Mildura MMA’s Jesse Medina was crowned the first Valor featherweight champion on Saturday night after taking out the promotion’s four-man, one-night championship tournament in Tasmania.
In his opening bout of the evening, Medina submitted the previously unbeaten Ryan Gray with a rear-naked choke in the opening round. The 23 year-old went on to face Adelaide’s Myles Simpson for the title in the main event. Simpson, who was also previously undefeated going into the event, earned his tournament final birth by defeating Tassie native Chris Drummond earlier in the night. The final saw Medina get his hand raised with a triangle choke in the second frame to take out the title, and in the process, avenge a 2013 decision loss to Simpson back at MMA Down Under 4.
The new champ spoke with Fight News Australia following the event.
I have fought on Valor previously and like always they are as professional as they come always looking after the fighters. Both Ryan Gray and Myles Simpson are very tough opponents and I was lucky enough to get Ryan within the first round, so I was injury free heading into the main event with Myles. Myles is a very tough opponent and the fight was exactly as I expected, a tough encounter. I was lucky enough to get out of a triangle Myles nearly finished me with and get my own triangle choke that finished the fight before the end of the second round.
In the co-main event, Tassie locals Damon Upton-Greer and Steven Maxwell fought to a first-round doctor’s stoppage which saw Maxwell deemed unable to continue due to a gaping cut to his left eye from an Upton-Greer knee.
Among other results from the night, Queensland veteran Jai Bradney put the brakes on a four-fight losing streak by choking Melbourne based fighter Raphael Berthet out cold in just 21 seconds.
Valor 11 took place at the Kingborough Sports Centre in Kingston, Tasmania. The next offering from the promotion, Valor: AM Series 8, goes down September 12th in Devonport, Tasmania.
Keep an eye on the Fight News Australia Results page for full Valor 11 results which will be up shortly.
