Of the promotions that air on AXS TV, RFA usually gets the reputation as the best pipeline for young talent to the UFC, however Legacy FC has been producing quite a bit of talent of their own lately, and their latest offering on Friday night was another showcase for some of those fighters. While a six-fight main card aired on AXS TV, only three of the bouts had lines offered. In the main event, Bubba Bush (8-2) defended his Legacy middleweight title for the second time with a dominant first round submission over Alfonso Gonzales (5-1). Gonzales had nothing for Bush in any aspect of the fight, and it didn’t take long for that to become apparent. Bush should be in the UFC already, as his only legitimate loss was against now UFC middleweight Andrew Craig in his third career bout. He managed to drag Craig into the fifth round in that bout before getting stopped, and has been on quite the roll since, going 6-1 with the lone loss being due to a disqualification for strikes to the back of the head. Five of those victories have come via stoppage, and Bush only appears to be getting better. He closed as a -405 favorite (bet $405 to win $100) against Gonzales at Several Bookmakers, and honestly that number should have been much higher. The co-main event featured another dominant performance as the normally heavy-hitting Damacio Page (18-9) turned to his grappling game to grind down Elias Garcia (4-2) before submitting him with an arm-triangle in the third round. Page is now 2-0 since dropping to flyweight, and has looked like a better all-around fighter now that he can use his grappling without constantly being outsized. Page is 3-1 since being cut from the UFC on the heels of a four-fight losing streak (three in the UFC and one in the WEC), so it’s unlikely he comes back to the organization at this point, but he’s well on his way. Page was a -230 favorite in this bout, but he would have likely been a sizeable underdog if the originally scheduled bout with Henry Cejudo had taken place. After this performance by Page, the Cejudo bout is probably the most appealing regional MMA match that can be made at this point. There was one underdog to come through at Legacy FC 31, as Diego da Silva (6-2) came out victorious despite making his US debut and coming off of a loss just two weeks ago. Da Silva used his length to prove a more effective striker than Alex Morono (6-3), who was quite at home in the Legacy cage, making his sixth appearance from the promotion. It took only 1:55 for da Silva to land a big right hand which crumpled Morono before the referee stepped in moments later to call a halt to the action. Da Silva cashed as a +115 underdog (bet $100 to win $115). Although those were the only bouts with lines featured, the entire main card was solid, with Justin Reiswerg (7-3), Alex Black (7-3 and on a six-fight winning streak), and Charlie Ontiveros (5-2) all picking up wins. None of those men is a huge blue-chip prospect, but all will be featured on Legacy cards in the future, and there’s a good chance those bouts will feature betting odds, so they are some good names to keep track of. Legacy will be putting on another card this coming Friday, as Legacy FC 32 will also air on AXS TV at 10pm ET. That card will be headlined by a very exciting bantamweight title bout between 16-0 Thomas Almeida and 4-0 Caio Machado. The only other notable MMA card from this coming weekend is WSOF 10, which features title bouts in the organization’s middleweight, featherweight, and women’s strawweight divisions. MMA OddsBreaker will have coverage of both events, so stay tuned throughout the week.
