Home sweet home
Connellsville native Fremd wins PFL debut by KO
MOON TOWNSHIP — The phrase, “there’s no place like home,” was made famous by Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” and although the iconic film or phrase may not have any direct correlation to MMA, Connellsville native Josh Fremd was ecstatic to be home on Saturday night inside the UPMC Events Center on the campus of Robert Morris University.
The 2012 graduate of Connellsville Area High School won by knockout in his Professional Fighters League (PFL) debut before a crowd that cheered his every move from the time he walked through the curtain until he went back to the locker room.
“It was a dream come true to fight in my hometown,” Fremd said. “It was awesome to get that kind of reception.”
Fremd (12-6, 9 stoppages) began to take control of Jarrah Al-Selawe (21-8, 13 stoppages) in the second round, which concluded with the former Falcon football player and wrestler raining down punches on his opponent. As Fremd stood up following the round, Al-Selawe kicked him away, which caused tempers to flare, but order was restored and the middleweight (185 pounds) went into the third and final round.
“I could see that he was mentally and physically breaking after the second round,” Fremd said. “I give him credit for being a lot tougher than I thought.”
Al-Selawe attempted a standing guillotine choke with roughly 3:30 remaining in the third round, but Fremd was able to use a slam that forced Al-Selawe to release the hold.
Fremd worked on top with punches and elbows while using his non-striking hand to pressure Al-Selawe before the Jordanian fighter scored a reversal with under two minutes remaining.
Through the exchange, Fremd’s trunks were caught and nearly came down until the referee stopped the fight before a restart in the same position with 1:30 left.
Fremd has been in many competitions in the fight game, including 18 professional MMA bouts, but Saturday’s incident was a first.
“These (his trunks) don’t even have a drawstring, so I just have to tie them up,” Fremd said. “He put a hook in when he was on top and it just ripped through them. It was a first for me, but I knew I couldn’t let it get to me.”
Fremd didn’t let the wardrobe malfunction affect him, as he quickly got to his feet and landed a left hook to Al-Selawe’s jaw that dropped him to the canvas. Fremd quickly jumped on Al-Selawe with punches but the referee moved in right away to stop the fight with 1:03 remaining in the fight and Fremd celebrated with his corner.
“I looked up at the clock and I saw there was 1:30 left, and I knew I had to finish the fight,” Fremd said. “I wasn’t sure if I was up on the scorecards or not, but the fight shouldn’t have been that competitive, and that’s no offense to him. He’s a tough dude.
“I just got overexcited and overzealous because it was my first fight in a while, and my PFL debut in my hometown. In terms of the finish, I just let him in and threw the hook. I wish I would have done that in the first round.”
Fremd, who made his way up through local promotions until he reached the UFC, was cut by the organization due to missing weight, and while suffering through a bout of depression, he received a call from a former training partner about the PFL event in the Pittsburgh area.
“I went on a little bit of a spiral downhill after I got cut from the UFC,” Fremd said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen in my life, and I was strung out on the couch when I got a call from Dalton Rosta, who will be fighting later in the co-main event, and he said I should be on this card. He was someone I worked with coming up, and he got me started on my comeback. It gave me a sense of purpose and drive.”
Fremd will enjoy the victory, but he won’t celebrate for too long, as he has a fight on April 17 for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) at the National Western Center in Denver, Colo. He didn’t want to call out any fighter in the PFL, but he feels like he is getting a second lease on his MMA career.
“I hope yinz are ready because I sure am,” said Fremd during an interview in the cage following his victory.
PFL CEO John Martin liked what he saw from Fremd, and believes he can make some waves in a stacked middleweight division.
“Josh had an incredible stoppage against a really good fighter,” Martin said. “Josh is incredibly athletic and he made a great statement. I was really pleased to see that. Our middleweight division is solid, and we saw some solid performances from the middleweights that fought tonight.”
Rosta, a New Castle native and graduate of Laurel High School, received a hero’s welcome as he walked to the cage to Styx’s “Renegade” while donning a Steelers jersey and waving a terrible towel, which was met favorably by the crowd, but Impa Kasanganay stopped the local fighter after the two engaged in a flurry midway though the first round at middleweight in the co-main event.
Rosta (11-3) met Kasanganay (20-6) with some punches, and appeared to land a significant strike, but Kasanganay countered with a pair during the exchange that sent Rosta to the canvas. The referee called a halt to the action with 2:42 left in the round after Kasanganay went with punches on a prone Rosta, who landed facedown after taking Kasanganay’s best.
“We had some great fights tonight,” Martin said. “In that one, they were just throwing, and it was just a matter of who was going to connect, and who wasn’t.”
Johnny Eblen (17-1) used seven mat returns after getting Bryan Battle (12-3) to the mat in the main event at middleweight.
Eblen, who wrestled for the University of Missouri, harkened back to working on mat returns during his days with the Tigers and head coach Brian Smith.
“Each mat return was like a knee-jerk reaction,” Eblen said. “I drilled that so many times in college wrestling. We used to have to do 100 of them in practice. Thank you, Brian Smith, and the ‘Tiger Style’ wrestling. Those mat returns come in handy.”
Eblen earned a stoppage via rear-naked choke with 50 seconds left in the first round in the main event.
In the opening bout on the main card, Lazard Dayron won by decision at bantamweight (135) over Jacob Thrall to remain undefeated at 10-0-1.
Alexei Pergande won by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) over Julio Arce at featherweight in a bout that received a standing ovation for both fighters.
In the women’s flyweight (125) division, Ariane Da Silva won by unanimous decision. The judges scored the bout, 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
Fred Dupras won the first bout of the preliminaries with a guillotine choke at 2:46 of the first round in a featherweight (145) bout against Ethan Goss. It appeared Goss had escaped the submission, but the referee had called a stop to the fight.
In the other bouts on the preliminary card, Tatiana Postarnakova won by decision at women’s flyweight; Ernesto Rodriguez earned a decision at welterweight (170); Dakota Bush recorded a knockout with 34 seconds remaining in the first round at lightweight (155) before Jakub Kaszuba (lightweight) and Jack Cartwight (140) earned decisions.
“This may not have been the biggest venue compared to some of our other events, as the seating capacity is about 4,000, but it was a great crowd,” Martin said. “We liked the venue, and we were at 80 percent by the end of the first fight, and that never happens. It was a great start to the year for us, and I am excited to see what we can do going forward. We want to be the legit No. 2 MMA organization.”