds?
“Smiling” Sam Alvey sorta earned a TKO victory in his victory over Jay Silva. Coming into his fight with Alvey, Silva said he’d retire if he lost. But having done so on Friday night, he may want to reconsider his previous statement after his loss came as result of referee Kyle Cardinal jumping in rather quickly to call the bout off after Silva went down from a couple of shots but was seemingly in no way in danger of being finished. If Jay does choose to continue on with his career, he may want to stay away from the grand prognostications in the future.
Here are the complete results from MFC 37: True Grit
Main Card
Anthony Birchak defeats Ryan Benoit by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
Luke Harris defeats Jason Zentgraf by submission (Neck Crank) 2:21 R1
Kurt Southern defeats Mukai Maromo by submission (North South Choke) 2:54 R1
Sam Alvey defeats Jay Silva by TKO (Strikes) R3 1:05
Peter Neufeld defeats Garret Nybakken by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Allen Hope defeats Paul Grandbois by TKO (Strikes) 1:54 R2
Preliminary Card
Jared McComb defeats Marcus Hicks by submission (Rear Naked Choke) 3:09 R1
Thomas Treadwell defeats Mike Treadwell by TKO (Strikes) 2:22 R1
Maged Hammo defeats Allan Munroe by submission (Rear Naked Choke) 2:53 R2
