Legacy FC 30 Results & Highlights: Holly Holm Destroys Juliana Werner To Win Women’s Bantamweight Title

Legacy Fighting Championships 30 is in the books from Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After being in the news a ton recently for a rumored future bout with UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, undefeated 18-time boxing champion Holly Holm went for her first belt in MMA against Juliana Werner tonight (April 4, 2014).

“The Preacher’s Daughter” came in as a massive -2300 favorite, and she showed why with a varied offense of powerful strikes to take home an impressive technical knockout finish. Let’s took a look back at Holm’s brutally beautiful performance from her home state.

The fight kicked off with Holm utilizing good movement, throwing an unorthodox Jon Jones-style push kick followed by a sidekick to the body. A nice Superman punch to low kick combo followed, and Werner looked out of her element on the feet. Holm went to the head with a kick next time, moving onto a clinch against the cage. Holm soon broke to unleash a bevy of punches.  Werner continued to throw weak, ineffective leg kicks, and Holm capitalized by dominating the clinch with knees to close the round.

More sharp kicks followed from Holm in the second. She appeared to be by far the stronger fighter as she went upstairs with a hook. Werner landed a good shot of her own, but it appeared to wake Holm up. The touted striker pushed forward with a solid mix of combinations, mixing kicks, punches, and elbows with accuracy and power.

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A hard kick to the body found a home and Werner was hurt. Holm didn’t let up, landing more kicks to the body and then to the head. Rapid-fire punches struck home, but somehow Werner landed. Holm blasted back with a big left hand, closing out the round with a few stiff shots for good measure.

The third round began with Holm scoring yet again. Her jab and sidekicks were landing repeatedly, and Werner’s mouth was bloodied from a hard cross. Holm clinched against the cage again, but moved away to land some insane combinations comprised of kicks. Holm scored a nice trip takedown to break out the highly questioned grappling portion of her game, ending a dominant and impressive third round for Holm.

Holm continued to use outstanding footwork in the fourth round. She kept pumping the jab into Werner’s face, seemingly landing at will. A big Holm combo had Werner spitting blood. The crowd cheered loudly as Holm landed more punches, but Werner stayed in the fight. Holm went for the trip but couldn’t throw Werner down, instead choosing to go back to her precise arsenal of kicks. Holm slammed Werner to the mat in the final minute, blasting some ground shots to end the round in Werner’s half guard.

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The fifth and final round featured the crowd canting “Holly,” but Werner snapped a good shot. “The Preacher’s Daughter” responded with a big combo, rocking Werner with a big jab and moving in with a huge elbow against the fence. The two fighters clinched and the ref restarted the action rather quickly. Holm scored with some kicks to the legs, but the best was yet to come.

Holm unleashed a huge left hook kick that dropped Werner, following to the ground with some punches to earn the referee stoppage.

In taking home the Legacy FC women’s bantamweight title, Holm looked ultra sharp in maintaining a lethal mix of varied strikes that Werner simply had no answer for.

The only criticism of Holm concerning this bout could have been that she didn’t finish Werner earlier when she had the chance. Holm acknowledged that she might have wanted to fight a bit longer for her home fans when asked if she “carried” the fight by Legacy announcer Pat Miletich in her post-fight interview.

She put on a great show for her New Mexico fans, but now it’s time to move on to bigger and better things.

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Holm teased a pay-per-view bout with Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino earlier today and gave the Invicta FC featherweight champ some respect after her win tonight, but obviously her biggest bout is against “Rowdy.”

UFC President Dana White said he “isn’t interested” in Holm because of how her manager Lenny Fresquez does business, but the fight may be too irresistible to avoid at some point down the road.

Only time will tell, but one thing became glaringly obvious tonight: Holly Holm is one of the best female fighters on the face of the earth. She just has to prove it inside the Octagon.

Check out the Legacy FC results and video highlights courtesy of AXS TV Fights below:

Holly Holm def. Juliana Werner via R5 TKO (strikes, 1:50)

Flavio Alvaro def. Donald Sanchez via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Ray Borg def. Nick Urso via R2 submission (rear naked choke, 4:01)

Enrique Briones vs. Adrian Cruz ends in a unanimous draw (28-28, 28-28, 28-28)

Martin Sano def. Clint Roberts via R2 submission (rear naked choke, 1:52)

Kamaru Usman def. Lenny Lovato via R3 TKO (punches, 1:04)