LION FIGHT 56
Lion Fight 56 Delivered Non-Stop Action
Lion Fight 56 at Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut stayed true to form of the Lion Fight promotion and delivered an action-packed evening of exciting full Muay Thai rules bouts.
After some superb amateur preliminaries, the professional Lion Fight 56 action kicked off with a middleweight pro prelim bout between Chase Walden of Virginia Beach, VA and Cody Laskar of Ottawa, Canada. The superb fight saw the Canadian take a hard fought victory.
Next up was a super cruiserweight battle between local boy Doug Holland from Westerly, RI and Tafon “Da Don” Nchukwi from Temple Hills, VA who was making his pro debut. The big guys put on a show for the crowd, with the visitor spoiling the evening for the home fans by beating Holland.
The next fight was the most exciting of the evening. The super featherweight bout again lined up a local fighter, Michael “Iron Boy” Triana from Worcester, MA against a visitor, Joseph “Peculiar” Mueller of West Palm Beach, FL. The two put on a superb show that could have seen the fight go either way. Elbows were flying and the Floridian had the best of the early rounds, before Triana turned up the heat in the 4th, putting Mueller on the canvas twice.
The Lion Fight North American Lightweight Title was up for grabs in the penultimate bout of the night with seasoned challenger Ricardo Cruz from Mexico City calling out champion Amine “The Lion” Ballafrikh of Alexandria, VA for the belt. The Mexican had a wonderful style and remained composed throughout the fight, but ultimately he didn’t do enough to unseat the champion.
The main event of Lion Fight 56 saw Chip “The Surgeon” Moraza-Pollard of Plymouth MA defending his Lion Fight World Cruiserweight Title once more. After defeating Juan Cervantes to keep the belt in his previous title defense, he now took on the incredibly experienced Thai fighter Kongjak Po Baoin. The fight was a close call, but a split decision went to the American, seeing him retain his title for the seventh time.
Photo credits: Travis Passaro
