Even though it had been almost four years since Jesse Boldt stepped into the cage, he showed no signs of being rusty.
Boldt (now 3-2) stopped Randy Mahon (now 5-5) via TKO in the second round of the main event at Modern FC 3, delivering relentless and sharp strikes throughout the contest. After the referee called a halt, Mahon was carried out of the ring on a stretcher after suffering a neck injury.
Boldt expressed satisfaction with how things unfolded following his long layoff, yet he was genuinely concerned about the harm Mahon sustained.
"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."
The contest marked Boldt's first outing since November 2015, making it only his second competitive match across the previous dozen years.
He mentioned that fighting multiple times annually isn't really his style, and plans to step back and reassess his next move.
"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-feature matchup, Lorenzo Celis (now 1-0) and Austin Smith (now 0-1) both stepped into the cage for the first time professionally during their light heavyweight clash, and it was Celis who secured a first-round submission victory.
Celis shared that he was satisfied with how the bout went and noted that everything unfolded exactly as he'd planned.
"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 arrived at the event coming off a solitary amateur defeat in April when he fell to Will Grieve at the 2019 Canadian National Amateur Championships.
Celis indicated his eagerness to return to competition quickly and expressed interest in getting another shot at avenging that lone loss, provided Grieve transitions to the professional ranks.
"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."
Elsewhere on the card, Jared Cochrane picked up a win over Brendan Ekstrom, while Tyler VanKill, Nathan Bernard, and Riel Diederichs all claimed victories in their respective jiu-jitsu contests.
