Two wildly entertaining championship bouts headlined Unified MMA 34 at the River Cree Resort and Casino in Enoch Friday, Sept 28, 2018.
Fort McMurray’s Teddy Ash won the vacant middleweight title after finishing Seth Baczynski via strikes with just two seconds remaining in the fifth and final round.
The crowd was on its feet cheering “Teddy! Teddy!” at several points in the contest, with both men showing great heart and perseverance.
The fight was a wild back and forth affair with both men gaining momentum at various points in the contest. Baczynski controlled the bulk of the grappling exchanges while Ash landed the most significant strikes, knocking down Baczynski several times in the fight.
After a very evenly matched four rounds, Ash came out and dominated the fifth, dropping Baczynski with strikes just seconds into the final frame. Ash is now a two-division champion holding both the Unified MMA middleweight and light-heavyweight titles.
The co-main event featured a welterweight title bout with Kitchener, Ontario’s Pat Pytlik taking on Vyron Phillips. The bout was also a hard fought back and forth affair with the fighters splitting two rounds each heading into the fifth.
Phillips controlled the first round with effective grappling and pressing Pytlik against the cage. Pytlik responded in the second with a flurry of strikes that rocked Phillips and shifted momentum in the fight.
Pytlik controlled the grappling and clinch exchanges in the third round and landed a few knees to the body. In the fourth, Phillips regained the momentum after nearly securing a triangle choke and armbar from the guard position.
Pytlik came out swinging in the fifth and finished Phillips just 14 seconds into the final round, claiming the vacant Unified MMA welterweight championship.
The other two professional fights of the evening saw Neal Anderson win a split decision of Kolton Menzak, and Nick Hrabec submitting Cam Macdonald with a rear-naked choke in the second round.
When asked about his game plan in the post-fight interview, Hrabec said, “Just be me. Do what I do best.”
A highly anticipated professional bout between Ryan Ford and Matt Delanoit was cancelled, as Ford missed the 170lb weight limit by three pounds and Delanoit chose not to accept new terms.
The event also saw five amateur bouts to open the card. Harley King defeated Isaiah Bean via anaconda choke in the first round, Tyrell Giselbrecht beat James Rice via TKO just 19 seconds into the fight, while Sambath Khun won a unanimous decision over Peter Janssen.
Matt Klute won a closely fought split decision over Marcos Cromwell and Malcolm Tisdale defeated Robert Kovacevic by unanimous decision.
Unified MMA’s next card takes place in Calgary on Nov 16.