Hawaii
MMA: Edwards loses in Hawaii
Albuquerque MMA mild heavyweight Christian Edwards, unable to deal with the uncooked energy and wrestling abilities of Denver’s Grant Neal, misplaced by unanimous resolution Friday evening on a Bellator card on the Blaisdell Middle in Honolulu.
Edwards misplaced for the second time after successful his first 5 fights. Neal, a Colorado state highschool wrestling champion and a soccer star at CSU-Pueblo, is 7-1.
All three judges scored all three rounds for Neal, 30-27.
Edwards hoped to make use of Friday’s struggle as a springboard to enter Bellator’s mild heavyweight rankings and regain his up-and-comer standing after an upset, first-round knockout loss to Ben Parrish in September.
It wasn’t to be.
After a detailed first spherical — scored for Edwards on the Journal’s card — Neal scored a takedown late within the second that swung the spherical in his favor.
The third spherical was all Neal, with the 6-foot-5 Edwards unable to defend in opposition to the burly (5-11) Neal’s takedowns and unable to flee till the harm on the scorecards had been completed.
Edwards, an Oklahoma native, trains at Jackson-Wink and had the J-W mind belief — Greg Jackson, Mike Winkeljohn, Joey Villasenor — in his nook Friday evening.
There was nothing they might do from behind the fence to derail the Neal freight prepare.
FULLER WINS: Albuquerque MMA welterweight Jalin Fuller (6-1) defeated Gage Saunders (8-5) by first-round submission (rear bare choke) Friday on an LFA card in New City, North Dakota.
Fuller trains at Duke Metropolis MMA.
BLENCOE-CYBORG: In Honolulu, Arlene Blencowe, an Australian who trains in Albuquerque at Jackson-Wink, will take one other shot at Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino Saturday evening.
Justino’s Bellator featherweight title will probably be at stake.
Blencowe (15-8) misplaced to Justino (25-2) by second-round submission (rear bare choke) in a problem for a similar featherweight title in October 2020. She earned one other shot with victories over Dayana Silva and Pam Sorenson.