Junior Boya quickly went from early retirement to Jungle Fight gold at 125 pounds. | Alan Oliveira/Sherdog.com
When former interim titleholder Robson “New” dos Santos missed weight by nearly six pounds Friday and was summarily bounced from the organization by promoter Wallid Ismail, Boya got the call to face Marcus Vinicius “Cabecinha” Sa Freire in the main event of Jungle Fight 55. Despite the short notice and a long layoff, Boya looked more than ready when he stepped into the cage Saturday night at Botafogo Soccer and Rowing Club Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro.
Sa Freire had trouble navigating Boya’s southpaw stance from the onset, as the late replacement repeatedly found a home for his left hand and turned caught kicks into takedowns. After lighting up Sa Freire with a flurry of punches at the end of round one, Boya came back to finish the job in the second frame. A pretty counter left cross sent Sa Freire to the floor, where Boya sealed the deal with rapid hammer-fists that forced referee Douglas Aires into action at the 86-second mark.
Boya had not competed since 2009; in fact, the 25-year-old Manaus native was effectively retired from MMA until last year, when an offer from a sponsor lured him to train at Rio’s Game Fight Academy.
In the co-main event, Caio Alencar advanced to the final round of the Jungle Fight 2013 heavyweight grand prix by punching out Edson “Conterraneo” Franca.
A. Oliveira
Edson Franca needed stitches courtesy of
Caio Alencar.
A pair of international lightweight matchups ended in a 1-1 draw
between Brazil and Mexico. Ary Santos
did the local crowd proud by submitting Marcos
Reyes with a sneaky, inverted heel hook after 2:07, but
Tijuana’s Fabian
Quintanar evened it out for the visitors when he caught
Ederson
Moreira with a triangle choke at 3:14 of round two.
A. Oliveira
Young Renato Carneiro used his problematic
reach to remain unbeaten.
In preliminary action, veteran featherweight Fabiano “Jacarezinho” Silva overwhelmed a green Patrick Tavares with ground-and-pound to score a first-round knockout at 2:57, while flyweight Sidney “Junior Abedi” Oliveira opened the card by stopping Pericles Sampaio with punches from rear-mount at 2:01 of round two.
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