THE BlackBeard Fight Series sold out the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead for their fifth show of mixed martial arts (MMA) and K1 competition on Saturday.
The event included 12 fights and four titles were contested throughout the course of the show with fighters and teams participating from as far as London, Coventry and Birmingham.
The main event was for the vacant heavyweight title between Slough-based Stanlee Wilson, competing for the Bodyfit Gym in Maidenhead, and Tadas Digrys of BlackBeard MMA in Slough.
The contest lived up to its expectation with both fighters giving there all to the delight of the crowd. Digry emerged the winner by way of a TKO stoppage one minute and 30 seconds into the second round to become the new champion.
In the co-main event, Maidenhead-based BlackBeard MMA fighter Abdenour Ait-Kaci challenged lightweight champion Jakub Maciej Kolternaik of Team Bison in London. This was a step up for Ait-Kaci as he was challenging for a title in his debut fight.
Kolterniak retained his title by scoring heavy with takedowns and maintaining a dominant position. He took the win by the way of a unanimous decision, but credit to Ait-Kaci for taking the champion the whole five rounds.
Maidenhead duo Imran Asghar of BlackBeard MMA and Bodyfit fighter Andrew Sherwood fought for the vacant Welterweight title.
Sherwood was victorious thanks to an ankle lock submission two minutes and 30 seconds into the first round.
PHOTO: Action from the sold-out BlackBeard Fight Series show at the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead on Saturday.
Controversy surrounded the fight as Asghar protested to not tapping to the submission but referee Sam Amidi made the final call and awarded Sherwood the win.
Windsor-based fighter Yahiya Abdullah was crowned the middleweight champion after he took a unanimous verdict over Habib Jakari of the Gymbox Team in London.
It was a tough ground-out win over five rounds, but Abdullah dominated nearly every round to get the final decision from the judges.
Ermir Sefa from BlackBeard lost his debut fight against Jay Richards of Gymbox by unanimous decision.
Sefa was clearly giving away the weight advantage and might opt to drop to middleweight in the future, which is more likely his natural fighting weight class.
BlackBeard star Ehsan Ejaz looked impressive in his K1 debut as he battled Abul Khayer of Legends Muay in London.
Ejaz, at times, emanated something of his idox boxer, Prince Naseem Hamed, and got the result by putting together some slick combinations with footwork to out-point his foe for a unanimous decision.
The BlackBeard Fight Series also hosted its very first junior bouts as Slough-based stars Adam Dar of Kudo UK and Ubaid Asum from BlackBeard fought in a flyweight bout. Asum took the win by unanimous decision.
PHOTO: Action from the sold-out BlackBeard Fight Series show at the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead on Saturday.
Another junior bout saw Stephan Patriche of Impact MMA in Croydon take a unanimous win against Zain Yaqoob of BlackBeard MMA.
Blackbeard youngster lost a close split decision to Robert Stefan of Team Bison.
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