Legacy Fighting Alliance 126: Bilharinho vs. Barbosa is an upcoming mixed martial arts event scheduled for March 11, 2022 at the Complexo Ribalta in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Fight Card
Main Card (UFC Fight Pass)
Featherweight Jonas Bilharinho vs. Rafael Barbosa Featherweight Championship
Welterweight Gabriel Bonfim vs. Eduardo Garvon Welterweight Championship
Lightweight Ismael Bonfim vs. Andrey Augusto
Heavyweight André Vieira vs. Eduardo Neves
Light Heavyweight Rodolfo Bellato vs. Thiago Vieira
Flyweight Inaildo Santos vs. Mateus Brauns
Preliminary Card
Featherweight Gabriel Alves Braga vs. José Delano
Middleweight Lucas Fernando vs. Rodrigo Lima
Background
An LFA Featherweight Championship bout for the vacant title between Jonas Bilharinho and Rafael Barbosa was scheduled as the event headliner.
Bilharinho (9-1-1) is one of the most exciting prospects in the sport. The highly-touted Brazilian is coming off an electrifying Wheel Kick knockout this past November on Dana White’s Contender Series. The win came against LFA standout Canaan Kawaihae, who had accepted the fight with Bilharinho, shortly after it was announced he would be fighting for the LFA featherweight title in August. Now Bilharinho will get the next shot at LFA gold, which is a position he has already been in. The man often referred to as the “Brazilian Conor McGregor” was set to fight for the title in the main event of LFA 85 in April 2020 before the COVID-19 lockdown postponed the event. Now he will look to finally capture the title in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro at LFA 126.
Barbosa (14-4) makes his return to the LFA Octagon after shaking up the division in 2019. The man known as “Coxinha” used his world-class karate skills to do so. Barbosa started by winning his LFA debut with UFC President Dana White sitting cageside. His win over Cameron Graves at LFA 63 was featured on the Season 4 premiere of Dana White: Lookin’ for a Fight. In fact, White heaped praise on Barbosa during the build up to the fight, “Barbosa is 10-1…he’s 21-years-old though. This kid has so much more time to learn and grow.” That growth continued in the main event of LFA 68, where he scored a beautiful standing elbow knockout win over former LFA title challenger Nate Jennerman. Now at the age of 24, Barbosa looks to claim LFA gold in his home country.
The co-main event of LFA 126 will feature the promotion’s top two 170-pound contenders as they vie to become the LFA’s seventh welterweight champion. Bonfim (11-0) and Ottoni (11-3) both won fights at LFA 112 in the inaugural LFA Welterweight Grand Prix, which highlighted the LFA’s historic two-event debut showcase in Brazil last summer.
Bonfim defeated Brenner Alberth via TKO in the third round of their semi-final bout in a fight that won LFA Fight of the Year. However, the punishment dished out between the two undefeated prospects prevented Bonfim from continuing in the tournament. He will now get his chance at LFA gold in the main event of LFA 126.
Ottoni competed earlier that night in an alternate bout at the LFA 112: Welterweight Grand Prix. He defeated Junior Marques via Unanimous Decision in another grueling contest, which also prevented him from fighting in the tournament final when Bonfim could not continue. Now the man, who is widely known in MMA as the only man to defeat UFC star, LFA great, and GLORY champ-champ Alex “Poatan” Pereira, will also get his well-deserved title shot.