- Troy Queef
- Jan 12, 2013
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I wrote way too many words about the real card of the weekend and here they are
Oh, Bellator. From your early days on ESPN Deportes, despite all commentary being in English (where a young--THIS FIGHT CLOCK IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY MODELO--commentator by--WEARING THE BLACK AND GOLD BEFITTING A CHAMPION--the name of--THIS THIRD ROUND IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY P3, PORTABLE PROTEIN PACKS--Jon Anik got his start in MMA), to its move to MTV2, to Viacom buying out Bjorn "My Dad Was The Winnebago Man" Rebney as head of the promotion, to its move to Spike when the UFC did the Fox deal, to bringing in Scott Coker once his non-compete was up, to abandoning the old "season" format (where certain divisions would have an eight-man tournament with the winner given a title shot each year), to signing every old guy you can think of up to and including Ken Shamrock, to Kimbo Slice vs Dada 5000 (which, it should be noted, is still the highest-rated fight in promotion history), to adding kickboxing, to hiring Mike Goldberg because of the nostalgia factor, you've certainly been a weird promotion in a weird sport. You've given us sneaky good fights combined with total squash matches and nostalgia rematches no one really asked for. Now, you've decided that 10 years after it got bought out by Zuffa, you're going to try and bring back the old Strikeforce magic. Hell, you've even moved to Showtime and put Mauro Ranallo on main commentary. And as luck would have it, one of the best fights your promotion could make just so happens to be the first card you're doing outside of your pandemic base at the Mohegan Sun, as well as a card going up against a frankly lovely UFC card over on ESPN.
I'd just like to tell you good luck. We're all counting on you.
The card:
Main card (Showtime)
 Featherweight GP Final and Championship: Patricio "Pitbull" Freire (c) vs. AJ McKee
Patricio Freire is undoubtedly one of Bellator's biggest names. Born in the poorer northeast of Brazil, Pitbull had his first pro fight in 2004 and quickly racked up an 11-0 record in events with names like "Leal Combat" and "Fight Ship Looking Boy". He was signed to Bellator for their Season 2 tournament, which featured 145-pounders, and promptly tore through the field and subbed Wilson Reis in the final to set up a date with Joe Warren for the tournament crown. He lost by split decision, but would be back at it in the Season 4 tournament, beating Georgi Karakhanyan (more on him later) and Reis again to set up a final date with Daniel Straus. Against a much taller and longer fighter (Patricio is only 5'6"), Pitbull expertly controlled Straus with an elite ground game and improved striking, winning a UD and a shot at then-champ Pat Curran. He lost, again by split, and would have to do another tournament to get another title shot. Patricio came to Season 9 with much more facial hair--this is important, you see--and again mowed through everyone to win the tournament and get a rematch with Curran. He made no mistake, getting a UD win and the belt. Patricio would defend it twice, including once against Straus, before dropping the belt to Straus in their trilogy fight. Following an ill-advised move to lightweight which saw him lose via leg injury against Benson Henderson, Pit came back to 145 and subbed Straus in their fourth fight to take back the belt. He's since defended it five times, but during that time his brother Patricky, then the lightweight champ, walked into Michael Chandler's hometown of St Louis and got violently knocked out. Patricio confronted Chandler afterwards and vowed to avenge his brother, which he did, by knockout, to become the promotion's second double-champ.
The son of former MMA veteran Antonio McKee, AJ McKee has spent his entire MMA life within Bellator. If there's one thing Coker can do, it's identify and nurture prospects, and he's played a blinder with McKee. "The Mercenary" has racked up 17 wins against progressively stiffer competition, steadily moving up the card in the process from pre/postlims to main events. He's claimed wins over John Macapa, Curran, and Karakhanyan, and in his most recent fight beat Darrion Caldwell with what was the fairly unanimous Submission of the Year. Just watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dv9u3KoGMI&t=170s. (Yes, the commentary is bad. It's a Bellator problem.)
 Featherweight: Mads Burnell vs. Emmanuel Sanchez
Burnell is a Danish fighter who has finished four fights, per Tapology, by way of Japanese necktie. He's an experienced, fun grappler who had a brief UFC run in 2017, losing to Michel Prazeres via north-south choke, beating Mike Santiago, and then losing to Arnold Allen. He then went on to win the Cage Warriors 145-lb title before joining Bellator, where he's beat Saul Rogers most notably.
