It was a fight that was a little overlooked on a deep RFO: Big Guns 17 – The Exorcism card, but Chico Bays (2-0) put on an impressive showing and earned our “performance of the night” for his victory over Tony Dipiero (0-1) at the event.
Bays, who made his pro debut last November and hadn’t fought since, stepped up to middleweight upon getting an opportunity to fight, and he looked better than he ever has before against the biggest opponent of his career.
“When we looked at him on film, we just saw that he’s more of a bigger, stronger guy, more like a slow haymaker type of guy,” Bays told BluegrassMMA after the fight. “So we just didn’t wanna get caught sitting in front of him. It was a lot of angles. So I was actually fighting without fighting, setting traps, and he pretty much walked into all of my traps.”
The first trap was using head kicks to set up his punches, as he cracked Dipero with a high kick just seconds into the fight, and that seemed to open up things with his hands.
Dipiero was looking to just throw big shots as Bays’ trainers at Ronin Training Center had expected, but “The Ninja” didn’t stand in front of him and used his footwork to continue circling away from the cage.
“The check hook led him,” Bays said. “We saw that he likes to throw to the body and then the head. A lot of people throw their hook forward, but you’re actually supposed to lean back when you throw a hook. So that’s what I was doing.”
Bays continued to pop that left hook against Dipiero, similar to the way Gennady Golovkin was using his jab against the power punching David Lemieux. It was at least partially meant to score points, but it did the most damage in the fight.
Another head kick briefly dropped Dipiero, and Bays stayed patient, not pouncing that time and instead using his hands to set up a better finishing opportunity.
That finishing opportunity came just seconds later, when it was the short left hook that again dropped Dipiero. This time Bays jumped in the for the finish, and the referee pulled him off for the TKO win. It took just 2:35 into the first round.
After the win, a confident Bays mouthed to the media row and fans “that was just practice,” and it did appear that he didn’t even break a sweat in picking up the win.
He told us that despite taking the fight at middleweight, he plans to drop back down in the future.
“185 is definitely an easier cut, but I diet well,” Bays said. “170 is a little harder, but that’s where I still plan to fight at, because a lot of those 185 guys are naturally bigger. I usually get a fight when I’m out of shape, and that’s the hard thing about 170.”
Bays’ next outing will be next month in his hometown of Columbus, when he faces Matt Anderson in a boxing match on the night before Thanksgiving. After that, the 33-year-old plans to get right back to MMA and wants to fight again before the end of the year or early next year.
“My goal is the UFC or Bellator,” Bays said. “I feel like my striking is where it needs to be. I need a little more work on the ground though.”
Full video of Bays’ win over Dipiero is below.
Photo courtesy Mike Wrobel/Shoot It MMA