Congrats to Pablo Alfonso, Robert Mercado, and Coach Mike Rio!  All three fought last weekend in Jacksonville and made us proud. 

Pablo fought a very heated and emotional fight but lost in the first round via rear naked choke.  Pablo, who was 2-0 going into the fight, came out very aggressive and fought a technical fight, giving it all he had in the ring.  However, he would make a mistake and give up his back, his opponent took advantage and got the submission.  It was a tough loss for Pablo but he made all of us proud.  He’ll bounce back in no time.

Robert Mercado made his MMA debut… and won a wild fight!  Him and his opponent met in the center of the ring and exchanged heavy blows!  Mercado was tagged several times very hard, suffered a busted nose, but hung tough, eventually landing a big takedown.  From the takedown, he secured mount and KOed his opponent with heavy strikes.  It was a 1st round victory!  It was a very impressive debut and FFA is excited about its new fighter!

Then we had Coach Mike Rio!  For those who are not familiar, Coach Rio is the newest member to our teaching staff – he is the head coach of our Wrestling program.  Coach Rio is a two-time high school State Champion and a three-time National Collegiate Champion!  Now his newest challenge is MMA – and in his first fight he impressed!  He took some punishment early on with some knees from his opponent – but he would keep his composure and land some strikes of his own, including a hard body shot which stumbled his opponent.  Coach Rio would then do what he is best at and land a beautiful double leg takedown which lead to him eventually passing his opponent’s guard and securing the mount.  From the mount, he landed a barrage of strikes, forcing the referee to stop the action.  Coach Rio scored the TKO in the 1st round!

Congrats to FFA!  When we get some pics or video, we’ll post them up!