Two-sport standout: Robinson excels for Trojans
June 21, 2017
Mayweather will crush McGregor
June 21, 2017
Houma native Rance Ward had big plans of winning the Caged Warrior Championships title in front of his home fans.
But the reigning champion David Jackson had other plans.
He spoiled the challenge’s party and sent members of the pro-Ward crowd home unhappy.
Jackson scored a decision victory over Ward at Caged Warrior Championships 14 – an MMA show which was held on Saturday night at the Evergreen Cajun Center and was hosted by In Ya Face Fight Productions.
The fight was close. The decision was a bit controversial. As it was being announced, Ward held his hands in the air in triumph, thinking his name was going to be called by the ring announcer.
But it wasn’t meant to be, allowing Jackson to keep his title – a thrilling end to an action-packed main event.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Jackson said after the bout. “It was a good fight and I am happy to be able to win and keep the title. It’s something that I’m very happy about.”
“I will have to go back and re-watch it,” Ward said after the loss. “I thought I maybe did enough, but it didn’t go my way. I will have to see it with an objective eye when watching it later. But that’s on me. I left it in the judges’ hands and that’s how it goes sometimes. Give credit to David. He had a good game plan and today, he got the best of the decision.”
The main event was a thrilling end to one heck of a night of fights.
Caged Warrior Championships 14 was action-packed – a loaded night of fights which showcased some of the best local mixed martial artists.
In the undercard, Houma native Chance Braud wowed the home-town audience with a first-round submission victory over Steven Jackson, who took the fight on two weeks notice.
Braud, 19, is a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – so gifted at the discipline that he now teaches it to others.
In his cage debut, Braud used those skills to pick apart Jackson, dominating the fight from start to finish in a relatively easy win.
“I’ve wanted to do this my entire life. This was meant for me,” Braud said when asked about his cage debut. “When I first saw UFC and saw how amazing those guys were, I just said, ‘Yes, I have to do this someday.’ To be able to be in position to make those dreams a reality is just an awesome, awesome feeling.”
The undercard also featured a little redemption for an aspiring amateur.
Rusty Foret scored a decision victory over Alex Pierce to improve his amateur record to 1-2 in his young career.
Foret’s victory made up for a 74-second defeat Pierce handed him on Oct. 8, 2016 at Caged Warrior Championships 12 via a devastating arm-bar.
This time around, Foret stayed out of Pierce’s clinches and earned a rugged victory which saw both fighters absorb punishment throughout the bout – enough to earn Fight of the Night honors.
Fights like the Foret/Pierce battle are par for the course for Caged Warrior Championship bouts, and that’s partially because of the thought that goes into the development of the card.
In Ya Face Fight Productions is owned by Justin Verdin – a well-known name in the local fighting scene.
Verdin, a retired boxing and MMA fighter, said he is now a full-time promoter, which allows him to focus 100 percent of his energy on making sure each event he puts on is high-quality.
Verdin said this past weekend’s show was more than three months in the making, adding that he spent extra time to make sure that each bout on the card had the chance to be action-packed and crowd-pleasing.
On the surface, it looked like Verdin hit his mark because social media comments about the fight would indicate that fans were extremely impressed with how the card unfolded.
“These are all some of the best fighters that there are around here,” Verdin said. “There’s a lot that goes into this. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, but we really take pride in booking a good show. We want people to leave here thinking that they just had the time of their life.”
The main event had bits and pieces of that, though the Houma-based crowd had an obvious lean toward the challenger.
Ward and Jackson battled throughout the bout with both fighters landing clean shots throughout the fight.
But in the end, judges decided that the champion had generated enough points to score the victory – a successful title retention.
Verdin said he wanted to thank everyone in the area for supporting the Caged Warrior Championships series, touting that the company’s reputation for providing high-quality fights continues to grow.
He said Houma is a great place to host a fight because it’s a central location that pools fans from several places.
“The people down the Bayou – from Galliano, Cut Off and all those people are some of the best fight fans in the world. They always come,” Verdin said. “We get people from New Orleans. We get people from the Morgan City area. We pool from all over. This is a great place to host an event.” •
Follow Casey on Twitter for more.
https://twitter.com/casey_gisclair
