Bellator 235 results: Tywan Claxton overwhelms Braydon Akeo to rebound from first loss

Tywan Claxton got back on track after suffering the first loss of his career with a dominant performance against Braydon Akeo on Friday at Bellator 245.

Tywan Claxton (6-1 MMA, 6-1 BMMA) used superior striking in the first two rounds and then put his ground game to work in the third to take a unanimous decision over Akeo (3-1 MMA, 3-1 BMMA). The judges’ scores were 30-27 across the board.

“Everybody knows that I just came off my first loss my last fight,” Claxton said in his post-fight interview with John McCarthy. “I was in the featherweight grand prix and I ended up drawing Emanuel Sanchez. That was my sixth professional fight and he just fought for the world title two fights ago. He taught me a lesson. … I might lose, but I’m going to come back stronger. You can’t break me.”

The featherweight bout was part of the Bellator 235 (“Bellator and USO Present: Salute the Troops 2019”) main card at Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. The main card aired on Paramount and streamed on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.

Claxton opened the fight quite aggressive, pushing the action on Akeo and loading up on big overhands and heavy kicks. Akeo was able to evade early damage, but struggled to get any sort of rhythm going on his own end. After striking it out for the next few minutes with minimal results, Claxton finally closed the distance on Akeo and pressed him against the fence. He didn’t change levels, but instead broke away and returned to free space with less than a minute left. Claxton kept busy with his striking output to close out the round, but still failed to hurt Akeo.

In the second round, Claxton came out with a similar offensive approach. He marched Akeo down and loaded up on his combinations, but allowed Akeo an opening for a takedown attempt off a missed head kick. Akeo couldn’t put Claxton on the mat, but he did press him against the fence. He couldn’t take much time off the clock from there, however, because Claxton broke free. Claxton got back in control in the striking, but his range remained off. He landed a handful of decent punches before opting to change his approach and put Akeo against the fence. Claxton landed some good elbows from inside, but allowed Akeo to break away when he changed levels for a takedown. Akeo landed his best punch of the fight in the final seconds, but is still wasn’t even to stop him from falling behind by two rounds.

Claxton came out wild to begin the final round. He threw a spinning attack followed by a huge head kick, but Akeo had it scouted and stayed away. Claxton missed on a strike and allowed Akeo to spin around and take the back from a standing position. Claxton avoided the danger by spinning free and controlling Akeo against the fence. Akeo got free, but moments later found himself on the wrong end of a Claxton takedown with less than two minutes remaining. Claxton landed some good punches, but Akeo managed to stand himself back up, despite still being held against the fence. Claxton would take Akeo back to the mat not long after, landing in mount where he opened up with some strong blows. He nearly locked in a rear-naked choke in the last 10 seconds, but could not finish it before time expired. Nevertheless, he put a definitive stamp on his performance/

Up-to-the-minute Bellator 235 results include:

• Tywan Claxton def. Braydon Akeo via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Joey Davis def. Chris Cisneros via TKO (punches and elbows) — Round 1, 3:55
• Hunter Ewald def. Brysen Bolohao via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 1:42
• Joseph Creer def. Ty Gwerder via via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-26)
• Cass Bell def. Pierre Daguzan via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)