The bantamweight division got plenty of spotlight on Friday night's BFL 70 card.
Headlining the evening, Serhiy Sidey (now 6-1) captured his first successful BFL bantamweight title defense, stopping Ali Wasuk (now 4-2) with a body strike and ground punches in round four.
Sidey felt the matchup unfolded exactly as he'd envisioned, noting his self-assurance only climbed after round one concluded.
"Once the opening round finished, I started feeling his strength and his technique on the fence and in the grappling exchanges, and it completely validated everything I'd been thinking and all the work I'd put in," Sidey told MMA Empire. "After that first round, I knew I was a hundred per cent superior to him on the clinch and in wrestling."
"It just confirmed everything I've been grinding on for the past few years is finally paying off. Right after that first round, I sat down with my corner and told them I'm going to beat him at his own game."
Sidey has now secured back-to-back wins inside the distance, and that successful title defense has only solidified his standing as champion.
He's looking ahead to a possible UFC contract opportunity next, but said he remains perfectly content continuing to defend his belt against whoever the promotion brings forward.
"I'd love to get on Contender Series if they give me the call; I'll definitely be ready for that. That would be my ideal option, but if that's not a thing yet I'll just keep defending the belt until I get the call," Sidey said.
"My goal is to be in the UFC. I'm very happy that I'm the BFL champion, but I have to get to the UFC. I want to be the champion there."
On the co-main card spot, which carried implications for the next title contender, Austin Russell (now 3-0) produced another standout BFL performance, earning a majority decision over Gio Platon (2-2).
But the triumph came amid significant pre-fight challenges for Russell, who expressed frustration with how events unfolded on fight day.
"Let's just address that Gio missed weight not once but twice. That already just threw a huge wrench in everything. Because of that, I didn't even get a chance to get a decent warmup in, let alone get my hands wrapped. It was a gong show from the start," Russell said in an interview with MMA Empire.
Platon failed to hit the bantamweight limit on weigh-in day, but Russell explained that an arrangement was struck requiring Platon to weigh 148 pounds or under on fight day to allow the bout to proceed. Platon ultimately missed that revised mark by more than four pounds.
"I thought it was kind of unprofessional on him and a little bit on the promotion for kind of putting that pressure on me to make that call whether to continue this fight. Everything was all done last minute, so I made a quick judgement call right there that we're going to take this fight even though he missed weight. I'm a fighter, that's what you have to do, and I just had to fight. I just went out there with all heart and, luckily, I was able to come away with the win," Russell explained.
Beyond the pre-fight chaos, Russell also had to endure several illegal strikes from Platon during the bout, including one that the referee failed to catch. Following the final illegal shot in round three, officials deducted two points from Platon.
"In the first round when he was attacking that rear-naked choke he was definitely eye-gouging me. I even have the scar on my eye, a little blood clot above my eye. If that's not evidence of an eye gouge then I don't know what is," Russell said.
Given everything he had to push through, both before stepping between the ropes and during the fight itself, Russell said the win feels even sweeter.
"It makes me feel on top of the world. It just summarizes everything. I had to battle through adversity. I killed my body to make weight; I almost wanted to quit too, so I know what he (Platon) was going through. He just showed he was mentally weak and my coach said we can use that to our advantage. If we get into deep waters I don't think he's going to be ready to hang, and I think that showed."
Elsewhere on the card, Bryce Gougeon, Jayden Martin, Dylan Schellenberg, Maxime Soucy, Oguzhan Yalcin, Varun Sunder Rajan, Sina Maani, Brad Hildenbrandt, and Dillon Foerster all emerged victorious.
