For the latest installment of BtO, the big fight news comes under the banner of Fight Night Medicine Hat, which took place inside of, you guessed it, the infinitely small and yet infinitely large space found within a wizard’s cap.
In the night’s main event, Cody McKenzie (15-9, 3-4 UFC) sought the promotion’s vacant welterweight title, as well as his first victory in two years, in a fight with local favorite Ryan Machan (24-9-0). McKenzie would, however, be unable to assert his at-times confounding submission game, tapping to a shoulder lock four minutes into the opening round. This is McKenzie’s fifth loss in a row; he’s 1-5 since his bizarre final appearance in he UFC, during which he fought Sam Stout while wearing basketball shorts with the tags still hanging off of them. Machan, who owns victories over current UFC talent Kajan Johnson and TUF alum Richie Whitson, has won six in a row.
In the co-main event, former Bellator champion Emanuel Newton (26-10-1, 8-4 Bellator) pulled himself out of a three-fight slump, and earned himself the promotion’s light-heavyweight title, with his second-round arm-triangle choke of Matt Baker (13-9-1NC, 1-4-1NC WSOF). It’s Newton’s first fight outside Bellator in four years and his first victory since losing his title to current Bellator champion Liam McGeary in 2015.
Also on the card, former WSOF contender Josh Hill (14-1, 2-1 WSOF) bested struggling WEC veteran Bendy Casimir (20-14-2, 0-2 WEC) by unanimous decision, thus improving to 4-0 since his bid for Marlon Moraes’s bantamweight title.
Meanwhile, in Great Falls, Montana, in the main event of Intense Championship Fighting 24, the MMA Lab’s Jake Roberts improved to 6-0-0 with a first-round TKO of Lloyd Woodard (13-7, 2-3 Bellator). Woodard turned some heads back in 2012 with his upset submission win over Patricky Freire, but was never able to build off that momentum, losing to Rick Hawn and Dave Rickels before heading back to regional competition. He’s 1-4 since then.
And within the city limits of the terrifying Hammond, Indiana, in the main event of United Combat League: Vengeance, Dan Stittgen (11-5, 0-2 UFC) submitted Maurice Salmon (5-5, 1-0 WSOF) with a rear-naked choke 70 seconds after the opening bell to with the organization’s welterweight strap. Stittgen is 4-2 since his release from the UFC in 2012, including a win over fellow UFC veteran Jason Gilliam.
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