Ovince St. Preux celebrates following his main event win - which took just eight seconds - against Jason Day. - Robb Fenton Photo


By Robb Fenton
The Evolution Fighting Championship once again showed why it is growing and becoming a top mixed martial arts circuit in Canada.
The EFC put on their fifth event, EFC 5: Summer Rumble, this past Saturday night at the Civic Centre with a jam-packed and high calibre card for the fans of Lloydminster.
From having a fight between a former UFC fighter, to the locals back in the cage, the EFC delivered.
“It was huge for us. We didn’t have the crowd we wanted, but it’s the summer time. We didn’t have a choice whether to do the card or not. I didn’t want to lose Jason Day’s fight or Brad Cardinal’s fight, so we put on the card,” EFC co-president Mark Lindskog said. “I’m glad the people came out. It shows a lot for Lloyd, because in the summer time everyone leaves, so for these people to stick around means a lot to us and we appreciate it.”
While it was about three months since the last event, which is about the time frame the EFC wants to continue with, they admitted an event in the middle of the summer is tough to sell tickets for.
Regardless of the actual attendance numbers, Lindskog was very happy with how the card went and feels the fans definitely got their money worth.
“It’s huge, people will be talking about this for a long time and wondering when the next one is going to be. That’s what we want, we want people to wonder when we’re going to do another one again and how soon, so we’ll do some more match making and see when we can put another one together,” he said.
One of the biggest surprises of the night was the main event.
While the result wasn’t necessarily the surprise, it was how it happened and how quick.
Ovince St. Preux landed a decisive shot on Jason Day at just eight seconds in the first round, picking up the win in the final fight of the night.
“Not a whole lot of people saw it coming, but Ovince is a tough guy. He just got released from Strikeforce and Jason Day, he’s a machine, so it could have gone either way,” Lindskog said. “Ovince is tough and he caught Jay Day by surprise. It was shocking to people, but you have to give the guy (Ovince) credit, he got the job done.”
Seeing local fighters hop in the cage is always a big drawing point for the fans and EFC 5 was no different, as four locals were on the card.
Lance Desnoyer and Ben Stewart picked up convincing wins, while Justin Flett and Ryan Dallyn performed well, but failed to come out on top.
“Lance Desnoyer did what he had to do, Ben Stewart, he’s a machine, he’s a big boy for 170 pounds and he showed it, he handled the guy pretty good, took him down and did whatever he wanted. The guy he fought took a lot of punches, that’s one tough kid. I can definitely see Ben going big places,” Lindskog said. “Flett, he got caught. It’s not like Flett to do that and Ryan Dallyn, it could have gone either way if it went to the scorecard, they were good fights all around.”
As people cleared out of the Civic Centre still talking about the main event, Lindskog said the EFC is already in plans for their next couple shows, but nothing is finalized just yet.
One thing that is for sure, the event will be another exciting time for mixed martial arts in the area.
“We’re dealing with the city right now, but we’ve got some out of town stuff. We’re looking at Cold Lake for the next one at the end of September. Plus another show on the road after that one. We’ll most likely be back here in April,” he said, adding Saturday’s show was a huge success. “We’re super happy with how the night went.”