International Fighters Take Spotlight - Armored MMA Hammond, IN

Penedo wins Super Welterweight Semi-final, International fighters in the cage, Hammond IN fight results

by Avery Abruzzo

HAMMOND CIVIC CENTER - HAMMOND, IN

In the thrilling conclusion to a full night of Armored MMA fighting, Antonio Penedo took down his opponent, Jordan Rank, in the Super Welterweight Semi-final match.

This marks yet another time that Penedo has lived up to his previous announcement that he would not lose again—and, it marks his first knockout in the league.

Rank made attempts in the first round to grapple with Penedo, but Penedo slipped out before Rank got him against the cage. The second round, though, Penedo wasn't able to evade him completely, and spent a good deal of the middle up against the wall.

The second round started with a bang, before Rank kept Penedo up against the wall for a good deal of the middle. He slipped out, though, and the pair exchanged a few more heated blows at the end. 

In the final round, both fighters picked up the energy. Penedo's strike game was strong, and Rank couldn't manage to get him up against the cage.Right before the thirty-second mark, Penedo managed to get in several strong shield punches and turned the fight around.

Rank started stumbling around the fifteen-second mark, unable to keep up with the onslaught of Penedo's blows, and Penedo took him down. He secured the win with a TKO in the final seconds of the round. 

Following the fight, Penedo cheered, "I'm training more and more, and more, and I'm the next champion for Super Welterweight!"

He will now move on to fight Manuel York for the championship in Portland, OR, on June 27. 

International Travelers

In addition to Penedo, several other international fighters took to the cage during the night in Hammond: Australians Laine Fenton, Ellis Williams, and Mark Chenoweth, in addition to Canadian Blake Johansen.

Leta vs. Fenton

Laine Fenton took on AMMA owner and operator Kelsey Leta. This was also Fenton's first fight in the AMMA cage.

Fenton spent the beginning of the first round stepping in and out—but when she went in for a takedown, Leta quickly reversed it and brought her to the ground. In the early second round, Fenton threw her down, and they spent much of the rest of it grappling against the cage. Round three started strong with blows and some moves against the cage, before Leta took Fenton down and emerged victorious.

Leta vs Fenton

Williams vs. Johnson

The second international fighter also came from down under: Ellis Williams fought Texan Mikey Johnson.

The first round was full of a great deal of punches and kicks, and ended with some grappling. The second round featured hard blows and some action against the cage before Williams took Johnson down for the remainder of the time.

The third round was full of hard blows before Johnson managed a takedown. But in the final ten seconds of the round, Williams' sword managed to slip into Johnson's visor. The move was an accident, of course—the fighters train carefully to avoid these kinds of incidents. Williams' failed attempt to bring his sword up coupled with Johnson's movement to block a blow, and the blade ended up right between the bars of Johnson's visor to cut him above the left eyebrow.

Johnson returned to the fight after the medics patched him up, and the two exchanged heated blows while they grappled against the cage for the last thirty seconds. Williams was declared the winner, but Johnson sure put up a fight.

Johnson vs Williams

Chenoweth vs. Johansen

The third international fight featured Mark Chenoweth and Blake Johansen.

The crowd started chanting "USA!" during the beginning of the first round, even though it was an international fight. The pair traded takedowns and hard hits for the whole fight, as well as some good grappling and shield punches against the cage. In the third round, the two kept each other up against the cage for nearly the entire two minutes. Ultimately, though, Chenoweth took home the win. 

Chenoweth vs. Johansen