{"id":249097,"date":"2017-03-28T06:06:53","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T20:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=249097"},"modified":"2017-03-28T06:06:53","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T20:06:53","slug":"fitial-beats-aussie-foe-pxc-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/fitial-beats-aussie-foe-pxc-56\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitial beats Aussie foe in PXC 56"},"content":{"rendered":"
The CNMI\u2019s Kelvin Fitial, right, lands a right cross on Australia\u2019s Benjamin Sosoli during their heavyweight bout in PXC 56 held last Saturday at the University of Guam Calvo Field House. (Pacific Xtreme Combat Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A more prepared Kelvin \u201cThe Big Hit\u201d Fitial earned a unanimous decision win over Australia\u2019s Benjamin Sosoli during their heavyweight bout in PXC 56 last Saturday at the University of Guam Calvo Field House.<\/p>\n

Fitial used his new found quickness and reach advantage on Sosoli to connect solid kicks and knees that prevented the Aussie from aggressively attacking the former in their three-round fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave him some kicks in the first round and then in the second, I let go of some knees that made him think twice if he\u2019s going to move closer. We then had exchanges in the third and I remained aggressive as I knew he was gassing out, while I still have the stamina to attack him,\u201d said Fitial, whose victory in PXC 56 came after he lost his MMA return following a five-year absence. <\/p>\n

The Marianas Elite standout bowed to Guam\u2019s Roque Martinez via unanimous decision during the PXC 54 held last July 8, 2016. Before that bout, Fitial also dueled Martinez in PXC 24 (June 11, 2011) and won via TKO (punches).<\/p>\n

\u201cI had only two to three months to prepare when I challenged Roque last year. This time, I trained longer thus the results were different. I could have lasted a few more rounds after I fought Benjamin,\u201d the 32-year-old fight said.<\/p>\n

Fitial also believed being 10lbs lighter than his Australian foe gave him quickness and allowed him to elude majority of Sosoli\u2019s punches. The CNMI MMA bet tipped the scale at 239lbs during last Friday\u2019s weigh-in, down to nearly 30 pounds from his previous weight when he collided against Martinez. He credited his wife Yuline for taking care of his diet and buddy Jerry Diaz of Gold\u2019s Gym for developing an effective workout for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy opponent threw a lot of heavy punches, but I was quick enough to evade them. I also tried to keep the fight standing up because that\u2019s my game plan. It will be harder if we ended up fighting on the ground,\u201d said Fitial, who improved his win-draw-loss record to 13-2-8.<\/p>\n

Sosoli absorbed only his second loss in five MMA pro fights.<\/p>\n

With his victory last weekend, Fitial hopes to have another shot at Martinez. The rivals met three times in PXC with their first encounter (PXC 22 ) on Jan. 21, 2011 ending in a draw. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to close that chapter with him because I am planning to lose more weight and fight either in the light heavyweight or middleweight,\u201d Fitial said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Fitial would like to thank the following for making his victory in PXC 56 possible: Pete and Mark Sablan, GSM, Saipan Apparel, GIG, GMT, Imperial Pacific, High Blood Pressure Guam, Trench Tech, Choke Chain, Muay Thai Guam, Hoopaholics, Trench Tech\u2019s Cukie Alvarez, and Shamrock Restaurant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A more prepared Kelvin \u201cThe Big Hit\u201d Fitial earned a unanimous decision win over Australia\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":249098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[195,16137,2325,1289],"class_list":["post-249097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-benjamin-sosoli","tag-mma","tag-pxc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}