FanPost

Mark Striegl and Andrew Leone Register First Round Submission Wins at MFC 4

Malaysian Fighting Championships (MFC) was only formed last year but is doing a great job of giving a platform to local fighters to get some low level professional experience. This card also saw two of the better fighters in the region, Mark Striegl and Andrew Leone, who offered to step inside the cage at very late notice.

Overtime, in Kuala Lumpur, is an upmarket bar which provides the perfect venue for an event of this scale. 500 people were packed inside for MFC 4 on Saturday night (March 10, 2012) which made for a fun atmosphere with the vast majority of the fights ending inside the opening round.

Striegl is training in Malaysia for a fight with DARE Championships next weekend but when a 155 lbs fighter pulled out at the last minute he offered to replace him. He had a big advantage in terms of experience over Malaysian fighter Mohd Al Hafiz and put on a grappling master class for the crowd, shooting for an early takedown and then transitioning to finish the fight with a mounted triangle.

It was a treat for the audience to see such a display of high level wrestling and Jiu Jitsu although Hafiz can count himself a little unlucky to have ended up with such an accomplished opponent at the last minute. Andrew Leone was also a late addition to the card and his Malaysian opponent, Izat Hisham, landed some good strikes standing before being taken down and submitted by the accomplished American wrestler.

Two up and coming Malaysian fighters secured wins although one of them had to come from behind to do it. Sam Chan (pictured) was not getting the better of the stand up exchanges against Palestinian Mohammed Sami but managed to secure the second successive victory of his career when he slapped on an armbar.

The only man to ever defeat Chan is Melvin Yeoh, who also holds a stoppage win over One FC veteran Raymond Tiew. He improved his record to 4-1 at MFC 4 with a highlight reel KO of local fighter Modh Zakhir who was taken out with a perfectly timed head kick.

Much more, including complete results, after the jump.

MFC promoter Paul Teo is a driving forces behind the rapid growth of MMA in Malaysia. He is the owner of Muayfit which was one of the very first places to offer mixed martial arts classes and is amazed at the explosion of interest in the sport,

"Peter Davis started teaching MMA at Muayfit in March 2011, two months before we organized the first ever amateur MMA event in Malaysia. We made the move into MMA even before ONE FC but of course now ONE FC is recognized as the leading MMA organization in Asia."

MFC uses a slightly modified version of the unified rules which restricts the use of elbows and is a great way for Malaysian based fighters to gain experience inside the cage. Organizationally the event continues to improve with experienced professional fighters now brought in to act as officials.

It's still a relatively small show but with ONE FC 4 currently set for Kuala Lumpur in April MFC is helping to increase local interest in the sport as well as giving prospective professional fighters a bit of cagetime. Teo thinks that the show has a bright future,

"I want to start doing events in more city centers like Penang and Johor Bahru. MFC was set up as a platform for fighters to showcase their skills inside the cage and so far we have attracted fighters from USA, Russia, Brazil and Singapore as well as local fighters. MMA is becoming more popular all the time in Malaysia and I like to think that MFC is one of the reason's why."

MFC 4 Results

1) SAM CHAN (W) vs MOHAMMED SAMI @ 3:28 (Round 1) – SUBMISSION ARMBAR

2) VERNON APOSTOL (W) vs SYED HILMAN @ 0:55 (Round 1) - REAR NAKED CHOKE

3) MUHD HAZRUL (W) vs DESMOND CHUI @ 3.02 (Round 1) – TRIANGLE CHOKE SUBMISSION

4) WILL CHOPE (W) vs JULIUS LIM @ 0.46 (Round 1) – GROUND & POUND (ref stoppageTKO)

5) MELVIN YEOH (W) vs MOHD ZAKHIR @ 0.27 (Round 1) – TKO (ref stoppage)

6) ANDREW LEONE (W) vs IZAT HISHAM @ 0.29 (Round 1) – REAR NAKED CHOKE

7) TEH KAH WEI (W) vs ALMAS ABDULLA @ 1.45 (Round 1) - (Doctor Stoppage)

8) HANIF ZAINAL VS KEITH ALDEN @ FULL 3 ROUNDS – (Unanimous Draw)

9) MARK STRIEGL (W) VS MOHD AL HAFIZ @ 0.47 (Round 1) – TKO (Triangle Choke)

10) LACHLAN HAY (W) vs AZRIN KADRI @ 2.52 (Round 1) – TKO

Both Hay and Kadri received an award for fight of the night

11) WILL CHOPE (W) vs MOHAMMAD HOSSEIN SHABANPOUR @ 3.13 (Round 1) - REAR NAKED CHOKE

12) MAXIMILIAN MUSUMALI (W) vs JIM KEONG @ 2.41 (Round 1) – Submission

13) ANTONIO GRACEFFO (W) vs NIK HARRIS @ FULL 3 ROUNDS (win on points)

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