Methodical Brant Moore Smothers Joe Giannetti in Legacy Fighting Alliance 89 Headliner

Brant Moore imposed his will and moved another step closer to a shot at the Legacy Fighting Alliance lightweight championship.

Repeated takedowns, crushing top control and an active submission game carried the surging Team 515 representative to a clear-cut unanimous decision over “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 27 finalist Joe Giannetti in the LFA 89 headliner on Friday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Moore (8-1, 4-0 LFA) swept the scorecards with identical 30-27 nods from the judges.

Giannetti (9-3-1, 0-1 LFA) could not stay upright. Moore climbed to dominant positions in all three rounds and bottled up the South Shore Sportfighting product on the mat. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt did his best work in Round 3, where he used a kimura to roll through an attempted takedown, set up shop in side control, dropped elbows and threatened with an arm-triangle choke before achieving full mount.

Moore, 26, has rattled off six consecutive victories.

Meanwhile, Sanford MMA standout Demarques Jackson submitted Adrian Hadribeaj with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their welterweight co-main event. Jackson (11-4, 3-2 LFA) drew it to a close 3:19 into Round 1, as he recorded his first win since Dec. 7, 2018.

Hadribeaj (10-2, 0-1 LFA) knocked down the Bellator MMA alum with a leg kick, but in his haste to follow up, he wandered into a single-leg takedown. Jackson moved to the back, secured his position with hooks and pestered his counterpart with ground-and-pound while hunting the choke. He eventually snaked his arms in place, transitioned to a palm-to-palm grip and prompted the tapout.

The loss was Hadribeaj’s first in more than four years.

Elsewhere, Kings MMA rep Ricardo Dias made a triumphant return from a two-year layoff, as he laid claim to a split decision over Desmond Torres in a three-round bantamweight showcase. All three cageside judges struck 29-28 scorecards, two of them for Dias (9-4, 1-0 LFA).

Torres (7-3, 1-1 LFA) applied constant pressure with an almost maniacal focus, moving forward despite the heavy artillery being sent his way. Dias countered with a sharp jab, occasional leg kicks and crisp combinations, often punctuating them with sweeping right hooks to the head. Bleeding from a cut near his left eye, Torres executed a takedown and advanced to full mount late in the third round, but his bid to finish met with significant resistance and ultimately failed.

The 29-year-old Dias has won five of his last six fights.

In other action, Factory X export Josh Fremd (5-1, 1-0 LFA) knocked out Lamar Gosey (3-1, 0-1 LFA) with a knee strike from the clinch 1:26 into the first round of their light heavyweight pairing; MMA Lab prospect Clayton Carpenter (3-0, 1-0 LFA) took a unanimous decision from Manuel Medina (0-1, 0-1 LFA) in a three-round flyweight affair, drawing 29-27, 29-28 and 30-27 marks from the judges; and Steven Jones (7-1, 2-1 LFA) eked out a split decision—29-28, 28-29, 29-28—in a three-round welterweight battle.