Elite 1 MMA 37: What To Watch For

Elite 1 MMA 37 goes down Saturday, January 18th and kicks off at 6:00 pm EST. The fight night emanates from Casino New Brunswick in Moncton, New Brunswick. The Canadian MMA scene has been holding great events and this promotion has been putting on for the Eastern part of this country in a big way. Elite 1 MMA 37 features a professional welterweight title fight, an amateur heavyweight title bout, and plenty of intriguing contests to bolster the rest of the card.

The Main Event

Christien Savoie vs. Pat Carroll *welterweight title fight*

Savoie enters the cage as the defending champion almost one full year after winning gold. He looks to notch his first successful title defense since winning the belt via first-round doctor stoppage against Alderic Keith. Savoie has fought six of his 7 MMA bouts under the Elite 1 MMA banner and has a spotless record. Carroll was supposed to contend for the Elite 1 MMA championship in September 2019 but an event cancellation postponed things.

Carroll earned the title shot by defeating the aforementioned Alderic Keith and Carroll enters the bout on a four-fight win streak. The lone loss on Carroll’s pro record came in his first bout and he has thrived ever since. Both men have finishing rates over seventy percent so it promises to be an exciting fight on paper. I theorize the judges won’t get involved in this one.

Elite 1 MMA 37

Morgan Rhynes vs. Gabe Sagman

Morgan Rhynes began his run in Elite 1 MMA with a 3-0 record. Rhynes is now looking for his first win on the Elite 1 MMA circuit in close to six and a half years. Since that first-round rear-naked choke of Dylan Mercer, he has gone 1-4 in MMA and 0-2 under the E1MMA banner specifically. Rhynes has a one hundred percent finishing rate and has both striking finishes as well as submission stoppages.

Sagman has competed all throughout the Canadian scene having fought for promotions like KOTC Canada, BTC, and Rise FC. He also has been making waves on the Romanian circuit, going 3-1 in RXF MMA and is ranked the #2 bantamweight in Romania on Tapology. Though he doesn’t have the 100% finishing rate of his opponent, all of Sagman’s finishes have come via some form of choke. On paper, this looks to be a high paced bout between capably violent 135 lb-ers.

Amateur MMA

Nick Coombes vs. Hank Anderson *heavyweight title fight*

This bout pits the top two ranked amateur heavyweights in the Maritimes and two of the top five amateur heavyweights in the country (per Tapology’s rankings). Coombes is the defending champion and is looking to score his first successful defense after halting Joe Pilmer via fourth-round KO. Both are New Brunswick pugilists so the crowd’s partisan support will extend to both men once the cage door closes.

Anderson has a one hundred percent stoppage rate with all of those victories coming by way of punches. All of those wins were also in the first round and the challenger enters the fight riding a two-fight win streak. The three minute round increments in amateur MMA could lend themselves well to creating an action-oriented heavyweight fight here. Both men won’t be able to feel one another out as much and will have to get right to it.