Many people think that just because a fighter is smaller, he won’t have knockout power. And while that can be true of a fair number of fighters, don’t tell that to Chris Haney or Stanton Gavia. While both fighters are early in their career, both have faced tough resilient fighters and shown they have the power to send their opponent to the canvas.
The fight between Haney and Gavia is going to be contested at just 130lbs and will likely be one of the fasted paced fights of the night. Haney, a veteran of the Chicago area fight scene has been making a name for himself since turning pro in November of 2010. Gavia has mostly fought across the border in Wisconsin leaving a massive wreck of fighters behind him.
Gavia turned pro in 2008 at Combat USA’s Fight Night. He needed just over a minute to submit Brad Robinson with a guillotine choke and setting the stage for his career. Just eight months later Gavia had one of the hardest fights of his career when he earned a split decision over Jake Omen.
Gavia was then forced to take time off from fighting after being in a near fatal car accident. He suffered a massive neck injury and had surgery on his neck. It took nearly two years of rehab and recovery, but then he got the all clear to start training and fighting again.
His first fight back didn’t last very long. His opponent Shawn West barely touched Gavia before he was taken down and was eating punches and elbows. The ref had one of the easiest decisions in stopping the fight and awarding Gavia the victory.
Gavia then competed at the Combat USA Illinois State finals a month later against Dave Sachs. The fight did not go his way as Sachs earned a TKO victory. Gavia now with a full training camp is ready to get back on the winning side of the equation.
In his way is the increasingly popular Chris Haney. Haney made his professional debut at Supremacy in November of 2010 losing a unanimous decision. But he was offered a rematch from his amateur days in his second pro fight against Joey Diehl. The first time the two met they were amateurs, but now as professionals their training and conditioning was drastically improved in addition to deadly elbows now being allowed.
Haney was nearly finished by Diehl in the first round, but always managed to escape. In the second round it was again a back and forth submissions and escapes from both fighters. But Haney found his opening and locked on a triangle choke and force Diehl to tap.
Haney wanted to prove a point in his next fight at Outdoor War 7 in September. After a delay in the fights due to the weather, Haney was ready to go out and set the stage for the rest of the pro card. Needing just ten seconds, Haney came out with a big leg kick and followed with a high kick that sent his opponent Dexter Wright the canvas completely unconscious.
There’s a lot of potential fight of the night performances on the XFO 42 card, but the fight between Haney and Gavia will likely set the bar extremely high for the rest of the fights.
