On Saturday night in Anaheim, California, Kaiyana Rain avenged her lone defeat and captured another title at Momentum Fighting Championship: “Fight Night 2.” Rain earned a Unanimous Decision victory over Stephanie “The Shark” Gonzalez to become Momentum FC 115-pound champion.
Rain and Gonzalez first faced off in a competitive bout under the Grappling X banner in October when Gonzalez prevailed via razor-thin Split Decision. Rain dominated much of the rematch on Saturday to earn the Momentum FC title and she plans to make her professional debut later this year.
Rain (5-1-1) was aggressive throughout the rematch with Gonzalez (5-1-0) and mixed up her strikes with punches and a variety of kicks. She was able to land a pair of head kicks and continued to press the action as Gonzalez maintained her distance and looked to counterstrike. Gonzalez landed her best punches of the fight in rounds one and three, but she could not continue the momentum and found herself on the receiving end of combinations from Rain.
In the clinch, Rain scored with more short strikes, but Gonzalez defended well and repeatedly prevented Rain from taking her down. The offensive advantage remained with Rain, however, and she landed more kicks and strikes in the clinch as the fight progressed.
After three rounds, the cageside judges returned a unanimous verdict in favour of Rain, who has now won four straight fights since the first bout with Gonzalez last year. She intends to join the professional ranks in the coming months and has become one of the fastest rising stars in the 115-pound division.
Despite suffering the first defeat of her career, the 23-year-old Gonzalez remains a top prospect at 115 pounds as well and also plans to make her pro debut later in the year.
Winner: Kaiyana Rain by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29.5-27.5, 29.5-29) after three rounds. She improves to 5-1-1 and becomes the Momentum FC 115-pound amateur women’s champion.