Boyington, Harvey suffer mixed martial arts losses

The first mixed martial arts show held on the stage of historic Merrill Auditorium in Portland produced some unanticipated results Saturday night, Feb. 8.

UFC veteran Manny Bermudez won the main event of NEF 42, stopping Bangor-area veteran Bruce Boyington via guillotine choke at 1:54 of the opening round of their scheduled five-round lightweight bout.

The fight originally was to be contested for the NEF pro lightweight championship but when Bermudez weighed in 3.8 pounds over the 155-pound limit during Friday’s weigh-in, the Massachusetts product was not eligible to win the title, which remains vacant.

Bermudez, who was 3-2 in the UFC before being released by that promotion last October, was a late replacement for another former UFC competitor, Joe Grispi, who dropped out of the fight in January due to legal issues.

Bermudez is now 15-2 as a professional while Boyington slips to 17-12.

The co-main event provided the biggest surprise of the night when veteran Jesse Erickson of Central Maine Jiu-Jitsu in Auburn upset previously undefeated Josh Harvey — who is a graduate of Dexter Regional High School — with a first-round armbar.

Harvey (7-1-1) trapped Erickson against the cage early in the opening round before Erickson pulled guard and worked through a chain of submission attempts before finally locking in the armbar that forced Harvey to tap out at 2:21 of the first of three scheduled rounds.

Erickson, who earlier this year appeared on the Discovery Channel series Man vs. Bear, improved his record to 10-8.

On the amateur card, 58-year-old Garry Carr (3-1) of Central Maine Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu broke his own record as the oldest athlete to win a fight in the NEF cage when he scored a unanimous decision victory over 23-year-old Austin Hamilton in a catchweight fight.