If anyone doubted Mike Sorenson's place in the Maximum Fighting Championship, the blood-stained mat at MFC 17: Hostile Takeover is proof that the Fort McMurray native is one of the best welterweights in the mixed martial arts organization.

Sorenson scored a first-round TKO over North Carolina's Lamont Davis at the event held at the River Cree Resort & Casino Friday night. Sorenson punished his opponent on the ground with elbow strike after elbow strike, splitting the bridge of Davis' nose wide open.

"It's definitely the beginning of something," Sorenson said of his win. "I almost feel like that one was too easy. I know the next one is going to be a war. It kind of gives you a false pretense I think. Nothing is ever that easy."

Sorenson was the aggressor from the opening bell. He landed a sharp kick to
Davis' right thigh and followed that with flying knee to the stomach. The fighters tangled up and wrestled into the ropes where they traded blows. Coming into the fight, Sorenson's game plan was to pressure to the American-style kick boxer and not give him room to deliver  strikes.

He followed through on that when he dragged Davis' to the corner and, after
several attempts, scored a takedown by grabbing his opponent's waist and
slamming him to the mat.

"I took his legs out and got on top of him," recalls Sorenson. "I started pounding him out and then the ref stopped it because we were to close to the ropes."

After the slight stoppage, the ring official repositioned the fighters in the centre of the ring with Sorenson back on top in a half guard. He managed to obtain a full mount and unloaded with a series of right hands and elbow strikes.

"I just bombarded him and ended up cutting his nose and his eye really bad,"
said Sorenson. "It was pretty bloody." The ref called for time in order to get a better look at Davis' wounds. He was taken to his corner where the fight doctor examined his badly lacerated nose and determined him fit to continue.

The fighters were reset again in the middle of the mat which was now smeared
with Davis' blood and sweat. With full mount back, Sorenson pinned down his
flailing opponent and landed rapid-fire punches, bouncing Davis' head off the ground like a basketball.

With one last barrage, Sorenson delivered a few more crushing blows that
forced the in-ring official to call the fight two minutes and 52 seconds into the first round. Victorious, Sorenson sprung to his feet and was greeted by his trainer Sandy Bowman and the rest of his camp.

Sorenson says the elbow strikes were his biggest weapon. He had worked on
footwork, takedowns and elbows during MMA legend Pat Miletich's training
camp in Iowa earlier this month.

"Anyone can get hit in the teeth with a short punch, but you get stuck with
an elbow, you know it," he said. The win pushes Sorenson's record to 4-1-0 and moves him up the ladder in the 170-pound welterweight division. He isn't sure who his next opponent will be, but he could face Nova Scotia's Matt MacGrath.

Another victory could line up a rematch with Edmonton's Ryan Ford, who is
Sorenson's only blemish after a TKO defeat this past November. Ford was
defeated by veteran Pat Healy for the newly-created MFC welterweight title
in the main event of Friday's card.

"I wouldn't be surprised if him and I end up fighting for a shot at the belt," said Sorenson. "No one has said anything to me, but the way the rankings go, I'd be willing to bet money on it."

The Maximum Fighting Championship's next scheduled event is MFC 18: Famous
which will be held at the River Cree Resort & Casino Sept. 26.

Also competing on Friday's card was Sorenson's teammate at Bowman's and
fellow McMurrayite, Dwayne Lewis. Unfortunately for Lewis, his night was not
as successful.

He suffered his third straight loss in shocking fashion when Oklahoma's Aron
Lofton landed a devastating right hand sending Lewis spinning to the mat just 17 seconds into the match.

"I was waiting for that big right hand and I wanted to trick him with my left hook," said Lewis. "From what I remember, he came in with the right hand and I didn't pull away. It just hit me on the chin."

Lewis knew heading into the fight that Lofton packed quite a punch. He wanted to stick and move with the heavy-handed light heavyweight, but in retrospect said he should have been more aggressive of the bat.

Once Lewis was on the mat, Lofton followed up by jumping on his back and
raining down three huge haymakers. The referee immediately jumped in to stop
the fight and Lewis somehow managed to get to his feet.

"I was rattled," said Lewis. "If the ref wasn't there, I might have had a chance to grab him and recover. But I was out. Even when I got up, my legs were still rubbery."

This was an important fight for Lewis, who has watched his record drop to
4-5-0 with all five defeats coming in his last six professional fights. He now plans on regrouping and perhaps fighting a few untelevised preliminary events to regain confidence.

"My worst fear just came true," Lewis said of the one-punch KO loss. However, it's also something of a liberating experience, he said. Much like someone who's afraid of sharks swimming with Great Whites, Lewis says the embarrassing defeat has helped get his mental game back on course.

"I've always feared getting caught with something stupid and getting knocked
out right off the get-go," Lewis said. "That's always been in the back of my head. Now it's out of the way and the chances of it happening again are slim-to-none."

"Now that it's done with, I'm going to put it behind me and starting pushing forward," he said. Lewis plans on taking a week off from fighting to spend with his three kids and then will get back in the gym training for his next fight.