Lion Fight 26 Fight Card: Nick Chasteen vs. Turan Hasanov set as co-main event

Lion Fight announced the main event for Lion Fight 26 a few days ago and they have now confirmed the remainder of their fight card. Five more fights will accompany the main event bout between Tetsuya Yamato and Greg Wootton. 

The night's co-main event will feature Arizona's Nick Chasteen taking on New York's Turan Hasanov. Chasteen has been training in Thailand for this fight as he looks to continue his development in the sport. Hasanov is a gritty fighter who might not be active often but when he steps in the ring he leaves it all out there.

Victor Saravia vs. John Nofer will also take place on the card. Saravia will look to keep his perfect record in tact and improve to 5-0. Since turning pro the Californian has made a name for himself with his vicious style that has lead to some amazing stoppages.

Rounding out he card will be Josh Shepard vs. Ben Peak, Julio Pena vs. Tim Amorim, and Pedro Gonzalez vs. Sean Fagan. Most of you might know Fagan because of his website www.Muay-Thai-Guy.com where you can find some great fight training tips and tutorials.

Lion Fight 26 will take place November 20 at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, CT and will air live on AXS TV.

Fight Card:

Tetsuya Yamato (c) vs. Greg Wootton for Lion Fight Super Lightweight Championship

Nick Chasteen vs. Turan Hasanov

Victor Saravia vs. John Nofer

Josh Shepard vs. Ben Peak

Julio Pena vs. Tim Amorim

Perdro Gonzalez vs. Sean Fagan

Lion Fight 19 Fight Card

Lion Fight 19 is set to take place November 21 at Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, CT. The event will be Lion Fight's third event at Foxwoods this year. Two title fights will be featured at Lion Fight 19. The main event will be current welterweight champion Fabio Pinca vs. Sean Kearney, and the co-main event will feature champion Caley Reece vs. Chajmaa Bellekhal. Four more pro bouts will take place at Lion Fight 19, they are Rungravee Sasiprapa vs. Ognjen Topic, Chris Mauceri vs. Coke Chunhawat, Pedro Gonzalez vs. Rungrat Sasiprapa, and Matt Doherty vs. Julio Pena.

Pinca will return to defend his Lion Fight title after defeating Malaipet Sasiprapa at Lion Fight 12 in November of 2013 to win the title. Kearney will be looking to score the biggest win of his career when he steps in the ring with Pinca. Kearney has spent a lot of time in Thailand as of late and has won his last two fights. Under the Max Muay Thai promotion he defeated Sanpetch Kiatpetchnoi by KO and most recently he scored a decision victory over Iquezang Kor. Rungthanakeat at Thai Fight Vietnam. Kearney will definitely have his work cut out for him as Pinca has been in the ring with some of the best in the Muay Thai and Kickboxing world.

Like Pinca, Reece will also look to have a successful first title defense when she take on Bellekhal. Topic will also be looking to score the biggest victory of his young and successful career when he steps into the ring against "The Thai Terminator" Rungravee Sasiprapa. Topic has spent the better part of 2014 in Thailand, his bout with Rungravee has the potential for not only fight of the night but also fight of the year.

Result:
Fabio Pinca (c) vs. Sean Kearney - Lion Fight World Middleweight World Championship
Caley Reece (c) vs. Chajmaa Bellekhal - Lion Fight Women's Middleweight World Championship
Rungravee Sasiprapa vs. Ognjen Topic
Chris Mauceri vs. Coke Chunhawat
Pedro Gonzalez vs. Rungrat Sasiprapa
Matt Doherty vs. Julio Pena

Matches to make after Lion Fight 17

Lion Fight 17 took place this past weekend and there were some exciting fights on the night. Malaipet Sasiprapa returned to the winning track with a decision win over Justin Greskiewicz and Jo Nattawut scored a split decision victory over Cosmo Alexandre. Victor Saravia also impressed with a knockout of Andy Singh.

With the exciting event now behind us we play match maker and suggest some fights that would make sense for the winners and some of the losers from Lion Fight 17 that are based in North America. Since Justin Greskiewicz already has his next bout announced against Matt Embree we will not be matching up Greskiewicz.

Malaipet Sasiprapa vs. Jose Palacios
Malaipet has proven that he can still defeat most fighters he faces, however, before Lion Fight throws him in against another fighter the caliber of Fabio Pinca it would be best to give him a stiff test. Palacios would be perfect, the pair fought in 2012 in a bout that Palacios took on short notice. Malaipet won a split decision so it would be interesting to see how he would fare against a prepared Jose Palacios.

Jo Nattawut vs. Shane Campbell
The Atlanta based Nattawut stunned many fans when he defeated Cosmo Alexandre by split decision. After scoring a huge win over Cosmo a solid match up would be against Shane Campbell. Before his recent loss to Enriko Khel under the K-1 banner, Campbell had won seven straight bouts. Having fought for Lion Fight before it would be a great match up, especially when Lion Fight returns to the east coast.

