Sebastian Szalay walked away with the featherweight title in main event of Eternal MMA 87 on Saturday night, defeating the ever tough Dimps Gillies via unanimous decision.
The culmination of a four-man Eternal featherweight tournament and a cash prize of $7,000, Szalay fought calm and composed, stifled Gillies aggression throughout the majority of the five-round contest to walk away the winner.
He is now 7-1 as a professional and is riding a six fight win streak. His lone loss in the pro ranks came at the hands of Abdalla Biayda back in 2021. It wasn’t the night for the fan favourite Gillies who drops to 7-4 in his professional MMA career.
Harry Webb walked away with the Eternal lightweight title, though Kophamel lost no fans having stepped up to the title shot on about 24-hours notice and coming ever so close in walking away with the title strap.
Two judges scored it in the favour of Webb 48-47 and the other gave it to Kophamel who also came close to ending the contest in the final seconds.
Kophamel, who had lost his opponent for the card earlier in the week, secured the back and unloaded with heavy shots in the fifth round before attempting to secure the rear-naked choke only to be beaten by the buzzer.
It’s the first time Webb has gone to a decision in his pro career and will be stronger from the five-round outing, having stopped all his previous four opponents.
Frank Jankowski turned the table in his fight against Colton Kielbasa to claim the Eternal flyweight title. Down on the scorcards leading into the fourth round, Jankowski landed a perfectly timed step up knee that dropped the American.
Jankowski immediately pounced, jumped on the back and finished it off with a rear-naked choke submission 31-seconds into the fourth round.
The Wolves Den product moves to 5-1 as a pro while Kielbasa, fighting in eternal for the second time, drops to 7-4.
For the first time in Australian MMA history, two trilogy fights were scheduled on the same card.
Freestyle Fighting Gym trained Justin Van Heerden closed out the trilogy against Rod Costa with a composed unanimous decision victory.
The decision came back unanimous in favour of Van Heerden 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27. In what is his return to the Eternal cage, Van Heerden moves to 13-6 while Costa drops to 8-7.
Meanwhile Jack Becker got his revenge on Aidan Aguilera, stopping the contest with heavy ground-and-pound in the first round. It was the former champions third win in five fights since he suffered a gruesome leg break against Aguilera in 2022.
The win came 3:57 into the contest as Becker moves to 13-5. Aguilera drops to 10-8 with the 10-year-veteran indicating it may be his last time in the cage in the lead-up to the contest.
Results (Pro):
- Sebastian Szalay def. Dimps Gillies via Decision (Unanimous) – Eternal featherweight
- Harry Webb def. Kevin Kophamel via Decision (Split) – Eternal lightweight title
- Frank Jankowski def. Colton Kielbasa via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), Rd 4, 0:31 – Eternal flyweight title
- Justin Van Heerden def. Rod Costa via Decision (Unanimous)
- Jack Becker def. Aidan Aguilera via TKO (Strikes), Rd 1, 3:57
- Khan Deatta def. James McBride via TKO
- Declan Wolfinden def. James Wong
- Connor Birch def. Lucas Grasseli via TKO, Rd 1
Results (Amateur):
- Wyatt Fraser def. Shannon Staples via Submission
- Kye Bicknell def. Spencer Mosley via Decision
- Joshua Green def. Joel Hogan via Decision (Split)
