The cheers that greeted Kyle Maynard when he emerged from his pre-fight area at the Auburn Covered Arena on Saturday night were in stark contrast to the relative silence that greeted his opponent, Bryan Fry.
The cheers only got louder from the highly partisan crowd as Maynard, a congenital amputee, rushed up the ringside steps and into the cage to begin his first Mixed Martial Arts fight.
And that was about the peak of the excitement, as Maynard and Fry stalemated for three three-minute rounds, with Fry winning on a 30-27 judges’ decision.
Maynard repeatedly tried to take Fry’s legs out from under him, exhibiting the most activity at the beginning of each round.
With every attempt at a takedown came a large cheer from the crowd. And also a fairly easy parry by Fry.
Fry stayed upright and managed to get a few punches in on Maynard, but never got close enough to do much.
The crowd broke into a “KY-LE” chant on three separate occasions, as well as occasional pleas for Fry to “WRES-TLE” and fight on Maynard’s level.
But Fry stayed on his feet, kept his distance and came away with the decision.
Maynard used the ring announcer’s microphone after the fight to thank the crowd for supporting him and thank Fry for giving him the opportunity to try his hand at MMA, after Georgia denied him a license to fight in 2007 and, according to promoter David Oblas, "five or six" fighters backed out of facing Maynard.
dmorrison@oanow.com | 737-2568
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