Cyrus “Black Dynamite” Washington secures Freedom gold
Video interview with Cyrus Washington above
On Friday, July 6, Yonkers, New York was served quite a treat from the fastest rising Muay Thai in the United States. Freedom Fighter Promotions presented their biggest show to date, Freedom 6 with a plethora of titles to divvy out throughout the evening.
An 8-man, one-night tournament for the 135-pound world title went down with the final combatant Dillan Joucoo taking home the gold after 3 impressive outings.
In the professional rankings, Luis Morales took out Kaleb Hunter for the vacant national Freedom welterweight title.
In the most anticipated bout of the evening, Cyrus Washington took Joni Mate on for the Freedom world Light Heavyweight title. Washington, having well over 100 professional fights to his name didn’t take long to dismantle Mate. Targeting his opponent’s mid-section early, Washington’s body punches mixed in with his kicks showed that they were slowing his foe down throughout the round quicker than Washington anticipated. “I didn’t really let myself get set in stone as far as what I would expect him to do,” Washington says.
“He seemed to shy away from knees,” Washington expresses. Thinking to himself, “maybe he hasn’t done a lot of body conditioning,” he continued pondering. Once his trainer pointed out that Mate’s midsection looked a bit soft, it made a clear target for the combat sports veteran, Washington to go to work on.
A few beautifully set up combinations later, Mate was down for the count and a new light heavyweight champ was crowned.
With over 100+ fights to his resume and at the age of 40, Washington doesn’t intend on taking an extended before he gets back in the ring to defend his newly acquired title. Disclosing he and Freedom CEO and promoter, Rami Ibrahim shared a conversation in the ring where Ibrahim told Washington he wants to keep him “busy.”
Tune in above as Cyrus “Black Dynamite” Washington discusses his recent championship win with MyMMANews. He discusses proudly wearing his new piece of hardware on his flight home. We discuss Joni Mate as an opponent, as well as discuss what the Freedom Light Heavyweight title means to the combat sports sensation.
