Don Doyle (left) wins by 1st round TKO
AKA 17 Continues To Highlight The Best Talent In The South
American Kombat Alliance (AKA) continues to produce top-notch regional MMA action with their most recent event, AKA 17. The August 27, 2021, main card portion of the event was aired live on UFC Fight Pass and can be viewed anytime on Fight Pass. The six-fight main card featured several finishes and a nail-biting five-round featherweight championship main event. To cap it off, UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes was also in attendance and guest appeared on commentary.
Facebook Prelims
Prior to our six-fight professional main card that aired on Fight Pass, five fights took place on the AKA Fights Facebook page. The amateur portion of the card was topped with a title matchup between AKA middleweight champion, Chris Williams, defending his title against Tyler Flores. The show kicked off with Isaiah January of The Compound in Shreveport pulling off the unanimous decision victory. Representing Houston, Parker Bruno defeated the home crowd favorite, Elijah Powell, for the night’s second decision victory. In the first light heavyweight bout of the night, Ruston, Louisiana’s Leonard Ventress defeated The Compound’s Brandon Hill. The next bout yielded our first of the night with Tiernan O’Donavan securing a first-round submission. Continuing the night’s early theme of going to the judges, Tyler Flores was able to do enough to defeat Chris Williams to become AKA’s new amateur middleweight champion.
UFC Fight Pass Main Card
SD Dumas vs Lance Thompson
In a battle of two solid middleweight fighters, SD Dumas of Port City Combat Sports and Lance Thompson of Built Right in New Orleans, clashed at a catchweight of 195lbs to start off the UFC Fight Pass showing. Showing his kickboxing pedigree, Dumas started the fight off early launching low kicks to the calf and ankle of Thompson as he checked. A few minutes into the fight, Dumas started to change the elevation of the kicks as the round came to a conclusion. The second round saw more of the same with Dumas continuously launching kicks. The kickboxer stuck to his craft and eventually led to Thompson being unable to continue due to checking the kicks. SD Dumas earned the first-round victory to open up the Fight Pass section of the show.
Paul Kimble vs Michael Manno
As usual, the hometown crowd was in full support of Michael Manno as he took to the cage to battle Law School MMA’s own Paul Kimble. Kimble landed the first memorable strikes of the contest with a solid 1-2 combo. Maintaining the center of the cage, Kimble kept the normally aggressive Manno from being able to really press forward. Staying in the battle, Manno landed a big right hand which was returned by a 1-1-2 combo on Kimble’s end.
The heavy strikes started to fly from both ends, each fighter seeing first hand out dangerous the other can be. Moving to the cage, Kimble began to pressure Manno to the cage, possibly looking for a takedown. After a warning for grabbing the cage, a point was deducted from Manno for another violation of cage-grabbing. The most memorable moment of the round was arguably a big left kick by Kimble to Manno’s jaw looking to cause significant damage.
Round two saw Kimble continue to keep the pressure on. Manno shot for a takedown but gets caught in a momentary guillotine. With the bout on the mat, Kimble took to the top position and rained down elbows and forearm shots one after another. Manno began to cover up with large amounts of blood being split on the canvas. This led to the stoppage in action, give Kimble the TKO victory due to the damage.
Don Doyle vs Drew Lipton
After taking a late change of opponent, Don Doyle entered the cage with a new foe, Drew Lipton. Lipton opted to take the fight to the mat early, which was happily welcomed by the Texas Weslyn University standout Doyle. Once on the mat, Doyle took the dominant position eventually taking Lipton landing some big shots. With a big cut to the head of Lipton, Doyle continued to pour on the shots until Lipton taped out to the strikes, leaving Doyle still undefeated as a professional.
Dominic Wiltz vs Jesse Roberts
Continuing to build off of his Bellator MMA professional debut in his first pro fight, Louisiana native Jesse Roberts entered the cage again for AKA with a new challenger, this time in the form of Dominic Wiltz. Wanting to dictate the pace right out of the gate, Roberts launched some high kicks early, eventually changing the range on the shots. After an initial tie-up, Roberts gets the fight to the mount and takes the top position. Securing a tight body lock, Roberts works in the rear-naked choke quickly and walks away with the first-round submission victory.
Chris Anthony vs Mark Kolker (Co-Main Event)
It was finally time for Port City’s Mark Kolker to battle Ruston, Louisiana’s own MMA veteran, Chris Anthony, in AKA 17’s co-main event. Feeling he would have the edge in the striking game, Anthony started off being very active in the striking game. Anthony was forced to try and slow him down by clinching Anthony to the cage. Securing the slam, Kolker quickly turned the tide on the action. Not satisfied with having the bout back in the stand-up, Kolker gets the bout back to the mat. Once in control on the mat, he started looking for the back. After some hard work on the mat by Kolker with Anthony’s back, Kolker is able to get his forearm under the chin and eventually lock in a rear-naked choke to secure the first-round submission to win the night’s co-main event.
Loren Thibodeaux vs David Bosnick (Vacant Featherweight Title)
You could not have asked for a closer title fight than what we saw in AKA 17’s main event. Loren Thibodeaux, who was slated as the main event since the event’s initial main event announcement, received a late opponent change due to injury. David Bosnick stepped up on late notice to allow this main event to still happen. We could tell from the start that Thibodeaux’s game plan was to get Bosnick to the ground. Bosnick was able to repeatedly hold his own, stuffing every one of Thibodeaux’s shots in. Both fighters were able to start finding their spot in the striking game.
The middle rounds of the contest saw Thibodeaux still trying to get a takedown but it just not being there. Bosnick was displaying quick reflexes, dodging shots and landing some of his own. Thibodeaux eventually started to let go of the takedown game and was landing some nice shots of his own.
Championship Rounds
As we entered the championship rounds (round four) Thibodeaux came out of the gate with a much more aggressive attitude. His striking game was beginning to be on-point, but he also ate a few big shots from Bosnick.
With the first of the four rounds running neck and neck for each fighter, the final round would be crucial in deciding who would walk out with the AKA featherweight championship. A large portion of this round took place in the center of the cag. Neither fighter wanted to give the other the edge in the striking exchanges. Thibodeaux tries again for the single-leg takedown, but can’t score on it. With time running out, Bosnick pressed Thibodeaux and landed several foot stomps, hoping to impress the judges with some sort of striking to end out the contest. The judges saw it differently, but the majority gave it to Bosnick, naming him the winner via split decision and AKA’s new professional featherweight champion.
