Nick Maximov Outpoints Wildemar Santos in LFA 243 Main Event

Nick Maximov won the main event of LFA 243. Headlining the card at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz, California, the former UFC fighter and Diaz brothers teammate beat Brazil's Wildemar Santos by unanimous decision in a light heavyweight bout, with scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28.

Maximov reached the UFC through Dana White's Contender Series in 2020 and went 2-2 there. He opened with wins over Cody Brundage and Punahele Soriano, then was submitted by Andre Petroski and lost a decision to Jacob Malkoun, which ended his run with the promotion. He has not lost since, winning the middleweight title under Urijah Faber's A-1 Combat and defending it a couple of times. The fight was his first for LFA since September 2020, the bout he had right before his Contender Series appearance.

The opponent

Santos started his career 7-0, held regional titles in Brazil and had shared the cage with current UFC middleweight contender Caio Borralho. Maximov is 28. Both Brundage and Soriano, whom he beat in the UFC, have stayed with the promotion longer than he did.

The rest of the card

The rest of the card, broadcast live on Vice TV, included several first-round finishes. Mason Hartshorn stopped Kelvin Martinez by TKO in 30 seconds at flyweight, Kyle Clark caught Ali Gazamatov in a guillotine that produced a technical submission at 48 seconds, and Joe Thurrott knocked out Ricky Miller late in the first round. Heavyweight Lorenzo Figueroa stopped Helton Jose Jr. in round one, and Kevin Fernandez finished Enrique Pacheco in the second.

Sophie Lang submitted Aysia Cortez with a rear-naked choke in the women's strawweight division, while Fernando Diaz-Marquez and Jacob Horton won unanimous decisions in catchweight bouts and Chris Chapa beat Willy LaMacchia by split decision at lightweight.