Legacy Fighting Championships is heading to the far away land of Lubbock, Texas for a night of fights on AXS TV on August 23rd. In the main event, two crafty UFC veterans will do battle, as James McSweeney (11-10) and Paul Buentello (32-15) look to put an exclamation mark on the night in a light heavyweight showdown. McSweeney is a pretty good kickboxer, and Buentello has made a career on brawling, so this should be a fun fight to watch at the very least. McSweeney has actually won five out of his last six fights, finally breaking into the positive win/loss ratio after a career around .500, whereas Buentello has won three out of his last five fights. Between these two men, a lot of violent knockouts are on a highlight reel somewhere. Buentello has 19 knockouts over his career, and McSweeney has 7 knockouts, and four submissions in his 11 wins. That’s a 100% finish ratio for what it’s worth. I couldn’t imagine either of these guys playing it safe, even in their advanced MMA age. Neither of these guys have great gas tanks, and neither will really be interested in bringing the fight to the ground, so expect them to meet in the middle of the cage and throw bombs. In the co-main event, Legacy Fighting vet, Artenas Young (9-5) takes on Lubbock, Texas native Eric Davila (20-12). Young’s last two fights read pretty strangely, with a decision loss and a DQ win over Legacy FC middleweight champ William Bush. He will be in tough territory, as the hometown advantage is apparently very real for Eric Davila, and Davila’s wrestling and submission skills (13 submission wins) don’t bode well for Young, who doesn’t have much offense on his back, and is best off the ground at all times. Young does have a better gas tank past the first round from the limited tape I was able to find. Even though Davila may try to bring the fight to the ground, he does have some heavy hands which he may test out to start the fight and keep his hometown happy and excited. Back at Legacy FC 19, bantamweight George Pacurariu (5-1) used his speed and heavy hands to completely outclass his opponent, Steven Peterson, and deliver one of the best knockouts of the year. He will be looking to use that same hyper footwork and his oddly innate ability to stay out of trouble in a really sloppy way to defeat Aaron Cerda (6-3) who is on a three-fight winning streak with his last loss coming to LEgacy FC bantamweight champ Matt Hobar. This is a fight that will bring whoever wins impressively to title contention, so there is more on the line than a mere win or loss, but a crack at the title. This fight will be like watching two fighters in fast forward, as both of these guys fight really fast, and really loose. Lucas Pimenta (8-2) and Joseph Sandoval (6-4) are looking to climb back up the bantamweight ladder, after Pimenta was a fight removed for fighting for the interim Legacy FC title, but was submitted by Jeff Rexroad. Sandoval has yet to win in Legacy FC losing to fairly decent talent at best, Chad Robichaux and Ryan Benoit. Both of these guys need the win, but Pimenta is a far more talented fighter on the ground and standing up. With that said, Sandoval can finish a fighter of Pimenta’s caliber, it’s just a matter of if he can get over this four-fight losing streak and get the job done. The main card begins with lightweight Justin Reiswerg (5-2) taking on Luis Luna (7-4) making his legacy debut. Both of these fighters are best on the ground, with Reiswerg last seen armbarring Chris Rucker at Legacy FC 12. Luna is on a two fight skid, but he can still bounce back an do some damage either from the ground or standing up. Reiswerg will likely want to employ his strong takedowns and keep Luna tired and working off his back, where he has his weakest offensive capabilities.
