Alumni Jean Paul LeBosnoyani wins King of The Cage bout

Jean Paul Lebosnoyani raises his gloves before participating in his professional mix martial arts career fight. LeBoysnoyani defeated his opponent on Sept. 2 at the Citizens Bank Arena by way of submission, winning the King of The Cage bout and improving his perfect record to 5-0.

Brian Kaiserman

Sports Editor

Mira Costa alumni Jean-Paul LeBosnoyani finally stepped into the cage on the night of Sept. 2, with his perfect amateur record on the line.

The fight took place in Ontario, California at the Citizens Bank Arena. Due to multiple opponents dropping out, LeBosnoyani aka “Mufasa” was unaware of who he would be fighting a week before the bout.

“Grown men don’t want to fight me, and I don’t blame them,” LeBosnoyani said. “I ended up having four of my opponents pull out and I was left fighting a guy named Vaughn Thomas.”

Immediately after the bell sounded to begin the fight, Lebosnoyani was cut significantly by a kick to the face from Thomas. Fearing the fight would be stopped, Lebosnoyani quickly took down his opponent and after 32 seconds Thomas was choked out and the fight was stopped.

“The original strategy of the fight was to display my kickboxing and boxing skills,” LeBosnoyani said. “After my eyebrow was cut from a head kick, I knew I needed to get a submission or the fight would be stopped due to my bleeding.”

The fight was originally scheduled to go three rounds, but LeBosnoyani managed to achieve a TKO (technical knockout) after forcing Thomas to tap out just moments into the fight. Despite an excellent result, LeBosnoyani was not happy after the fight.

“After the fight I was pretty upset because I wasn’t able to work on the skills I practiced while training,” LeBosnoyani. “However, I definitely made the right decision to finish the fight after taking a pretty gnarly kick to the face.”

LeBosnoyani showcased his skills in front of many fans in the stadium, as well as live on MavTv. The promotion holding the fight was called King of the Cage, and is one of the top promotions along with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“The overall atmosphere in the arena was really exciting,” Costa junior and fight spectator Koda Thormodsgaard said. “It took a long time for the fight to begin, but Jean-Paul made it worth the wait.”

LeBosnoyani’s victory brought his record to a perfect 5-0. In just six months, LeBosnoyani has earned a shot at the welterweight title in the 170 pound division next month against fellow undefeated amateur Djavan Coleman.

“My next fight will be on October 7 for the 170 pound belt,” LeBosnoyani said. “This will likely be my final fight before I turn pro with an organization smaller than the UFC.”

After already having tremendous success as an amateur, LeBosnoyani has extremely high aspirations for the future. He hopes to eventually compete for a title in the UFC.

“My ultimate goal for the future is to become the youngest ever UFC champion at 155 pounds,” LeBosnoyani said.