Strong Start to September

By: Adam Rushton, Social Content Manager for AllTheBelts (twitter: @StraightStrikin instagram: @adamrushton21)

The beginning of September has been action packed and entertaining in the world of combat sports. The type of skill and technical ability that took place over the weekend inside the ring, and cage, has certainly started the month off at the kind of pace everyone was hoping for.

Matchroom Boxing

First up on a very full afternoon of combat sports on Saturday, was Matchroom Boxing’s event at Emerald Headingley Stadium in Leeds, England. The main card was headlined by the highly anticipated rematch between Maurico Lara, of Mexico City, and hometown favorite Josh Warrington. Sadly, the bout between these two talented competitors was ended in the 2nd round and labelled as a technical draw, due to an unintentional headbutt that split Lara’s eye wide open. Even though the main event went a direction that no one wanted to see, the rest of the card was full of great fights. In the co-main event of the evening fans saw Irish Lightweight champion Katie Taylor outpoint Jennifer Han and earn the unanimous decision victory to retain her title as the undisputed female lightweight champion. This victory for Katie Taylor improves her perfect undefeated record to 19–0–0. Getting the main card started was another absolute battle between two highly skilled female athletes. Crowd favorite Ebanie “Blonde Bomber” Bridges added a win to her record, now 7–1–0, after a hard fought 8 rounder that ended in decision versus France’s Mailys Gangloff. This was Ebanie’s fourth fight of the year, and she continues to improve and become more driven with each match. The main source of her extreme motivation at this point seems to stem from the only loss on her record that came in the form of a unanimous decision versus Shannon Countenay back in April.

UFC Vegas 36

In addition to Matchroom’s event in England, Saturday also marked the day for a series of fights to occur inside the APEX’s octagon for UFC Vegas 36: Brunson vs. Till. The main card was kicked off with the electrifying UFC debut of former Cage Warriors superstar, Paddy Pimblett. Paddy “The Baddy” was heavily favored to win this match after the success he has been able to find in the UK. However, being favored did not make the…