RFA 31 results: Gilbert Smith smashes Bristol Marunde's jaw to retain welterweight crown

Gilbert Smith

It wasn’t easy, but Gilbert Smith survived some scary moments to retain his RFA welterweight title with a fourth round injury stoppage of Bristol Marunde.

Marunde (16-10) attempted to use his length early, standing at distance and throwing straight right hands and the occasional head kick, but Smith (12-4) repeatedly charged in and threw heavy punches that caused early swelling around Marunde’s left eye.

The action in Round 1 remained standing for the entire frame with Smith getting the better of the exchanges with his speed and leaving Marunde’s corner with some work to do on his swollen and bleeding eye.

The early action in Round 2 took place on the feet with both men having good moments in the striking game. Smith found his back against the cage and attempted to do some Anderson Silva-esque slipping of punches but caught one flush that resorted in a takedown attempt. Marunde defended against the takedown and ended up on top position where he did a bit of ground-and-pound work before the action returned to the feet. The fight briefly became a brawl with Marunde landing some good strikes, including knees from the Thai plum but still eating some big return punches from Smith.

An early uppercut in Round 3 stunned Smith, but he survived the flurry of punches and elbows from Marunde that followed. Smith drove through a single leg takedown moments later, but Marunde hit a switch to sweep and end up on top where he began landing some sharp elbows to the face. Marunde controlled the remainder of the round with his ground control.

Smith switched things up early in Round 4, starting to throw hard leg kicks to the inside and outside of Marunde’s lead leg. After a hard shot from Smith, Marunde turned away from the action and signaled to the referee that he was done. The early indications were that a left hook from Smith broke the jaw of Marunde.

The surprising injury TKO ending came at the 2:03 mark of Round 4.

Smith made the first defense of the title he won against Benjamin Smith at RFA 26 while Marunde had a four-fight winning streak snapped along with his jaw.

Jones-Lybarger captures RFA gold with dominant win over Frausto

Zoila Frausto (12-5) and Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger (6-1) were set to face off in an RFA strawweight championship fight, but after Frausto missed weight for the bout the title was only available to Jones-Lybarger.

Jones-Lybarger came out looking to take the title in spectacular fashion as the women opened up the fight trading strikes on the feet before she dropped Frausto with a big punch early in the round. Jones-Lybarger was unable to get the stoppage after the hard jab dropped her foe, but the shot allowed her to control the remainder of the opening frame and bloody up Frausto.

The less experienced fighter kept up the pressure in Round 2, forcing Frausto to fight going backward as she picked her spots to step in and throw power punches. Frost was game, however and continued to try to return fire only to find herself pushed into the cage. Jones-Lybarger’s pressure appeared to be wearing down the bloodied and swollen Frausto by the end of the second round as the veteran resorted to sloppily trying to pull guard only to take more punishment off her back before the round came to a close.

Frausto was pinned to the cage immediately at the start of Round 3 as Jones-Lybarger began to grind on her in the clinch. When Frausto was able to get back to distance she found space to land body kicks and the occasional hard punch, but was completely unable to keep her opponent from pushing her right back into the fence and controlling the action before scoring with a big takedown to end Round 3.

Jones-Lybarger opened Round 4 with another stinging flurry before again putting Frausto’s back against the cage. While Frausto occasionally found moments of success at distance in the round, they were all quickly squashed by the grinding cage clinch game of Jones-Lybarger, whose strategy at this point in the bout was crystal clear. Again, late in the round Jones-Lybarger put a cap on the frame with a takedown and positional control.

Frausto attempted a takedown to start the final round, but the attempt was stuffed and Jones-Lybarger quickly moved to the back where she alternated between a body triangle and keeping both hooks in while looking for a rear-naked choke. Frausto turned out of the position, but Jones-Lybarger was in her half guard at this point, throwing short punches and grinding away. More cage work closed the round before Jones-Lybarger was stuffed on one last takedown, but had taken a clear wide decision and won championship gold.

The official scorecards read 50-45 across the board, all for Jones-Lybarger who became the new RFA women’s strawweight champion with the victory.

Frausto is now on a four-fight losing skid while Jones-Lybarger has scored four consecutive victories.

Gabriel Checco taps Mike Jasper in third round

Gabriel Checco (9-2) rocked Mike Jasper (9-3) with a flying knee early in their middleweight affair, but Jasper was able to survive the early onslaught to make it out of the relatively one-sided opening frame.

Jasper came on strong in Round 2, scoring with some heavy punches and a superman punch that rocked Checco. Jasper was able to keep Checco on his back foot or pressed to the cage for the majority of the round, slipping the bigger fighter’s increasingly slowing punches before Checco landed his second hard low blow of the fight to bring the action to a halt. Once the action resumed, Jasper went back to landing lead hooks and backing off Checco.

With the final round likely to decide the victor, Jasper looked to continue slipping and landing strikes only to find himself taken down by Checco. Checco was able to quickly advance to the back and begin working for a rear-naked choke while Jasper tried to fend off the submission. Checco ended up in full mount and landed strikes before Jasper was forced to give up the back once again. This time, Checco slipped his arm under the chin but again the submission attempt was fought off. At this point Checco slickly switched to an armbar that finally forced the tap from the game Jasper at the 4:17 mark of Round 3.

The loss snapped a two-fight winning streak for Jasper and allowed Checco to rebound from a five-round unanimous decision loss to Francisco France at RFA 25.

Matthew Lopez scores a face crank to remain undefeated

A rare face crank submission was one of the highlights of the main card as bantamweight Matthew Lopez (7-0) torqued away at Justin Linn (7-2) to score the submission victory at the 2:18 mark of Round 1 to remain undefeated as a professional. The loss snapped Linn’s four-fight winning streak.

Bojan Velickovic (12-3) was able to grind out a dominant unanimous decision victory over Vardan Sholinian (5-2) in a 175-pound catchweight fight. Velickovic consistently pushed Sholinian to the cage and smothered his offense for all three rounds of the fight. The victory ran Velickovic’s winning streak to three.

Zac Riley (3-3) blew through Shai Lindsey (4-1) in the opening bout of the main card, scoring a triangle choke submission at the 0:59 mark of Round 1 in their bantamweight matchup. The loss was the first of Lindsey’s professional career, while Riley rebounded from a decision loss in his previous bout.

Full RFA 31 results:

MAIN CARD:

• Gilbert Smith def. Bristol Marunde via TKO (injury) – Round 4, 2:03
• Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger def. Zoila Frausto via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45) – to win vacant women’s strawweight title
• Gabriel Checco def. Mike Jasper via submission (armbar) – Round 3, 4:17
• Matthew Lopez def. Justin Linn via submission (face crank) – Round 1, 2:18
• Bojan Velickovic def. Vardan Sholinian via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Zac Riley def. Shai Lindsey via submission (triangle choke) – Round 1, 0:59

PRELIMINARY CARD:

• David Arcangel def. Zane Behrend via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:12
• Jason Pacheco def. Jamin Tayaba via submission (kimura) – Round 2, 3:54
• Jeff Roman def. Hector Saldana via unanimous decision

For complete coverage of RFA 31, check out the MMA Events section of the site.