Mixed Results for Local Fighters at MMA Card
Gonzalez (left) on his way to a draw against Cody Yearton
Photo by Ayesha Hussain
By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook Staff Writer
Just a few minutes before he entered the octagon for his first mixed martial arts fight, Austin Gonzalez’s trainer, Brett Watson, gave him a bit of advice.
“If you want to get an attitude now is the time,” Watson said, tapping Gonzalez on his shoulders.
Boy, did he take heed.
The FSU student and sometimes-teaching assistant, who is working on a doctorate degree in counseling psychology, helped a quartet of fighters from Tallahassee avert a complete shutout on Combat Night 46. The card matched fighters from Georgia against opponents from Florida at The Moon last Saturday night.
Gonzalez had to settle for a controversial draw against Cody Yearton, which put Georgia’s lead at 2-0-1. One of the three ringside judges scored it 29-28 for Yearton and the other two scored it 30-30, 29-29.
“That was a win in my book,” said Gonzalez, after breaking away from a crowd of fans that surrounded him on the way to the dressing room.
“I know I look beat up,” said Gonzalez, his mouth bloodied and welts on his chest and right shoulder. “That was awesome, guys.”
Yearton took control of the fight early before fading. Midway through the first rounds, he blooded Gonzalez’s nose with constant lefts and rights. Gonzalez turned the tides when he landed a left-right combination to the head that backed Yearton up.
“After the first round, I knew he was (out of) gas,” Gonzalez said. “I kept listening to my coaches and that’s what got me through.”
In the co-main event, which wasn’t a Georgia–Florida matchup, former boxer-turned-MMA fighter Malcolm Williams took just 7 seconds to knock out Wisles Zumar. It was the second fastest knockout in a MMA bout fought in Florida.
“Everybody knows about me,” Williams said. “I’m a beast. I told him (Zumar) he shouldn’t have taken this fight.”
In the main event, Kristopher Boyd pulled off a stunner when he stopped Tallahassee’s Waylon Wilder in the third round.
In the Georgia-Florida matchup, Tallahassee fighters were down quickly 2-0, as Dequan Crenshaw got off to an unusually sluggish start and couldn’t slow down Brandon Moran, who won the bout after 1:13 into the last round with a rare naked choke. Crenshaw was attempting to get his third win without a loss.