Cosmo Alexandre vs. Chike Lindsay
Despite the loss Cosmo remains one of the best fighters currently based in the United States. He has size and technique that would give all his opponents fits, another Nak Muay that has size and power is Atlanta’s Chike Lindsay. Last year Lindsay proved his toughness when he went five rounds with Yodsanklai. Cosmo vs. Lindsay would be an excellent fight for fans to enjoy.

Brett Hlavacek vs. Stephen Richards
Hlavacek and Richards have been matched up before but the bout has not been able to happen. The match up would be great for both fighters. Richards possesses excellent boxing and it would be interesting to see how Hlavacek’s more traditional Muay Thai style can deal with a savvy veteran like Richards.

Carlos Lopez vs. Gaston Bolanos
Lopez scored a nice win over a veteran like Rami Ibrahim. A fight against the fast rising Gaston Bolanos would be the perfect follow up to his win over Ibrahim. Bolanos brings and explosive style and both fighters in the ring together should provide fireworks for fans. If Lopez wins it’s another solid win on his record and for Bolanos it’s a solid fight for him to take in his young career as a pro.

Rami Ibrahim vs. Adrian Morilla
Ibrahim may only be 32 years old but his body has some mileage on it. The man has been fighting Muay Thai, MMA and Boxing professionally for over a decade. Morilla would be a solid match up for Ibrahim and a nice way for him to get back on track as it doesn’t seem that Ibrahim will be slowing down any time soon. Morilla is a solid fight and although he has come up short in recent fights he still presents a danger to his opponents because of his explosiveness.

Victor Saravia vs. Jason Andrada
Saravia has impressed in his two pro fights. He knocked out Anthony Castrejon and Andy Singh, both fighters that had their sights set on Jason Andrada. Coming off the first loss of his career it would be the perfect match up to take place. If Saravia scores a win over Andrada then he will be sitting pretty on top of the division, if Andrada defeats the hot prospect then he continues to be considered the top dog in the division by most.

Pedro Gonzalez vs. Sheldon Gaines
Gonzalez has run through Nick Chasteen and Tim Amorim with his aggressive style. A veteran like Gaines who is used to being in tough gritty fights would be a solid match up for Gonzalez. Lion Fight has a fighter in Gonzalez that comes in and goes for broke each and every round. They can definitely have him turn into a fan favorite because of his fighting style if they give him the right match ups. Gaines is the perfect match up at the moment, a seasoned veteran that has some more experience than Gonzalez’s first two opponents.

Lion Fight 17 Results and Recap

Lion Fight 17 took place last night at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. Lion Fight’s second trip to the east coast featured a re-match between Malaipet Sasiprapa vs. Justin Greskiewicz in the main event. 

Malaipet immediately took the fight to Greskiewicz, knocking down the Philadelphian with a perfectly timed right hand in the first round. Grewkiewicz was able to recover and fight through the round, although in the second it was all Malaipet once again. Moving into the third round Malaipet was in full control and hit some nice sweeps, but Greskiewicz showed he still had fuel left in the tank as he scored with a nice flurry. In the fourth and fifth rounds Malaipet seemed to slow down and Greskiewicz began to increase his output, but it was too little too late as Malaipet once again defeated Greskiewicz by unanimous decision.

In the co-main event Cosmo Alexandre took on Jo Nattawut and it was a chess match between them. The fight started off slow as both fighters seemed to be defensive minded but near the end of the third round things started to pick up. Alexnadre and Nattawut both used a full offensive arsenal and it made scoring this fight difficult. When the fight was done it could have gone to either fighter or even a draw, but the judges decided that Nattawut was the winner and he was awarded a split decision.

Brett Hlavacek and Cyrus Washington met in another re-match. Hlavacek came out and took control early in the bout and scored a knockdown of Washington in the second round. Hlavacek seemed to fade near the end of the third a bit and Washington tried to rally late but it wasn’t enough as Hlavacek was awarded the majority decision win.

In what was probably the most impressive performance of the night Victor Saravia improved his pro record to 2-0 with a KO win over Andy Singh. He came out and took the fight to Singh early and was in full control. In the fourth round a head kick from Saravia knocked Singh down and then after the count a flurry from Saravia ended Singh’s night. The official end came at 1:42 of the fourth round.

The two other pro fights on the night were Rami Ibrahim vs. Carlos Lopez and Tim Amorim vs. Pedro Gonzalez. Ibrahim and Lopez went back and forth and in the end It was Lopez’s effective elbow strikes that were the difference maker as the judges gave him a unanimous decision win. Gonzalez for the second time in a row scored a stoppage win over one of North America’s up and coming fighters. He took the fight early to Amorim and he couldn’t handle the aggressive style that Gonzalez brought. The bout was stopped by the referee in the fourth round.

Results: 

Malaipet Sasiprapa def. Justin Greskiewicz via Unanimous Decision 

Jo Nattawut def. Cosmo Alexandre via Split Decision

Brett Hlavacek def. Cyrus Washington via Majority Decision

Carlos Lopez def. Rami Ibrahim via Unanimous Decision

Victor Saravia def. Andy Singh via KO at 1:42 in Rd. 4

Pedro Gonzalez def. Tim Amorim via (T)KO (Referee Stoppage) at 1:43 in Rd. 4