Titan FC 53 : Bad Blood results – Puerta vs. Balart 2
Titan Fighting Championship held Titan FC 53 tonight from Xtreme Action Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The March 15 event was to be headlined by a flyweight title bout between defending champion Juan Puerta and challenger, Gustavo Balart.
The two men met previously at Titan FC 48, little more than a year ago, where Puerta knocked Balart out with a flying knee. The Cuban-born Balart has since gone on to win two straight to include victories over Wascar Cruz and Victor Dias.
Just before the main event was set to take place, Titan FC COO Lex McMahon entered the cage to say the Florida Athletic Commission disqualified the champion from competing. We are awaiting further word on what happened.
The co-main event was for the Titan FC interim welterweight title as Michael Graves welcomed organizational newcomer “Nite Train” Jared Gooden. Gooden missed weight yesterday and the title is now off the line for him, only Graves can win the belt. The contest went the full 25-minutes with the vast majority of the fight being in the favor of Graves who controlled the pace and cut Gooden above the eye. He goes on to win the interim title and will likely face Jason Jackson next.
A pair of UFC veterans headed up the promotion’s first combat grappling event as Gleison Tibau and Gilbert Burns tested their jiu jitsu skillset against one another. The first few minutes of the contest were slow as the two highly experienced grapplers felt each other out with short slaps. About halfway through the scheduled eight-minute round, Burns takes Tibau down and works his way to a submission. Great contest.
Great stuff from @GilbertDurinho to get the win in this combat grappling match! #TitanFC53 pic.twitter.com/x8RJC1prXy
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) March 16, 2019
Giannis Symeonidis defeated Jason Santana by way of unanimous decision to kick off the first fight on UFC Fight Pass following an early preliminary bout that went unaired.
WOW…. Giannis Bachar looked fantastic as he put in some work against Gregg Ellis to defeat him by way of technical knockout. Ellis drops his second fight in a row while competing for Titan FC, but COO Lex McMahon immediately tells Ellis that he will be back.
Crazy good fight here at #TitanFC53! Head over to FIGHT PASS Now! We got 5 more bouts to go! pic.twitter.com/DkmvyPdsRF
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) March 16, 2019
Mohammed Usman, brother to UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, made his Titan FC debut tonight in Fort Lauderdale, meeting fellow big man, Frank Tate. Tate comes to the cage with no cornermen and seems to be struggling with his cardio throughout the contest. Tate was able to tag Usman and test his chin, but he was able to keep his composure and stay in the fight. Usman able to show some ground and pound in the first round, but nothing worth ending the fight over. The contest was a good learning lesson for Usman who is relatively new to the sport but despite getting the win he will definitely need to go back to the drawing board and figure out what he did right and what he did wrong.
Ground and pound #TitanFC53 pic.twitter.com/tFweCwg6Is
— Titan FC (@TitanFighting) March 16, 2019
Irwin Rivera and Lazar Stojadinovic had a short-lived but highly entertaining fight. The two bantamweights decided to stand and exchange leather and it was Rivera that rocked Stojadinovic several times, nearly knocking him out on his feet before the fight was called to an end by the referee.
Complete Titan FC 53 results below:
Juan Puerta vs. Gustavo Balart – for Titan FC flyweight title – Fight did not take place
Michael Graves defeated Jared Gooden via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) – for Titan FC interim welterweight title
Gilbert Burns defeated Gleison Tibau via submission (rear-naked choke) 5:36 – Combat Grappling match
Irwin Rivera defeated Lazar Stojadinovic via TKO – Round 1, 1:40
Mohammed Usman defeated Frank Tate via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Giannis Bachar defeated Gregg Ellis via TKO – Round 1, 3:52
Giannis Symeonidis defeated Jason Santana via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Paulo Sergio Santos defeated Nurbergen Sharipov via TKO – Round 3
