Tag: Gregory Rodrigues

With Maki Pitolo out, LFA champ Gregory Rodrigues steps in to face Dusko Todorovic at UFC Fight Night 189

Just days after winning the LFA title, Gregory Rodrigues has gotten the UFC call.

Just days after winning the LFA title, [autotag]Gregory Rodrigues[/autotag] has gotten the UFC call.

[autotag]Maki Pitolo[/autotag] has been forced out of UFC Fight Night 189 and Rodrigues (9-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will step in on short notice to face [autotag]Dusko Todorovic[/autotag] (10-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) on June 5.

A person with knowledge of the booking confirmed the news to MMA Junkie on Tuesday. The person asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. Fighter Path was first to report the new matchup.

Rodrigues has gotten a second opportunity to compete in the UFC. After failing to secure a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series when he was stopped by Jordan Williams, Rodrigues rebounded with back-to-back knockouts and claimed the middleweight title with a first-round finish of Josh Fremd at LFA 108 this past Saturday.

Todorovic, a Contender Series graduate, has split his first two UFC appearances. After stopping Dequan Townsend in the second round in his octagon debut, Todorovic endured his first career loss when he was knocked out by Puna Soriano at UFC on ABC 1 in January.

With the change, the UFC Fight Night 189 lineup now includes:

  • Jairzinho Rozenstruik vs. Augusto Sakai
  • Muslim Salikhov vs. Francisco Trinaldo
  • Walt Harris vs. Marcin Tybura
  • Tanner Boser vs. Ilir Latifi
  • Manon Fiorot vs. Maryna Moroz
  • Sean Woodson vs. Youssef Zalal
  • Montana De La Rosa vs. Ariane Lipski
  • Gregory Rodrigues vs. Dusko Todorovic
  • Roman Dolidze vs. Laureano Staropoli
  • Miguel Baeza vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
  • Antonio Arroyo vs. Tom Breese
  • Mason Jones vs. Alan Patrick
  • Jordan Leavitt vs. Claudio Puelles

LFA 108 video: Gregory Rodrigues hits first-round walk-off KO to win middleweight title

Gregory Rodrigues left no doubt about his status as LFA middleweight champion Friday night.

[autotag]Gregory Rodrigues[/autotag] left no doubt about his status as LFA middleweight champion Friday night.

At LFA 108, Rodrigues scored a walk-off knockout of [autotag]Josh Fremd[/autotag] to win the 185-pound title at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. The spectacular one-punch finish came at the 2:20 mark of Round 1.

With both men showing a willingness to stand and trade, it was Rodrigues who landed a hard straight right hand that instantly dropped Fremd to the canvas and ended the fight.

Check it out in the video below (via Twitter):

Rodrigues (9-3), who failed in his UFC tryout on Dana White’s Contender Series last year, has rebounded from that loss with back-to-back victories in LFA. Fremd (7-2), meanwhile, lost for just the second time in his career and had a five-fight winning streak snapped.

LFA 102 results: Souza outworks Johns, Gregory Rodrigues reaches tourney final

Bruno Souza continued to climb in the featherweight division and Gregory Rodrigues made a statement to reach the middleweight tournament final at the top of LFA’s latest card Friday. At LFA 102 at Grand Casino Hotel & Resort in Shawnee, Okla., Souza …

[autotag]Bruno Souza[/autotag] continued to climb in the featherweight division and [autotag]Gregory Rodrigues[/autotag] made a statement to reach the middleweight tournament final at the top of LFA’s latest card Friday.

At LFA 102 at Grand Casino Hotel & Resort in Shawnee, Okla., Souza outworked [autotag]Elijah Johns[/autotag] with a split decision in the headliner. And in the co-main event, Rodrigues picked up a brutal knockout of [autotag]Al Matavao[/autotag] in the 185-pound tournament semifinals to reach the final against Josh Fremd.

Check out results from the fights below.

LFA 100 announced: Flyweight title fight headliner, tournament bout featured

MMA’s premiere feeder league has announced a milestone event.

LFA is on the verge of a milestone event.

The unofficial UFC and Bellator feeder league will host its 100th event, LFA 100, on Friday, Feb. 19 at the Hartman Arena in Park City, Kan., the promotion announced Wednesday. The event’s main card will stream on UFC Fight Pass after prelims on Facebook.

LFA launched in January 2017, following a merger between Resurrection Fighting Alliance and Legacy FC. Since that time, LFA has promoted fights involving numerous competitors who went on to sign contracts with the UFC and Bellator.

LFA 100’s main event will have the vacant LFA flyweight title on the line. American [autotag]Victor Altamirano[/autotag] (8-1) and undefeated Brazilian [autotag]Carlos Mota[/autotag] (5-0) will square off for title gold.

UFC flyweight Jimmy Flick was the last man to hold the promotion’s 125-pound title, but he vacated after a UFC contract-earning performance on Dana White’s Contender Series.

In LFA history, there have been five 125-pound champions. None of them have needed to put forth a successful title defense to get a call to the big show. Roberto Sanchez, Casey Kenney, Brandon Royval and Brandon Moreno all were signed by the UFC before putting their belts on the line.

Joining the flyweight title challengers at LFA 100 is a middleweight tournament semifinal fight between DWCS alumni [autotag]Anthony Adams[/autotag] (8-2) and [autotag]Gregory Rodrigues[/autotag] (7-3). The winner will take on Josh Fremd (7-1), who was victorious at Friday’s LFA 98, for the LFA middleweight title later this year.

Additionally, DWCS alum [autotag]Steven Nguyen[/autotag] (6-1) takes on [autotag]Raihere Dudes[/autotag] (8-1) at featherweight. The fight will be Nguyen’s first since he was knocked out by Aalon Cruz on DWCS in 2019.

The current LFA 100 lineup includes:

  • Victor Altamirano (8-1) vs. Carlos Mota (5-0) – for vacant flyweight title
  • Anthony Adams (8-2) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (7-3) – middleweight tournament semifinal
  • Steven Nguyen (6-1) vs. Raihere Dudes (8-1)
  • Charles Johnson (7-2) vs. Karlee Pangilian (6-0)
  • Christian Natividad (2-0) vs. Evan Woolsey (1-1)

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