COSTA MESA – Tyson Jeffries of Huntington Beach wasted little time in his 185-pound MMA bout against Irvine’s Keith Berry at the Hangar in the OC Fair & Event Center Saturday.
Jeffries swept in and took Berry to the mat seconds into the fight, softened up his opponent with some hard punches and then locked in a rear naked choke to put an end to bout at 4:10 of the first round.After getting Berry on the canvas, Jeffries, (9-6) straddled him and got in some clean punches. Jeffries then went back into grappling mode, got in position from behind Berry (11-9) and then inserted the rear naked choke. Jeffries sustained a cut above his left eye, but ended the bout quick enough to be undaunted by the laceration.
In the co-main event, Huntington Beach’s Samuel Quito (170) improved to 10-4 with a unanimous decision over Wayne Philips of Carson (5-5). Quito manhandled Philips with his superior grappling ability and did a good job fending several kicks from Philips.
The first-ever Saturday installment of Fight Club OC drew 1,012. The show, hosted by promoter Roy Englebrecht, featured six MMA cage fights, contrasting the promoter’s Thursday Fight Club OC events which feature boxing and MMA on the same card.
In other fights, Joe Murphy of Huntington Beach stayed unbeaten after forcing Fullerton’s Tyler Weathers to tap out at 2:56 of round-two in a 135-pound match.
Josh Smith of Lake Forest improved to 7-5 with a unanimous decision over Emilio Chavez (3-3) of Fullerton in a 160-pound fight.
Bakersfield’s J.C. Liamas of stopped Costa Mesa’s Yoko Hamamura (2-1) at 1:29 of round-three.
Hamamura was unable to defend himself against a flurry of blows, prompting the stoppage by the referee.
