[Event] LFA 185 - Gennrich vs. Lewis - Jun 7

Dent · **Posted:** Tue Jun 04, 2024 1:47 pm

Legacy Fighting Alliance 185: Gennrich vs. Lewis is a mixed martial arts event promoted by Legacy Fighting Alliance that will take place on June 7, 2024 at the Horseshoe Hammond in Hammond, Indiana, United States.

Fight Card

Main Card (UFC Fight Pass)

Lightweight Kegan Gennrich (c) vs. Richie Lewis Lightweight Championship
Women's Strawweight Natalia Kuziutina (ic) vs. Bruna Ellen Women's Strawweight Championship
Welterweight Tyler Scott vs. Joey Hart
Welterweight Sanon Sadeck vs. Paul Kimble
Bantamweight Zach Vaci vs. John Beckett
Featherweight Jose Ferreira vs. Cássio Junior

Preliminary Card (LFA Fight Network)

Flyweight Miguel Sanson vs. Jordan Burkholder
Lightweight Bunyod Majidov vs. Ilay Barzilay
Featherweight Alberto Rodriguez vs. Cauatã Samuel
Welterweight Omoyele Gonzalez vs. Jerry Arreola
Lightweight Matthew Leonard vs. Isaiah Flores

Amateur bouts

Lightweight Luis Unzueta vs. Daniel Jeschke
Featherweight Zhiian Suliev vs. Mauricio Rodriguez

Background

LFA announced today that the promotion will make its third trip to Indiana in June. The stacked event will feature a Championship Doubleheader in the lightweight and women’s strawweight divisions, when the promotion heads to the northwestern part of the state. RFA hosted one event in the “Hoosier State” before the merger of RFA and Legacy FC that created LFA.

LFA 185: Gennrich vs. Lewis takes place Friday, June 7th at The Horseshoe Casino Hammond in Hammond, Indiana, which is located in the Chicago metro area.

The main event will feature a lightweight title bout when champion Kegan “Machine Gun” Gennrich battles top undefeated contender Richie “Savage” Lewis. The co-main event will feature an interim women’s strawweight title fight when interim champion Natasha “Kuzya” Kuziutina faces longtime Bellator star Bruna Ellen.

“We are excited to bring a Championship Doubleheader to Chicagoland in June,” stated LFA CEO Ed Soares. “The main event will feature the first title defense of the LFA lightweight champion Kegan Gennrich. He will face top undefeated prospect and fellow LFA standout Richie Lewis. Then in the co-main event, LFA interim women’s strawweight champion Natasha Kuziutina will defend her title against longtime Bellator star Bruna Ellen. The fight fans in the Chicago metro area and throughout Indiana provide excellent energy for our fighters and we look forward to another great event.”

Gennrich (8-2) started the year in a big way by becoming the first man in MMA to capture a major world title in 2024. He did this by dethroning JaCobi Jones in the mein event of LFA 174 on the second Friday of the new year. The win made Gennrich the ninth lightweight champion in LFA history, but the proud Wisconsin native has bigger goals in mind for the promotion he first signed with in 2020. He is now looking to become just the second of those nine champions to successfully defend that prestigious title. Gennrich’s run for the title was impressive. It includes a 6-fight win streak with a pair of wins in 2023 that earned him the shot at the title. More impressively, is the level of opposition he has been beating along the way. Last year, he became the first and only man to defeat top prospect Richie Miranda. He then ended the year with a bloody submission win over Donald Bush. That win earned him the title shot against Jones, which he won with a dominant performance that ended with a submission win in the final round. Now the former University of Wisconsin wrestler looks to continue his run by defending his title in the main event of LFA 185.

Lewis (5-0) is one of the most talked about prospects in MMA for good reason. Born and raised in New Jersey, the Rutgers University alum naturally drew inspiration from a UFC champion that happened to be from his hometown in the “Garden State”. That would be the legendary Frankie Edgar. The two men are 13 years apart in age, but are both graduates from Toms River High School East. Naturally, Lewis drew inspiration from the UFC Hall of Famer on the mats, and now in the cage, and the results have been undeniable. In junior college, he was a two-time NJCAA All-American at Iowa Central. Then at Rutgers, Lewis became an automatic NCAA Division I national qualifier after notching a 27-7 overall mark and 16-1 dual record in his first season with the program. However, it was what he did after college on the international wrestling scene that really turned heads. In November 2017, Lewis became the first American to win a U23 World medal after winning the gold medal at 70 kg. Presently, the man known as “Savage” is fully immersed in MMA, where he has won a regional title in Florida, dominated his LFA debut, and now has his sights on LFA gold.

The co-main event of LFA 185 will feature the first title fight of the night and it will be for the LFA interim women’s strawweight title.

Kuziutina (5-1) ended last year with the biggest win of her career at LFA 173, which was the LFA’s year-end show in Las Vegas. She did this by becoming the first and only woman to defeat the five-time IBJJF champion and the reigning LFA Fans’ Choice Awards: Female Fighter of the Year, Giovanna Canuto. The win earned “Kuzya” the LFA interim women’s strawweight title, which made her the first woman from Russia to win an LFA title. Prior to that, Kuziutina had transitioned to MMA as the most decorated judoka to ever compete in the strawweight division of MMA. She has represented Russia at the 2012, 2016, and 2020 (took place in 2021) Summer Olympics. It was at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she earned an Olympic bronze medal. Kuziutina also won a silver medal at the World Judo Championships in 2019 and has won five gold medals at the European Judo Championships. She now looks to become just the second LFA women’s strawweight champion to successfully defend her title.

Ellen (7-4) will be the woman challenging for the title after spending the past eight years competing as one of the most respected names in the Bellator promotion. In that time, she fought for the promotion nine times. In fact, a tenth fight for the promotion was set to take place last year against Keri Melendez, the wife of Gilbert Melendez, but was canceled when Melendez withdrew with an injury. The popular Brazilian is widely kmown for her gameness as she has fought some of the biggest names in the sport, including bouts against former Bellator champions Ilima-Lei Macfarlane and Juliana Velasquez. She also holds notable victories in the promotion over Ilara Joanne, Desiree Yanez, Elina Kallionidou, and Veta Arteaga. More impressively is the fact she gained this success and notoriety, while competing in a division 10-pounds heavier than her natural weight class due to flyweight being the lightest weight division that Bellator offered. Ellen is now excited to challenge for an LFA strawweight title at LFA 185.

[Event] LFA 185 - Gennrich vs. Lewis - Jun 7

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