LFA 224 Preview
LFA 224 happens tonight (Friday, January 16, 2026) from the Mystic Lake Showroom in Prior Lake, Minnesota. This is LFA’s first event of the year and their first since leaving UFC Fight Pass. Why are we writing about LFA? Well, it’s been close to 40 days since a UFC event and there’s longer to wait until we see competition in the Octagon. LFA might help you satiate that desire to see some MMA during this very long feeling winter. Plus, LFA has been a fantastic proving ground for fighters over the years with many of their past fighters making it to UFC and having long careers in the Octagon.
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Friday’s main event is for the vacant LFA Heavyweight title. That’s a belt once held by Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Denzel Freeman, both of whom are competing at UFC 324 next week. Freeman vacated the belt when he was signed to UFC last year.
Matt Adams and Arslan Bilatov will fight it out for that strap. Adams is 5-1 and fighting out of Ohio. Bilalov, who is Russian, is 5-0 and is coming off a submission win in November to claim the Alaska Fighting Championship Heavyweight belt.
The co-main is a Welterweight bout between Josiah Harrell and Bekmyrza Dosmatov. Harrell is 27 years-old and 10-0 with wins coming in LFA and Ohio Combat League. Harrell almost made his UFC debut in 2023, attempting to come in on short notice to fight Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 290. However, after weighing in for that fight Harrell was removed from the card due to a rare brain disease that was flagged during his pre-fight medicals. Harrell underwent surgery to fix that issue. He returned to fighting two years later. Last year he scored a first round submission over Melvin Guillard.
Dosmatov fights out of Osh, Kyrgyzstan. He’s 13-2 after fighting mostly around Eurasia.
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This card also has Brazilian veteran Ednilson Santos taking on former Combate Global fighter Jose Ferreira, at Lightweight.
LFA 224 Start Date and Time
LFA 224 airs on Vice TV, for the first time in their history. The main card is due to start at 9 p.m. ET.
The free prelim card will be taking place on LFA’s YouTube channel, beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
Keep it locked on MMA Mania for all the results and highlights from the event. Please jump into the comments to talk about the fights with fellow fans.
LFA 224 QUICK RESULTS
Main card
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265 lbs.: Matt Adams vs. Arslan Bilalov
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170 lbs.: Josiah Harrell vs. Bekmyrza Dosmatov
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155 lbs.: Ednilson Santos vs. Jose Ferreira
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145 lbs.: Shaheen Santana vs. Taner Trembley
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115 lbs.: GiGi Canuto vs. Janaina Silva
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155 lbs.: Canon Swanson vs. Jimmy Washington
Prelims
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145 lbs.: Abbas Abasov vs. Andy Waters
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185 lbs.: Tyree Overton vs. Pedro Trujillo
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150 lbs.: Noah Gasho vs. David McKinney
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265 lbs.: Ezayeh Gomez vs. Braden Peterson
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155 lbs.: Mitchell Wilson vs. Sedric Richard
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155 lbs.: Hykeem Green vs. McCoy Tekautz
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155 lbs.: Xavier Judge vs. Alex Martin
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185 lbs.: Cadin Vowels vs. Armani Webster
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145 lbs.: Jessie Hays vs. Daysi Perez
LFA 224 PLAY-BY-PLAY UPDATES
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