Félix Manuel Díaz Guzman vs. Francisco Santana & Chris van Heerden vs. Festim Kryeziu RBR

Official cards:

Hendrickson 98-92
Bayless 98-92
Evans 98-92
Tellez 97-93
DeLuca 97-93

UD for van Heerden

 

Oh man, would you STFU about your lord and savior Jesus Christ? Nobody wants to hear that ****.

 

CVH vs. Lawson is a 50-50 match-up, far more competitive than its counterpart on the other side of the bracket in the semis.

 

What is "Venum"? Clothing line?

 

Hey, international audience watching our live stream - if you ever need radiology services in the Kentucky area, we have this VERY specific advertisement that we're going to keep spamming on the broadcast all night during every commercial break. You know. If you're ever passing through, and not sure you maybe fractured a bone along the way in your road-trip but haven't driven by a hospital in a while...

 

I mean, on paper they were a bunch of interesting match-ups, can't remember the last time we got five of quite this caliber on an ESPN card for instance - but yeah, in actual practice they've been somewhat blah overall.

 

Félix Manuel Díaz Guzman vs. Francisco Santana, 10 rounds @ welterweight

 

If he gets eliminated here in the Quarters as expected, Chia should target (& use the shared platform of exposure to call out for) a third match with Mayfield to avenge that pair of losses to him. Mayfield has slipped enough that Santana would probably be the favorite now.

 

Alright, they put Kenny Bayless on this assignment. With all due respect to Smoger & Willis, he's the main attraction (on a card with a surprising amount of referee star power, for being at the KFC Yum! Center...)

 

Round 1

Díaz is countering with the right jab as Santana flurries him into a corner. Five- and six-pieces by Santana, just peppering the guard. Díaz unable to get a punch in edgewise. Body shot by Santana. Díaz is feeling him out, perhaps a bit uncomfortable with the pace being quite so torrid from the gate, leaning into the ropes to sag down and load up counter left uppercuts. Santana just keeps barking and churning out straight volleys into the guard and then spanking Díaz on the sides with fat low-slung hooks behind the elbows. Díaz lands a short counter left on the brow while stepping off the ropes as Santana pats his crown with a rapid two-handed salvo.

10-9 Santana, game as ever!