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DOMINANT PHILLY SMOKE CAPTURE TEAM COMBAT LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP WITH VICTORY OVER MIAMI STEALTH IN MEGABRAWL 2 FINALS THURSDAY NIGHT AT THE COMMERCE CASINO & HOTEL IN
LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES – August 2, 2024 – Coach Bob Kane’s Philly Smoke showed why they were the league leaders the entire second season at Thursday night’s Team Combat League MegaBrawl 2 Finals as they took down Coach Herman Caicedo’s Miami Stealth by a score of 235-219 in action that took place at the Commerce Casino & Hotel in Los Angeles.
The night also featured a series of exciting announcements from Team Combat League President Dewey Cooper, including expansion teams for Season 3 in Phoenix and Nashville, with four more expansion teams based in Europe preparing to join the following year for Season 4, as well as a special Team Combat League Alumnae event featuring the best of all TCL fighters set to compete on Friday, August 23, in Philadelphia.
In Philly vs. Miami action, featherweights Opeyemi Adeyemi and Jovanny Tellez took turns staggering each other in a wild free-swinging Round 1 to get the show started. The three-minute punchout was won by Adeyemi 10-9. Then, female featherweights Paige Gilbert of Miami and Shera Mae Patricio engaged in an intense three minutes of brawling, won by Patricio 10-9 to even up the team scores at 18-18.
Starting in Round 4, the Philly squad began to assert their supremacy by rattling off five straight victories, capped off by power-punching Philly heavyweight Conja Nathan closing out the Launch Rounds by dropping Miami giant Nestor Santana with an overhand right in Round 8. The clubbing shot nearly sent Santana out of the ring and the 10-8 round gave Miami a 78-73 lead. The Philly power puncher Nathan returned to defeat Miami’s Gustavo Trujillo in Round 18. Nathan’s performance led to him being named the “Most Valuable Fighter” of the MegaBrawl 2 Finals.
Philly female welterweight Briana Carrera won a 10-9 Round 5 over Miami’s TCL Rookie of the Year Award nominee Samantha Ginithan, who was undefeated in the regular season. Carrera, who lost an amateur fight to Ginithan at the 2023 USA Women’s National Golden Gloves Finals, found a home for her straight left hand consistently throughout the action.
Philly continued to roll in the Middle Rounds, winning seven of the eight scheduled bouts.
Fighting on her birthday, Philadelphia Smoke star and TCL Most Valuable Fighter Award nominee Brittany “Eagle Flex” Sims returned to TCL to win her “Battle of the Featherweight Unbeatens” in Round 10 against star U.S. Olympian Ginny Fuchs. The 10-9 victory, Philly’s seventh consecutive at the time, left the overall score at 98-91 Philly.
The Smoke continued to control the action in the Money Rounds, winning another five of eight fights, including Philly middleweight Euri Cedeno, who fought in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics representing the Dominican Republic, winning a 10-9 Round 6 over Miami’s Raidel Rodriguez before later dropping Yordan Barrera for a count to earn a 10-8 score in Round 19.
One of the standouts for Miami was lightweight Nikolay Shvab, who took Round 11 and Round 22 victories over Philly’s Nahir Albright.
In the end, six different Philly fighters were 2-0 on the night of fights, including Euri and Hendri Cedeno, Rasheen Brown, Isaiah Johnson, Most Valuable Fighter winner Conja Nathan and Shera Mae Patricio.
“It feels great. I knew we were going to win,” said an elated Coach Bob Kane, while soaked in ice water ceremoniously dumped over his head by his celebrating Philly team. “All my fighters were great, and they get along. It was a fun season and we’re going to do it again next year!” |
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