Bruce “Pretty Boy” Boyington of Brewer scored his second straight win with the national-level World Series of Fighting mixed martial arts promotion Friday, earning a split decision over Boston’s Saul “The Spider” Almedia in their lightweight bout at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut.
The fight was on the undercard of WSOF 31 and was streamed live on the promotion’s website.
The fight proved difficult to judge, as Almeida often had top position during what turned out to be largely a grappling contest but did little to advance his cause once he got that advantage.
Boyington was the much busier fighter whether he was pinned against the decagon wall or had his back on the mat, both by attempting submissions or landing strikes and elbows.
“The judges are good here, they’re looking at a fight, it’s not a grappling match here,” said Boyington immediately after the fight. “I came out here to finish a fight.
“I saw Almeida’s statements on MMAjunkie.com talking about if he gets my back it’s over. No way. He’s the second black belt I’ve beat, and I’ve fought many brown belts and submitted them,” he said.
The 37-year-old Boyington, who trains out of Young’s MMA and Boyington’s Taekwondo Academy in Bangor, scored reversals against Almeida in both the second and third rounds, and his dominance of the fight’s final two minutes ultimately earned him his second split-decision victory in as many WSOF fights.
Boyington was awarded the decision 29-28 on two of the judges’ scorecards, with the 27-year-old Almeida winning all three rounds according to the third judge.
“Unless I’m getting a knockout I’m not satisfied,” said Boyington, 14-8 as a professional. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t know that fight could have gone either way, the same as my last World Series fight.
“But I think the judges recognized that one of the guys was trying to make a fight happen, and that’s always me,” he added.
Boyington made his World Series of Fighting debut last Oct. 17, scoring a split-decision victory over Rodrigo Almeida at Foxwoods.
Boyington and Saul Almeida originally were scheduled to fight on April 12, 2014, in Boston, but Almeida pulled out because of injury. Boyington instead defeated Ruslan Khubejashvili by unanimous decision to win the vacant CFX lightweight championship.
Boyington followed up by defeating Jesse Erickson of Auburn to win the New England Fights MMA pro lightweight title in September 2014. He vacated the NEF belt earlier this year after making three title defenses, largely to pursue national-level competition.
Saul Almeida was coming off a first-round loss to Alexandre Almeida in a title eliminator bout on the same card Boyington scored his first World Series of Fighting victory. Alexandre Almeida went on to dethrone Lance Palmer by five-round unanimous decision on Dec. 18 to win the WSOF featherweight championship.
“Those two guys I’ve just beat both signed [WSOF] contracts,” said Boyington. “I’m ready for mine. Age is just a number.”
Devin Powell of South Berwick, who replaced Boyington as the NEF lightweight champion, scored a three-round split decision over Tommy Marcellino of Amsterdam, New York, in another bout on the WSOF 31 undercard.
Powell scored two knockdowns, but Marcellino otherwise controlled much of the action.
As was the case in the Boyington-Almeida bout, two judges scored it 29-28 for Powell and the third scored it 30-27 for Marcellino.
“I’m no judge,” said Powell, 7-1. “I thought I did more damage, but he had good control. He’s a great fighter, but I think submission attempts and damage did it.”
And New England Fights heavyweight champion Tyler King used a guillotine choke to submit Lorenzo Hood in the second round of their three-round matchup. King, from North Attleboro, Massachusetts, is a former pro football player and the sone of former New England Patriots linebacker Steve King.
Also at WSOF 31 will be two current NEF champions, heavyweight Tyler King of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, and lightweight Devin Powell of South Berwick.
King (10-4) will face Lorenzo Hood (9-3), and Powell (6-1) will put his four-fight winning streak on the line against Tommy Marcellino (7-4).
