Hard to get … harder to hold

MFC light-heavyweight title proving to be hot potato

By MFC Staff

Winning a title in the Maximum Fighting Championship is a difficult challenge.

Holding onto the belt has proven to be an even greater battle. And certainly in the case of the MFC’s world light-heavyweight title, maintaining the role of champion has not been an easy task.

While the belt has been an attractive treasure for several fighters over the years, there’s been very little longevity to any title reign. In fact only once has the MFC’s 205-pound division crown been defended successfully by its holder.

So when Dwayne “D-Bomb” Lewis and Ryan “The Big Deal” Jimmo square-off for the light-heavyweight gold at MFC 28: Supremacy, they go into the fight knowing that just winning the belt isn’t good enough. They have the opportunity to not just claim the crown but to also start on a quest to be the MFC’s longest-serving light-heavyweight champ.

“It’s been a pretty long journey for me in the MFC and I’ve been aiming to get that belt so winning it would be huge,” said Jimmo, who will be riding a 13-fight winning streak into the matchup. Included in that streak is a decision victory over Lewis, though there have been some significant changes since that original clash at MFC Unplugged 3 in 2007.

A previously tentative Lewis has found a more aggressive side that has resulted in eight knockout wins. Jimmo, meanwhile, has maintained a very deliberate style, but has flashed a mean streak on rare occasions such as the second-round assault on Wilson Gouveia at MFC 25.

“All I’m doing is refining the system that I use because it has been successful for me,” noted Jimmo. “I’ve been training hard, and training with more consistency than I did for my last fight. I’ve been training for a five-round fight. Dwayne is very dangerous with that KO power so if I do see the opportunity to end the fight that’s what I’ll do.”

One past MFC light-heavyweight champ took that sentiment to heart – finish the fight when the opportunity presents itself. Roger Hollett, the second man to hold the title, pounced on a fallen Victor Valimaki to take his belt only 2:06 into their matchup at MFC 13. But Hollett’s reign was a short one, in part affected by a serious knee injury, yet upon coming back, he surrendered the belt to Emanuel Newton at MFC 19 in a five-round decision. And Hollett would further tumble down the rankings in his next effort when he was the victim of a shocking first-round submission at MFC 20 against David Heath.

 Newton lasted only one encounter as the man in the division, however, as he was narrowly beaten by Trevor Prangley at MFC 21 – this too in a fight that went the distance, though it was an entertaining scrap particularly a wild fifth round that saw both men hit the canvas at the final bell. Like Hollett, Newton also would take another tumble after losing his belt when he dropped a decision to Jimmo at MFC 23. Newton will look to regain his footing in the MFC’s rankings when he meets Rodney Wallace at MFC 28.

Valimaki, in fact, was the only former champ who successfully defended the belt. He claimed the title at MFC 10 with a quick submission win over Jason Day, and then held off a hard-hitting Jared Kilkenny before scoring the knockout at 3:26 of Round 1 in their main-event tussle at MFC 11.