Nothing’s ‘Breezy’ for Brown, but he keeps at it
J-W fighter back after positive test
When we last heard from Albuquerque MMA fighter Chris “Breezy” Brown, he’d had a July 17 fight scrubbed after testing positive for COVID-19 — he was asymptomatic — and hit a deer in Nebraska, wrecking a rental car, on his way home.
But that was July, and this is September. On Friday, he’ll try to wreck Ignacio Bahamondes.
Brown (5-2) and Bahamondes (9-3), a native of Chile, are scheduled to fight on an LFA card in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
“Scheduled” is the operative word. During Brown’s his 38-month pro career, he’s had five fights fall through, not to mention multiple opponent changes.
Bahamondes is the same opponent Brown was to have fought at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, and at the same venue at which they were to have met, before Brown tested positive for the virus the day before the July 17 LFA card. Bahamondes had accepted that fight on four days’ notice, replacing Salaiman Ahmadyar, who’d withdrawn for unexplained reasons.
This is Brown’s debut at the welterweight limit of 170 pounds, as the July fight would have been. After losing by unanimous decision to Carrington Banks at lightweight in January, he decided the weight cut to 155 was too draining.
Brown, a Houston native, trains at Jackson-Wink MMA. He’ll be joined on Friday by J-W teammate Daniel Argueta (4-0), a featherweight, who’s matched against Brazil’s Jackson Filho (3-1).
AND IF HOLM WINS? UFC President Dana White, it appears, would like to see Albuquerque Holly Holm lose her next fight — or, at least, wouldn’t mind.
White said after his Tuesday Contender Series event Mexico’s Irene Aldana, should she defeat Holm on Oct. 3, likely would get a bantamweight title shot against champion Amanda Nunes.
He was not asked, nor did he say, whether Holm (13-5) would get a title shot were she to beat Aldana (12-5).
White, it seems, would prefer to see Aldana get a title shot because she and Nunes have never fought. Nunes defeated Holm by firstround TKO (head kick and punches on the ground) on July 6, 2019.
White did not say whether the winner of another bantamweight fight on the 3 card — Germaine De Randamie vs. Juliana Peña — might be part of the title equation.
De Randamie (9-4) has lost to Nunes twice. In February 2017, she beat Holm by unanimous (though disputed) decision for the UFC featherweight title that Nunes now holds. Peña (9-3), like Aldana, has never fought Nunes.
De Randamie (No. 1), Holm (No. 2), Pena (No. 4) and Aldana (No. 6) are four of the top six challengers to Nunes’ bantamweight title. Aspen Ladd (No. 3) is out with a severe knee injury. Raquel Pennington (No. 5) lost to Holm by unanimous decision Jan. 18.
Though the UFC has made no announcement, the Oct. 3 card is expect to take place at “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
CATCHING UP: Two fighters with Albuquerque connections won their UFC debuts Aug. 22.
Light heavyweight Jordan Wright (11-0), who has trained in Albuquerque at Jackson-Wink and Jackson’s Acoma, defeated Ike Villanueva (16-11) by firstround doctor’s stoppage (cut).
Wright now trains in his native
California but is managed by Albuquerque’s Ricky Kottenstette (Dinami Management).
Welterweight Matthew Semelsberger (7-2) defeated Carlton Minus (10-2) by unanimous decision. Semelsberger is a Pennsylvanian but is a client of Wildbunch Management, a company run by
Albuquerque’s Tom Vaughn and Arlene Sanchez Vaughn.
On Aug. 25, J-Wink middleweight Collin Huckbody (8-2) earned a UFC contract with a win by first-round submission (arm triangle choke) vs. Kyron Bowen (9-5) on the Tuesday Contender Series.