Four years after his pro debut, Richie Miranda can now finally call himself a champion.
Miranda endured the challenging wrestling gameplan of Richie Lewis to find a fifth-round stoppage and take his LFA Lightweight Championship on Friday night, producing a result that oddsmakers considered a massive upset.
The five-round title bout headlined LFA 207, which took place Friday from the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.
In the early rounds, it was unclear which fighter would pull away with a win. Lewis, a former wrestler at Rutgers, spent a fair amount of the first and third rounds controlling Miranda on the ground, scoring takedowns that would keep him on the mat for minutes at a time. However, to his credit, Miranda would stay active with strikes from the bottom.
But on the feet, Miranda seemingly had the edge. He boxed Lewis up in the second round, pressuring him with combinations that the undefeated fighter had no answer to.
However, once the fight entered the championship rounds, momentum swayed significantly in favor of Miranda, who was listed as high as a +700 underdog on some sportsbooks.
With a minute to go in the fourth round, the referee stood the lightweights up from a ground position due to inactivity. During a striking exchange that followed, an elbow from Miranda clipped Lewis near his left eye, causing him to back up. Miranda said afterward that he remembered thinking: “Dude, he’s f****** done.”
Advancing after the shot, Miranda scored with a left hand that dropped Lewis. He pounded away at a rocked champ on the mat, but couldn’t finish the bout before the clock expired.
Heading into the fifth, it had become Miranda’s fight to lose. Miranda shut down a takedown early in the round, allowing him to start unloading with ground and pound shots once again. After two minutes of the final round, referee Nick Berens stepped in to end what had become a bloody mess of a championship contest.
“It was a tough fight,” Miranda said afterward. “But like I told you [before the fight], I’m gonna take him to deep waters, test his gangsta, and I got the finish.”
A title opportunity was a long time coming for Miranda, who has fought a total of nine times in the LFA since 2022. He entered this weekend following a stretch of four wins in the promotion, including a 2024 victory over former champ Maycon Mendonca.
Lewis was seemingly knocking on the door of a UFC opportunity before this weekend. He had an undefeated record of six wins, including five-round title wins in the LFA and Titan FC. Now, following his first pro loss, it’s unclear whether he will ever fight again: Lewis left his gloves in the cage after his loss Friday, signalling a potential retirement from MMA.
Earlier in the night, Mitch Mckee advanced his undefeated MMA record to nine straight wins with a decision over Greg Fischer.
Here are the quick results for LFA 207:
Main Card (9:00PM EDT / 8:00PM CDT) (UFC Fight Pass)
Bout 10: Richie Miranda def. Richie Lewis via TKO, Strikes (RD 5, 2:04) (LFA Lightweight Championship)
Bout 9: Mitch McKee def. Greg Fischer via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 8: Landry Ward def. Bryce Logan via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 0:59)
Bout 7: Nikita Kulshin def. Rudson Caliocane via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 6: Cheyanne Bowers def. Elizabeth Rodriguez via Submission, Armbar (RD 1, 4:41)
Bout 5: Dzhamal Mavliudov def. Jordon Tague via Submission, Guillotine Choke (RD 2, 1:07)
Preliminary Card
Bout 4: Ansar Khamzaev def. Abbas Abasov via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 1, 1:17)
Bout 3: Cara Greenwell def. Leslie Hernandez via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 2, 3:40)
Bout 2: Jordan Oliver def. Calob Ramirez via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 1: Gift Harding vs. Juan Velasquez Jr. via No Contest, Unintentional Groin Strike (RD 1, 1:01) (Amateur)
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