Week six of Team Combat League’s second season got off to a nail-biting start at the Royale in Boston, as the injury-hampered Boston Butchers team (now 1-0-1) relied on some “Money” round heroics late in the match from Demek “Hightower” Edmonds, “Speedy” Rashidi Ellis, Alejandro Paulino and especially Keno Luna, to pull out a 225-225 draw with a determined LA Elite squad (now 0-1-1). Fighting in front of a sold-out crowd, coach Marc Gargaro led the Butchers to an early lead in the opening eight “Launch” rounds off the strength of a 10-7 knockout by Steven Sumpter over LA’s Jaivion Cardinal, which made the score 67-64. Cardinal was down twice during the action. “My plan was to move around and bait him in because he’s a taller opponent,” said Sumpter post-fight. “I saw he was falling for my feints, so I faked down to the body and came over the top.”

 

However, the Boston momentum was brought to a halt in the middle eight rounds, as the Manny Robles-guided LA Elite clawed into the lead off Jose Pablo Rodriguez’s quick knockout of Boston’s Tevin Regis which grabbed them back three points, and a subsequent pair of strong showings by Elijah Espadas in a firefight win over Anthony Hines, and Cuban light heavyweight Brayan Leon’s impressive work against a capable Francis Hogan of Boston.

 

Despite a second victory by Boston heavyweight Edmonds over Belgium’s Michael Pirotton to tie the score at 188 each, things appeared to turn dire for the Boston club late in the final eight “Money” rounds, when LA’s Osvel Caballero followed up his opening round win over Irvin Gonzalez of Boston by knocking Gonzalez out in the rematch round, which brought the overall team score to 198-195 for Los Angeles with just three fights to go.

 

Missing three of their regular fighters due to injury, Melanie Costa, Mike Fontanez and Thomas O’Toole, the Boston squad needed big finishes in the final three matches to pull out a tie.

 

And that’s what they did. Well-known contender “Speedy” Rashidi Ellis (24-1) of Boston repeated his opening round victory over LA’s Alex Esponda to bring the score to 207-205 LA. Alejandro Paulino reversed his opening-round loss to Daniel Morales of LA with a hard-found rematch win to bring his team within one and set up Luna’s final-fight heroics to pull out the 225-225 tied final score against a tough opponent in Angel Munoz of Los Angeles.

 

“My team told me it was up to me that I had to pull it off, so that’s what I did,” said a happy Luna. “I was under pressure and I’m glad I got the job done. It’s me alone, but my team is with me in spirit. They were all cheering me on from the crowd. It was up to me to do it for them.”

 

Team Combat League President Dewey Cooper was impressed at the excitement TCL had delivered in this hotly-contested matchup. “If this were a playoff, we’d have to do a sudden death round, but unfortunately in the regular season a draw stands. What a great show by both teams. It’s only right that it ends in a draw.”