Although it was nearly four years since Jesse Boldt’s last fight, he looked like he hadn’t missed a beat.
Boldt (now 3-2) defeated Randy Mahon (now 5-5) by TKO in the second round of the main event at Modern FC 3, which was fronted by powerful and precise striking throughout the fight. Following the stoppage, Mahon had to be taken out of the ring on a stretcher due to a neck injury.
Boldt said he was happy with his performance after the time away, but was upset about the injury to Mahon.
“I felt awesome; I felt very present and engaged, and I felt we hit the game-plan on the head,” said Boldt in an interview.
“Obviously, we’re in there to finish the fight and inflict pain, but never that much. I definitely hope he’s okay.”
This was Boldt’s first fight since Nov. 2015 and just his second fight in the past 12 years.
He said he’s not the type of fighter that looks to fight multiple times in a year, and said he’s going to take some time and see where his head’s at going forward.
“I’m not super hardcore where I just want to get in there right away. I’m going to enjoy my time off because I get a lot of anxiety leading up to these fights, so I just need to unwind,” said Boldt.
“If Adam Lorenz and AJ Scales want to do another event, I’ll consider it. But for right now I’m going to take some time off and relax.”
In the co-main event, Lorenzo Celis (now 1-0) and Austin Smith (now 0-1) were both making their respective professional debuts in their light heavyweight bout, and it was Celis who walked away with the first round submission win.
Celis said he was pleased with his performance overall and said the fight went exactly according to the game-plan.
“The game-plan was pretty much to finish him in the first round,” said Celis in an interview.
“I didn’t care if it was a knockout or a submission. Whatever was there, I just looked for it, and it happened.”
Celis was coming off his solo loss as an amateur in April to Will Grieve at the 2019 Canadian National Amateur Championships.
Celis said he’s looking to get back in the cage as soon as possible, and said we would like an opportunity to avenge his only loss, if Grieve makes the jump to professional.
“I want to rematch Will Grieve, or possibly someone like Lee Hagel,” said Celis.
“I will take whatever comes my way, but I really want that rematch.”
In other MMA action, Jared Cochrane defeated Brendan Ekstrom. Tyler VanKill, Nathan Bernard, and Riel Diederichs were also victorious in their respective jiu-jitsu matches.
