Dennis Buzukja and Troy Green win titles at Ring of Combat 71
Dennis Buzukja hits pads with Ray Longo at LAW MMA in Garden City on Sept. 28, 2018. Credit: Newsday/Ryan Gerbosi
Dennis Buzukja found himself moving around the MMA circles of social media after his last fight in November. You know, the one that ended with him connecting on a spinning elbow for the knockout.
On Friday night, he made another important move up the MMA ladder by winning his first professional title. Buzukja beat Tim Dooling by unanimous decision to win the Ring of Combat featherweight title at ROC 71 in Atlantic City. The judges scored it 29-28, 29-28, 30-27.
Buzukja (4-1), who moved to Long Island from Staten Island and trains under Ray Longo and Matt Serra, and Dooling (7-7), from New Jersey, put on an "absolute war" as many of those watching live wrote on social media. Both fighters were bloodied from the stand-up battle.
Long Island added a second champion to its long line of successful fighters in Ring of Combat, a group that includes former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, Gian Villante, Ryan LaFlare, Al Iaquinta, Gregor Gillespie and Andre Harrison, to name a few.
Troy Green, who trains under Keith Trimble at Bellmore Kickboxing MMA, won the Ring of Combat welterweight title and remained undefeated. Green (4-0) won a unanimous decision over John Ramirez, with all three judges scoring the bout 29-28.
Justin Montalvo, another Serra-Longo fighter, made his professional debut one to remember, finishing his opponent in 36 seconds in a 160-pound catchweight bout. Montalvo connected with a left-right-left combination, the last strike landing flush to the face of Doug LoBasso and dropping him to the canvas. A couple more punches followed and the referee moved in to stop the bout.
Mark La Monica is a deputy sports editor at Newsday. He also covers mixed martial arts.
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