Press release follows: In a long-awaited battle between longtime rivals and combat sports superstars, Nate Diaz took home a majority decision victory over Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal Saturday night in a 10-round light heavyweight showdown that headlined a Fanmio PPV from Honda Center in Anaheim, California. “Mission accomplished,” said Diaz (1-1). “I feel the love here […]
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Press release follows:
In a long-awaited battle between longtime rivals and combat sports superstars, Nate Diaz took home a majority decision victory over Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal Saturday night in a 10-round light heavyweight showdown that headlined a Fanmio PPV from Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
“Mission accomplished,” said Diaz (1-1). “I feel the love here in Cali every time. He showed up and came to fight and so did I.”
“I thought I won,” said Masvidal (1-1). “I landed the harder shots. Win or lose, we’re gonna do it again. We’re 1-1, so we’ll run it back.”
After fighting for the inaugural UFC BMF title in their first clash, won by Masvidal, the two MMA superstars reignited their rivalry with months of heated back-and-forth trash talk leading up to Saturday night’s event in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,040.
The contest turned into a matchup of Diaz’s activity and punch output against Masvidal’s accuracy and power. Diaz landed 148 of 730 punches thrown, while Masvidal connected on 176 shots out of 637 thrown.
“I definitely felt that I landed the more meaningful shots,” said Masvidal. “When the judges see the videos, they’ll see they were misguided.”
After the bell rang to begin the 10th and final round, both men engaged in a tense three minutes of toe-to-toe action, with each fighter looking to gain an edge on the inside. With the crowd on their feet, each fighter landed clean blows until the final bell, with Diaz earning the nod by scores of 98-92, 97-93 and 95-95.
“We just went in there to figure him out,” said Diaz. “I’m down to fight the highest-rated boxer I can find. My main objective is to be the best fighter in the world.”
In the co-main event, Shane Mosley Jr. (22-4, 12 KOs) stamped his contender status with a convincing unanimous decision victory over former two-time world champion Daniel “The Miracle Man” Jacobs (37-5, 30 KOs) in their 10-round super middleweight clash.
“The plan was to pick him apart, because we knew he’d get tired,” said Mosley Jr. “I was trying to press him in the middle rounds, but he’s a veteran and he knows how to get through it.”
Shane Mosley Jr. (left) counters Daniel Jacobs with a right to the ribs. (Photo by Esther Lin/Fanmio)
The son of Hall of Famer “Sugar” Shane Mosley, Mosley Jr. scored the best win of his career by out-landing Jacobs 108 to 83, earning him his fifth-straight victory. Returning from an extended layoff, Jacobs wasn’t able to keep his charging opponent off of him with any sustained offense of his own.
“I’m proud of myself,” said Mosley. “Danny has bricks in his hands, but I just stuck to the game plan and got the job done.”
“He was definitely the busier fighter, but I could see that every time I hit him with a good shot I did see that he was stunned,” said Jacobs. “I just didn’t do enough to get my hand raised in the end.”
Jacobs put up a strong effort in the final round, landing his best blows of the fight, but was met again and again with return fire from the determined Mosley. At the end of the showdown, Mosley was victorious by scores of 100-90 and 99-92 twice.
“I felt like I had a good mindset in there, I just wasn’t 100% with all the time out of the ring,” said Jacobs. “The weight was obviously an issue for me and I came in a little drained and dehydrated. I could have gone against light opposition, but I’m a dog and I wanted to face a certain caliber of opponent.”
In his post-fight interview, Mosley offered a direct challenge to WBA Middleweight World Champion Erislandy Lara.
“I want Erislandy Lara,” said Mosley Jr. “If you’re listening, I want you. Let’s go baby.”
The pay-per-view also saw Nate Diaz-teammate Chris Avila (5-1) continue his winning streak with a unanimous decision over MMA legend Anthony “Showtime” Pettis (1-1) in their light heavyweight attraction. After six rounds, all three judges saw the fight in Avila’s favor with scores of 59-55 twice and 58-56.
Sensational teenage prospect Curmel Moton (4-0, 3 KOs) kept his unbeaten record intact with a dominating stoppage of Nikolai Buzolin (9-9-1, 5 KOs). Moton dropped his opponent in round one before stopping him in the second round of their junior welterweight matchup.
In a battle of fighters representing preeminent boxing families, Amado “AFV” Vargas (11-0, 5 KOs), the son of legendary world champion Fernando Vargas, scored a sixth-round TKO over Sean Garcia (7-1-1, 1 KOs), the younger brother of Ryan Garcia, in their junior welterweight duel.
Opening up the pay-per-view, lightweight contender Devin Cushing (14-0, 10 KOs) boxed his way to an impressive unanimous decision victory and avenged an amateur defeat against Manuel Correa (13-2, 8 KOs) after 10 rounds of action. The judges final tallies were 80-72, 78-74 and 77-75.
A press release from Swanson Communications was used for this story.
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