{"id":15353,"date":"2021-12-13T19:08:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T03:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.combateglobal.com\/?p=15353"},"modified":"2021-12-13T19:08:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T03:08:16","slug":"irelands-frans-mlambo-wins-copa-combate-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/irelands-frans-mlambo-wins-copa-combate-2021","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s Frans Mlambo wins Copa Combate 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miami, FL<\/strong>– Ireland\u2019s Frans Mlambo (13-5)hoisted his country\u2019s flag proudly and became a $100,000 richer after defeating Spain\u2019s Kevin Cordero (14-3) in the toughest tournament in sports, Copa Combate.<\/p>\n

The one-night tournament at 135 pounds featured eight men representing their country respectively.<\/p>\n

The final event for Combate Global of 2021, Copa Combate featured a quarterfinal and semifinal fights, which where one five-minute round, where the final was battled over three five minute rounds.<\/p>\n

In addition to winning the tournament and cash, Mlambo earned a shot against Combate Global\u2019s bantamweight champion David Martinez. The fight is anticipated for early next year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The final fight of the tournament was full of emotion and back-and-forth drama.<\/p>\n

Right from the start, the charismatic Mlambo, who has served as a sparring partner for Conor McGregor, landed clean shots. But Cordero, who wore a poker face throughout the tournament, wasn\u2019t shy about exchanging with his foe.<\/p>\n

The fight later went to the ground, but Cordero nearly got caught in a guillotine choke, but was able to escape and proceed to the second round.<\/p>\n

The second round was a near mirror image of the first episode. Cordero took Mlambo down and was to get his opponent\u2019s back. However, the result Cordero searched for didn\u2019t come to life.<\/p>\n

In the last round, the emotion continued and both men laid it all in la jaula trading heavy shots throughout the final chapter of the fight. However, Mlambo connected the most shots compared to his opponent.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the tournament, Cordero defeated Argentina\u2019s Luciano Ramos via split decision and knocked out United States Leo Muniz in the semi-finals to make it into the finals.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mlambo defeated Peru\u2019s Jose Zararuz in a controversial split decision and routed Cristian Barraza by unanimous decision in the semifinal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis win means so much to me. I\u2019m finally going to marry my girlfriend of 12 years. My life has changed so much,\u201d Mlambo said after the fight.<\/p>\n

Results:<\/p>\n

Frans Mlambo defeated Kevin Cordero via split decision\u2013 tournament final<\/p>\n

Kevin Cordero defeated\u00a0Leo Muniz\u00a0via knockout \u2013 Round 1, 4:57 \u2013 tournament semifinal<\/p>\n

Frans Mlambo defeated\u00a0Cristian Barraza\u00a0via unanimous decision \u00a0\u2013 tournament semifinal<\/p>\n

Kevin Cordero defeated\u00a0Luciano Ramos\u00a0via split decision\u2013 tournament quarterfinal<\/p>\n

Leo Muniz defeated Pierre Daguzan via TKO \u2013 Round 1, 3:53 \u2013 tournament quarterfinal<\/p>\n

Cristian Barraza defeated\u00a0Carlos Briseno\u00a0via unanimous decision \u2013 tournament quarterfinal<\/p>\n

Frans Mlambo defeated\u00a0Jose Zarauz\u00a0via split decision \u00a0\u2013 tournament quarterfinal<\/p>\n

OTHER BOUTS<\/p>\n

Ricky Bandejas defeated\u00a0Alan Cantu\u00a0via unanimous decision \u00a0\u2013 Copa Combate alternate bout<\/p>\n

Diego Gomez Manzur defeated Felipe Vargas\u00a0via unanimous decision \u00a0\u2013 Copa Combate alternate bout<\/p>\n

Rosselyn Chavira defeated\u00a0Tyler Schaefer\u00a0via split decision<\/p>\n

Caroline Gallardo defeated\u00a0Criszaida Adames\u00a0via unanimous decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miami, FL– Ireland\u2019s Frans Mlambo (13-5)hoisted his country\u2019s flag proudly and became a $100,000 richer after defeating Spain\u2019s Kevin Cordero (14-3) in the toughest tournament in sports, Copa Combate. The one-night tournament at 135 pounds featured eight men representing their country respectively. The final event for Combate Global of 2021, Copa Combate featured a quarterfinal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":15344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1506,3019],"tags":[9952],"class_list":["post-15353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","category-news","tag-copa-combate-2021-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15353"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15423,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15353\/revisions\/15423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}