A full house at Luna Park’s Big Top in Sydney were treated to a spectacular night of fights on Saturday where Theo Christakos successfully defended his Brace welterweight title in the main event.
The event was aired live on the UFC’s digital streaming service UFC Fight Pass.
Christakos won by rear-naked choke in the second round against valiant challenger and fellow Sydney based fighter Andrew Mills.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Christakos however as both fighters had their moments in the first round. Mills managed to take Christakos down and take his back towards the end of the first round after eating two hard right hands.
With success on the ground in the first, Mills continued to pressure Christakos in the second up against the cage and looked to take the fight back down to the mat. Mills managed to successfully take Christakos down but landed awkwardly allowing Christakos to reverse the position and take his back.
This critical error proved costly as Christakos flattened Mills out and eventually got into mount. Christakos then moved swiftly between the back and the mount position and landed a barrage of punches and elbows that clearly hurt Mills. Unable to continue taking the hard shots from Christakos, Mills turned and gave his back one more time. This time Christakos was able to grab the neck and sink in the rear-naked choke with 40 seconds remaining of the second round.
The win was KMA trained Christakos’ sixth submission victory and the first successful defense of his Brace welterweight title that he won in November of last year. The win also improves his professional record to 7-2.
For Mills, it was his first loss under the Brace banner that he regularly competes under and brings his professional record to 7-2 as well.
In the co-main event, PMA welterweight David Francis picked up his fifth professional victory defeating Rick Alchin by knockout in the first round.
Francis landed a clean head kick that stunned Alchin before following up with a number of heavy strikes that forced the referee to intervene and stop the fight.
The next event from the promotion will take place April 8 at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
Results:
- Theo Christakos def. Andrew Mills via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 2, 4:19 – welterweight title
- David Francis def. Rick Alchin via TKO, Rd 1, 2:37
- Nurbolat Kuandyk def. Beau Luxford via Submission (Triangle Choke), Rd 2, 4:13
- Ben Watson def. Byron Cowell via Submission (Guillotine Choke), Rd 1, 1:44
- Jacob Malkoun def. Cameron Rowston via Decision (Unanimous)
- Claire Todd def. Mel Zeman via Decision (Split)
- Joel Vigors def. Luke Spears via KO (Head Kick), Rd 1, 1:06
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