V3 Fights makes explosive Nashville debut at Marathon Music Works

Nashville, Tenn. — Memphis based mixed martial arts promotion V3 Fights, made a spectacular middle Tennessee debut Saturday night at Marathon Music Works in downtown Nashville with “V3 Fights: Stewart vs. Carter”

UPDATE: See our exclusive photo gallery from this fight card here: Photo Gallery: “V3 Fights – Stewart vs. Carter”.

A 10-fight amateur MMA card featuring two women’s MMA fights and headlined with three title bouts wowed the Music City audience with high-quality action as entertaining as any pro show held in Nashville in recent memory.

The show’s production and the acoustics of the Marathon Music Works venue created an intimate atmosphere that gave off the feeling every one of the 1,000+ fans in attendance had a vested interest in each bout.

The energy was palpable. And the fans were loud. Very loud. Production was top-notch and everything went off without a hitch, like a well-oiled machine, which is what the V3 Fights promotion appears to be at this point. After all, they’ve been putting on amateur MMA fights around Memphis since 2009.

I’ll be honest. I normally don’t get excited for amateur MMA. After all, the name of our site is Pro MMA Now. But V3 Fights single-handedly changed my mind. Most casual fans I’m sure would not even know these fighters weren’t pro if they happen to have stumbled into Marathon Music Works Saturday night.

What’s even more exciting is if V3 Fights puts on amateur MMA shows this good, I can’t wait to see what their pro shows will look like. And yes, V3 Fights has plans to hold pro MMA bouts in the future. Now on to the action…

It’s never a bad thing when your main event winner also gets “Knockout of the Night”. And that’s exactly what Nashville MMA’s Cromwell Stewart did when he left West Tennessee’s Tripp Carter unconscious on the canvas 2:12 into round one with some vicious ground and pound to take home the V3 Fights Featherweight Title.

In the co-main event Eryk Anders defeated Paul Rainey via TKO to earn the V3 Fights Light Heavyweight Title. Rainey suffered what appeared to be a knee injury during the first round and was unable to answer the bell for round two.

Although this wasn’t an actual award, “Fighter of the Night” has to go to Ronnie Lawrence. If there was one fighter that stood out as someone to keep an eye on (and there were actually several), it is Ronnie Lawrence. His speed, confidence and skill — and slick-ass arm bar earned himself a third round TKO victory over a highly athletic and strong Marquese Branch to win the V3 Fights Bantamweight Title.

Yes you read that right, Lawrence won the fight via TKO with an arm bar. How does that happen you ask? I didn’t know either until I took a look at the photo I shot (see photo above) which just happened to catch — not only the arm bar — BUT THE TOWEL BRANCH’S CORNER THREW IN to apparently protect their fighter from having his arm snapped in two like a fat boy’s wrist when he fell of his skateboard (me).

In Women’s MMA action Molly Dupertuis and Shanna Young took home “Fight of the Night” honors for a three-round war that had everyone on their feet cheering. It was a back-and-forth bout between two strong and tough ladies, but in the end Young’s wrestling paid dividends to earn her the unanimous decision win.

“Submission of the Night” went to Nashville MMA’s Nathan Lindsay for his first-round win over Chance Wilson via Rear-Naked Choke.

There was one more Women’s MMA bout on the card, between Lynzee Johnson and Mandy Polk. Johnson’s dark eyeliner that ran (or was it mascara) left black smudges on her face. Besides that the cute young lady’s face was virtually untouched and unblemished.

The same can’t be said of her opponent as Johnson repeatedly stuck her with jabs and punches that snapped Polk’s head back like a PEZ dispenser with Tourette’s. Johnson’s punches evidently ended up breaking Polk’s nose and she was unable to answer the bell for round three, giving Johnson the TKO victory.

We’ve got plenty of photos of all the fights so stay close to ProMMAnow.com (https://prommanow.com) for those and all your V3 Fights news updates.

The next V3 Fights event is scheduled for April 6 at Minglewood Hall in Memphis. Also, take my advice if you’re a mixed martial arts fan in the Middle Tennessee area. The next time V3 Fights comes to Nashville, you need to make a point to be there. You won’t regret it.

The full results for “V3 Fights: Stewart vs. Carter” are as follows:

• 170 – Samuel Lawson defeated Jeff Ranger via TKO in round #1 (1:14)
• 125 – Nathan Lindsay defeated Chance Wilson via RNC in round #1 (1:57)
• 125 – Lynzee Johnson defeated Mandy Polk via TKO (Polk didn’t come out for round #3)
• 205 – Isaac Fine defeated Malcolm Hardman via triangle choke in round #1 (1:08)
• 155 – Mark Jones defeated Charlie Alexander via guillotine choke in round #2 (2:18)
• 135 – Shanna Young defeated Molly Dupertuis via unanimous decision
• 150 – Adam Denton defeated Brandon Pemberton via split decision
• 135 TITLE – Ronnie Lawrence defeated Marquese Branch via TKO (threw in towel during armbar) in round #3 (1:49)
• 205 TITLE – Eryk Anders defeated Paul Rainey via TKO (Rainey didn’t come out for round #2)
• 145 TITLE – Cromwell Stewart defeated Tripp Carter via TKO in round #1 (2:12)

For more information on V3Fights, visit www.v3fights.com.

UPDATE: See our exclusive photo gallery from this fight card here: Photo Gallery: “V3 Fights – Stewart vs. Carter”.