Jorina Baars Destroys Lead Leg of Chantal Ughi, Remains Undefeated at Lion Fight 20

As was expected, Jorina Baars emphatically defended her Lion Fight women’s welterweight title against Chantal Ughi at Lion Fight 20 on Friday.

The 26-year-old Dutch competitor (37-0-3) made her second main event appearance for the Scott Kent-led promotion. The AXS TV-televised event took place at Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Ledyard, Conn.

Chantal Ughi (39-19) went the distance with Baars in 2009, losing a closely contested split decision. But in her Lion Fight debut on Friday, her front leg was destroyed by incessant kicks from the incumbent champion. In between rounds, Ughi was asked by referee Dan Miragliotta if she wanted to continue and she declined.

Baars remained undefeated in her muay Thai career and successfully marked her first defense of the title since winning it via unanimous decision in a contest against Cris Justino at Lion Fight 14.

Related » Lion Fight 20 Play-by-Play

In the co-main event of the evening, Jo Sittisak (66-12) used his experience to best Chris Mauceri (7-2) via unanimous decision [48-47, 48-47, 48-47].

The Thai fighter seemed to always be one step ahead of his eager, younger opponent, using supreme defensive techniques to counter with pinpoint elbows. The New York native’s aggressive style seemed to get the benefit of the doubt on the judges’ scorecards -- likely due to Sittisak sitting back at some points -- as the announcers, as well as Sherdog.com’s scores ruled 5-0 or 4-1 in favor of the veteran.

John Nofer (6-1) landed a sequence of elbows in the second round of his middleweight bout against Jason Andrada, (6-2) knocking down his foe three times en route to the finish.

Nofer knocked down Andrada twice in quick succession, before going on a rampage as the round closed. In an interesting moment, the referee stepped in a little soon, began the 10 count and then decided to wave off the proceedings at 2:58 of the second frame.

Jo Nattawut (53-10-2) returned to the Las Vegas-based promotion’s ring for the first time since defeating Cosmo Alexandre at Lion Fight 17 to defeat Richard Abraham (6-2) via unanimous decision [49-44, 49-45, 48-45]. The champion used his experience and kicking prowess to dispel of his opponent over the course of 15 minutes.

Gaston Bolanos (3-0) remained undefeated after finishing Caleb Archer (5-2) with a beautiful spinning-back fist knockout at 1:05 of round three.

In the opening bout of Friday’s main card, Julio Pena (2-0) defeated Tom Evans (0-2) via vicious knockout 90 seconds into their super lightweight affair.