In the second half of the June 15th doubleheader at Miccosukee Casino & Resort in Miami, Florida, Coach Herman Caicedo’s second-place Miami Stealth survived an early scare on their home turf to come back and grind out a victory over Coach Barry Hunter’s 12th place DC Destroyers by a score of 228-219. In an eventful encounter throughout, the DC squad sprinted out to a five-point lead after the 8 Launch Rounds, including a round 4 showdown between DC welterweight Patrick Harris and Miami’s Orestes Velasquez, in which both fighters were knocked down and Velasquez lost a point for hitting Harris during his turn on the canvas. In the very next round, DC’s female welterweight, Natalie Brown, knocked out Miami’s Logan Holler for a 10-7 round to extend The Destroyers’ early lead to 48-44. Brown’s precise and powerful strikes later earned her the designation of second star of the night.

 

Down by five heading into the middle rounds, Miami proceeded to win every fight of the eight-round second session and end up leading by four points by the end of round 16. Helping erase DC’s lead was a 10-8 round registered by Miami middleweight Yordan Barrera, who dropped DC’s Keithland King with a clubbing volley of shots in round 13. Barrera’s impressive performance later netted him the number one star of the night.

 

Also winning 10-9 rounds for Miami were lightweight Adeyemi Opeyemi, female featherweight Tyler Schaefer, lightweight Armando Rabi Martinez, welterweight Claudio Marrero, welterweight Yordan Barrera, light heavyweight Victor Darocha and heavyweight Nestor Santana.

 

Rabi Martinez’s exciting punchout in round 11 defeating DC’s Frank Zaldivar was later named the Fight of the Night.

 

The Money Rounds featured DC lightweight Cobia Breedy knocking down Miami opponent Armando Rabi Martinez for a 10-8 round 18, just to have Miami welterweight Orestes Velasquez grab the extra point back for his team by dropping DC’s Patrick Harris in round 19. In round 21, heavyweight Aleksei Dronov knocked out The Destroyers’ Colby Madison with a clubbing right hand that convinced Madison to stay down after it landed. Dronov was later named the night’s third star.

 

The icing on the cake for Miami came in the final round 24 of the match, as Cuban light heavyweight veteran Yunieski Gonzalez dropped DC opponent Alantez Fox with a right hand for a 10-8 finale to the festivities.

 

“We train hard and obviously this is what the league is like,” said a happy Herman Caicedo. “It’s so close. We were behind, but we came back and got the lead. That’s what makes Team Combat League so exciting. I’m hooked on Team Combat League and I’m looking forward to having more and more seasons like this. This was not a layup for us. We knew it was going to be a scrap until the end. I thought the Money Rounds would be successful for us, but they did surprise me in the beginning.”