Ryan Sanders of Young’s MMA of Bangor scored one of the bigger victories of his professional mixed martial arts career Friday night, stopping Luis Felix via a second-round verbal tapout as part of CES 32 held at the Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island.
The show was televised live on AXS-TV.
After a relatively close first round Sanders may have won as he kept the action largely in the standing position, the Etna native tripped up Felix to score a takedown during the second round. Felix was injured during the flurry and made the verbal tapout.
The nontitle victory contested at 160 pounds— Felix is the CES lightweight (155-pound) champion, but the belt was not at stake as Sanders took the fight on short notice — was the fourth win in Sanders’ last five fights.
Sanders, the Portland-based Toe 2 Toe Fights lightweight champion, is 10-7 and scheduled to fight again Feb. 5 in Salem, New Hampshire.
Felix of Cranston, Rhode Island, is 14-9.
Sanders was one of two Maine fighters to take a short-notice bout at CES 32, one of several regional promotions featured on AXS-TV’s Friday night MMA series.
Derek Shorey of Dover-Foxcroft made his television debut in a featherweight bout against Kody Nordby of Cumberland, Rhode Island.
Shorey got in the first kick, but the fight soon went to the ground where the combatants rolled to a position where the rugged Nordby locked in a triangle choke hold and forced the submission 41 seconds into the match.
Nordby is 6-3 while Shorey, who fights out of Shatterproof Combat Club in Dexter, falls to 3-4.
Shorey is scheduled to fight next Feb. 6 at NEF 21 in Lewiston against Josh Lange of Sanborn, New York.
