FIGHT NIGHT
Albuquerque-based MMA fighters had a good weekend.
Things could have gone better for Albuquerque-based MMA fighters Saturday night. It’s just hard to see how. That night, the Duke City, led by FIT-NHB flyweight Ray Borg, went 4-0 on three cards in three states.
In Nashville, Tenn., Borg (9-1) dominated previously unbeaten Geane Herrera (8-1) on the main card of a “UFC Fight Night” show. All three official scorecards read 30-27 for Borg.
On the same card, Derek Brunson (14-3), a middleweight from North Carolina who trains in Albuquerque at Jackson-Wink MMA, defeated Wisconsin fighter Sam Alvey (26-7) by first-round TKO (punches).
On a King of the Cage card in Socorro, Texas, Santa Fe flyweight Jerome Rivera (4-0) defeated El Paso’s Alex Diaz (pro debut) by second-round rear naked choke. Rivera trains at FIT-NHB.
On another King of the Cage show, in St. Michael, N.D., FIT-NHB’s Tim Sosa (5-3) — yet another flyweight — defeated Alex Cooney (1-1) of Green Bay, Wis., by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
OK, make that 4 -0. Ecuadorian bantamweight Marlon “Chito” Vera (7-2), a former Jackson-Wink fighter, defeated Roman Salazar (9-4) by second-round submission (triangle arm bar) on the UFC card in Nashville.
Borg’s weekend had gotten off to a shaky start when he weighed in Friday at 126¾ pounds, three-quarters of a pound over the allowable limit for his fight against Herrera. Rather than try to lose the weight within the required one hour after the weigh-in, Borg opted to forfeit 20 percent of his fight purse (an amount thus far undisclosed).
But “The Taz-mexican Devil” more than redeemed himself the next night. Early in each of the three rounds, he lifted Herrera off his feet, slammed him to the ground and stayed in control for virtually the entire fight.
Afterward, Borg apologized to the UFC brass for coming in heavy. Then, while saying he wasn’t calling out UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, he kind of did.
“Demetrious Johnson, I’m not calling you out and you may not know who I am, but I don’t care if it takes me three fights, eight fights,” he said. “(Even) if I lose one along the way, I’m coming for that belt and nothing is going to stop me.”
Borg probably didn’t mean to slight fellow Albuquerque flyweight John Dodson with his comments, but he kind of did.
And maybe he did mean to do so.
Dodson, a Jackson-Wink fighter and the No. 1 flyweight challenger, is scheduled to challenge Johnson for the title Sept. 5 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
In a post-fight interview with mmajunkie.com, Borg pulled no punches — picking Johnson to defeat his fellow Albuquerquean.
Herrera’s post-fight comments, provided by the UFC, could give sour grapes a bad name. After being controlled on the ground throughout by Borg, he said: “I thought we were going to scrap, but he played the wet blanket. I hurt him more from the bottom than he did from the top. He didn’t hurt me at all.”
Borg did bleed profusely from a cut caused by a Herrera elbow in the third round.
Vera left Jackson-Wink to train full time in Ecuador. Brunson, likewise, seems to lean toward spending more time in North Carolina.
“I’m trying to get situated at home,” he said after defeating Alvey. “I’ve got (Jackson-Wink ground coach) Greg Jackson, but I need some good striking coaches at home.”