On a night where in six fights there was six finishes, Gerald Meerschaert defeated Chase Waldon by first round submission in the main event to capture the vacant Middleweight title at RFA 45.
Live from Mystic Showroom in Prior Lake, Minnesota and with the main card on AXS TV, RFA 45 marks the organisation’s penultimate event before merging with Legacy FC to form Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA).
Meerschaert (24-8) will once again have talk of UFC surrounding him after his fifth straight win in impressive fashion against Waldon (10-3) this time via arm triangle choke, improving his record to 22 stoppage victories in 24 wins with 17 of those by way of submission.
Meerschaert started the fight on the front foot landing a few strikes that stunned Waldon in the early stages. After successfully landing two takedowns, Meerschaert took him to school by advancing quickly into half guard and easily locking up Waldon in an arm triangle leaving him struggling to escape and forcing the tap at 1:44 in the first round.
Raoni Barcelos (11-1) successfully defended his Featherweight crown by defeating Dan Moret (11-3) with a spectacular second round KO and is another fighter sure to be on the UFC’s radar after some sensational performances under the RFA banner.
Barcelos was superior throughout the first round and was shown to have greater power and speed than his opponent as he landed at will and dominated the first round. This then continued into the second as the Brazilian landed a perfectly timed counter left hand to the chin of Moret who dropped to the floor on contact. The champ went to ground with a few follow-up punches but Moret was already out and the referee quickly stopped the fight at 51 seconds into round two.
In the Welterweight division, Chad Curry (8-1) secured a brutal ground and pound stoppage against Frank Schuman (7-3) in the first round of their bout.
Schuman had his moments before ending up on his back where he tried to sink in two armbars from the bottom however both attempts were successfully foiled by his relentless opponent. Curry moved into side control and then mound where he rained down punches until the referee stopped the bout at 3:06 in round one.
Local fighter Ben Neumann (11-4) weathered the storm from Jordan Larson (7-3) in their Welterweight match up before using his advantage on the ground to win by submission in the second round.
Jordan Larson was very active in the opening stages throwing wild strikes and going for takedown attempts in a very evenly matched first round. The Arizona native however seemed to tire in the second round allowing Neumann to take control of the fight and after finding himself on the bottom and being hit with knees to the head, he allowed Neumann to take his back and lock in a tight D’arce choke for the win at the 4:01 mark.
In the two earlier bouts, both Bobby Lee (5-0) and Mitch White (2-1) scored submission victories to round out the card.
Lee handed a first defeat to fellow Lightweight prospect Damion Shehan (3-1) by armbar after an action-packed first two minutes that had both men trading submission attempts before Lee added to his five win streak and will look to continue to climb the Lightweight ladder.
In the Bantamweight division, White use a guillotine choke to finish Antonio Sanchez (3-1) in the second round. After an even battle throughout, a rushed takedown attempt allowed White to take advantage and secure his second professional victory.
