MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
The venue was different, but the result was the same for Torrez Finney.
With another first-round knockout, this one on Friday at the Savannah Convention Center, the former JCHS athletic standout remained unbeaten in the MMA fighting arena.
The win by Finney over Justin Dorsey at the IKON Fighting Championship 4 event ran his pro record to 3-0.
“It went according to gameplan, everything happened perfectly,” Finney said. “It was exactly how we wanted it to go and I followed the plan as closely as I could.”
Even before the match began, Finney felt like he had a mental edge, moreso even than in previous bouts.
“That was the thing going in; I was telling my coaches after weigh-in that I was feeling a little different because I was not nervous enough. This was different was because it was the best I had felt,” Finney said. “I went in and just felt like I was at home, and anything that happened, I was ready for. I knew going in that it was the best feeling I could have had. I didn’t feel like anybody could beat me.”
There was more proverbial bulletin board material from Dorsey for the taking, too, for Finney, who is known in the MMA community as being different from some fighters in having a stronger wrestling foundation as his background.
“It was really big. After going back and watching the replay, he talked about how ‘I was just another wrestler’ and would not be able to take him down,” Finney said. “My coaches told me about that. It was my mindset was that I had a point to prove.”
Finney took control early. After landing a kick in the open seconds, a hard takedown by Finney of Dorsey less than 25 seconds into the opening round turned things even more in Finney’s favor.
Then following a brief stoppage of the match by the referee to ensure Finney was uninjured due to contact from Dorsey’s elbow to the head, Finney pinned Dorsey down, containing him until a barrage of hard punches just past two minutes into the five-minute round prompted the referee to halt the fight, declaring Finney the winner by TKO.
Finney stayed relentless in the final seconds before the match was called, not letting up despite hearing Dorsey appear to request a stop to the fight. It’s a lesson learned via experience in MMA for Finney that he put into practice.
“As I’m raining down strikes and punches, I heard him yell, ‘I’m done’ twice. So, in my mind, I am like, ‘that’s it, that’s a submission.’ It’s funny because I have had this same ref before, and he didn’t jump in there fast enough and took forever to stop the fight,” Finney said. “One thing that our coaches talk about is that you can’t let go and just stop; you have to let the ref make that judgement.”
Finney said that if he fights again this year, it’ll be in no later than October. Otherwise, it would come next year.
To view Friday’s fight in full, visit the https://youtu.be/PyWOL1DXDQ or go to Youtube.com and search for ‘Torrez Finney.’
