Resurrection Fighting Alliance will adorn the pleasure of presenting South Dakota with the state’s first sanctioned mixed martial arts event August 22, 2014. The historic event will conclude with Mark ‘Tricky’ Dickman vs Justin ‘The American Kid’ Lawrence for the vacant RFA Featherweight Championship and Dakota Cochrane vs Christos ‘The Spartan’ Giagos for the inaugural RFA Lightweight Championship in co-main and main events respectively.
Cochrane (17-5) will make his seventh appearance in an RFA cage while riding a two-fight win streak, both over UFC veterans. His latest victory came to fruition in just 48 seconds over Anton Kuivanen by way of a fabulous flying knee, and the one prior was a unanimous decision over Efrain Escudero in Lincoln, Nebraska. He has also recorded key victories over Joe Stevenson and Jamie Varner.
Giagos (9-2) is an RFA newcomer bringing with him a three-fight winning streak, all of which were stoppages. His latest victory was one in which he took on short notice and resulted with a first round triangle-choke-submission of Bellator veteran Sevak Magakian. He notably owns a victory over one-time UFC competitor Chris Tickle.
Cochrane is as high flying of a mixed martial artist as you will ever see, sans Anthony Pettis, throws spinning and flying techniques in high frequency, and utilizes a near-dancing amount of footwork. Giagos’ approach is oriented toward boxing with a wrestling influence – he throws very few kicks, and moves straight forward looking to score with powerful punches or takedowns.
The tendencies of these two fighters indicate judges likely won’t be needed.
Dickman (9-1) will be making his fifth RFA appearance on the wings of a four-fight win streak. He has only journeyed into the third round twice in his professional MMA career. Both fights went to the judges, but all other fights on his resume were stoppage victories. As an NAIA national champion wrestler for Lindenwood University in Saint Charles, Missouri it comes as little surprise that he spends a lot of time pursuing takedowns. If he is successful with a takedown he looks to showcase his quality jiu-jitsu.
Lawrence (5-2) is 1-2 in his last three fights and hasn’t fought in almost a year when he scored a unanimous decision over Luis Saldana at RFA 10. He is touted as a KO artist by RFA, but he only has one official KO/TKO victory as a professional mixed martial artist. That victory however was a highlight reel knockout on the biggest stage over John Cofer for the UFC. It’s worth noting that he beat current UFC lightweight James Krause by TKO in an Ultimate Fighter bout in which the results are not officially reported. He is a former amateur boxer and kickboxer that has been training combat sports for seven years.
This bout is as close as it gets to the classic striker versus grappler matchup in modern MMA.
Look for the winner of each fight to immediately vacate their title to enter the UFC, as that is the norm for RFA champions.
