03/02/2015
Saturday night at Extreme Cage Combat's ECC 22: Apocalypse, 3 fighters from PEI competed in Halifax, 2 of which faced each other for the ECC Welterweight Title.
Charlottetown's Morgan Rhynes took on Ryan Connors from Nova Scotia in a 135 lb match up. Rhynes started out strong, but Connors pulled guard and brought it to the ground, where Rhynes would attempt to fight off an armbar, but ultimately succumbed to the submission at 1:20 of the first frame.
The reigning ECC WW Champion and Charlottetown native Matt MacGrath put his title on the line in a rematch from 2013 against fellow PEI native Richard Arsenault from Summerside, in which the first title fight was for the Elite1 WW title and was won by MacGrath via TKO. In Saturday's scrap, MacGrath showed much aggression and superior take downs and ground skills, as he was able to take Arsenault down at will and remain in top position for the majority of the fight. In the 4th round, Arsenault started to open up with chopping low kicks to MacGrath's lead leg, but MacGrath brought it to the ground again shortly thereafter. Mid-way through the 5th and final round there showed a bit of controversy as MacGrath tripped Arsenault and shot in to Arsenault's guard, and MacGrath landed an unintentional knee to Arsenault's face whilst down on one knee. After Arsenault taking a few minutes to recover, the bout continues and goes to the judges for a unanimous decision to Matt MacGrath as he successfully defends the ECC WW belt.
Big congrats to Matt!! And big effort shown by Morgan and Richard!!