George McGinnis, owner and trainer at York Mixed Martial Arts Academy, had his first amateur fight last weekend at Valley Fight League in Winchester, Va. McGinnis clashed with Dave Monteith of Greencastle, Pa., training out of Tactical Combat, in a weight class VFL called "super middleweight."
McGinnis, who took the fight on only several days' notice, weighed in at 171, while Monteith hit the scale at 175, George said.
McGinnis was cornered by good friend Brad Souders and his brother Brett Myers. He added that a muay Thai coach from Eric Grove's school in Altoona helped him warm-up before the fight.
The fight began with an exchange of kicks and strikes. McGinnis, whose strength is his BJJ, wanted to set up a take-down with several strikes, he said. McGinnis then threw a high kick which grazed Monteith's eyebrow.
"Good height, just not deep enough to do any damage," McGinnis said.
Monteith rushed McGinnis, clinching him against the cage. There, they traded knees, and McGinnis looked for a hip throw to get Monteith to the ground. Not sensing an opening, McGinnis pulled guard.
"I had a pretty good feeling if I could get the fight to the floor, it'd be over pretty quick," he said.
But instead of the fighters immediately going to the floor, Monteith held on to McGinnis.
"He took the liberty of running my head down the fence. My head hit every link ... like a cheese grater," McGinnis said.
Monteith then power-bombed McGinnis on his shoulders and neck.
"He ended up flashing me for a second," McGinnis said, but added that he quickly came to.
Now on the floor, McGinnis cinched an armbar in about 8-10 seconds, he said.
"He picked me up and slammed me again, but I break-falled some of it," McGinnia said. "From there, I went ahead and clamped deeper," on the armbar.
Monteith tried to muster a third slam, but McGinnis torqued his hips and heard several pops, forcing Monteith to tap at 1:34 in the first round.
"I think it's pretty safe to say I hypered it," McGinnis said.
George, congrats on your first win. May it be the first of many.
See photos of the fight here and here. The site that took the photos is called We Shoot Shows.
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