Emmanuel Sanchez trains out of Roufusport, a gym that like a few others (notably SBG Ireland and Team Fedor) has been moving more of its fighters to Bellator. He's spent most of his career in the promotion, beating stalwarts like Straus, Daniel Weichel, and Karakhanyan while losing twice to Pitbull, including his most recent loss. Well-rounded and fun on the feet, he should make for a good fight.
Lightweight: Usman Nurmagomedov vs. Manny Muro
To answer your question: yes, he's Khabib's cousin. Usman is 12-0, with most of his wins coming on the Russian regional scene (including Khabib's EFC promotion). He was picked up by Bellator earlier this year and made his mark beating Mike Hamel by UD. This was the only fight of his last 5 he has not finished by strikes.
Muro is 12-6, and based out of Oklahoma. This is something notable about Bellator in two ways: they work a lot with local promoters to put their guys on the undercard, have them sell tickets to friends, give them a bit more cash and puts butts in seats, and also run many shows out of Indian casinos, which since they're on tribal land mean that they have their own, more flexible commisions. One of them is WinStar in Thackerville, OK, which is the closest gambling hall to the DFW Metroplex. His best win is a split decision win over Nick Newell. This fight takes the place of Raufeon Stots vs. Magomed Magomedov, pulled due to injury and moved to another card.
Lightweight: Islam Mamedov vs. Brent Primus
Oh yeah, this is fun. Mamedov is another Dagestani making his Bellator debut, but he's not a stranger to US fight fans. He was a WSOF/PFL veteran who claimed a win over tournament winner Natan Schulte, and reached the knockout stages of the PFL twice. He was unlucky in both: he beat Thiago Tavares in 2018 only to pull out of the final due to injury, and then drew with Loik Radzhabov in 2019 and missed out on the final due to a tiebreaker. He's riding a 18-fight unbeaten streak.
Primus is a grappler from Oregon with an absurd life story: he only saw his biological father either on Cops (no, really) or in prison and his abusive stepfather kicked him out of the house at age 13, after which, depending on what you read, he either started a wildly successful landscaping business or got rich selling pot. He eventually discovered BJJ, earned his black belt in six years, and got into fighting. He racked up a 7-0 record before getting a shot at champ Michael Chandler in 2017, winning the title after a low kick injured Chandler's ankle and the doctor stopped the fight. Primus would drop the title in the rematch and has not fought since February 2020.
160 lb Catchweight: Goiti Yamauchi vs. Chris Gonzalez
Another Coker trademark is a "contract weight" bout, and this is another fun one. Yamauchi was born in Japan to Brazilian parents, who moved back to Curitiba when he was a kid. He took up kickboxing there and was Parana state champ (beating some guy named John Lineker for the gold) and racked up an undefeated amateur and regional record before signing with Bellator. His career has been up and down, with wins over names like Saad Awad, Daniel Weichel, and Ryan Couture, but losses to Chandler and a young Bubba Jenkins, plus repeated problems making weight. It got so bad that after weighing in eight pounds over before a fight in December, the Mohegan Tribal Commission head told him that he could only fight at 170 going forward. (This meant nothing: his most recent fight was at 155, and he lost a decision most people regard as a robbery.)
Gonzalez is a former US national Greco-Roman wrestling champ (once again, Coker loves himself some star amateur wrestlers) with a 6-0 record, most recently knocking out Roger Huerta.
Prelims (Youtube)
Women's Flyweight: Vanessa Porto vs. Ilara Joanne
Porto is a Brazilian veteran with a 22-9 record who first came to the US in 2015, with Invicta. She beat Roxy Modafferi before losing to Jennifer Maia, and then rattled off a three-win streak which gave her a shot at the title (vacated after Maia signed with the UFC) versus Pearl Gonzalez. Porto dominated the fight until Gonzalez inadvertently poked her in the eye in the 4th: under Kansas commission rules, they went to the scorecards and Porto won a technical decision. She never actually defended her title, though: her first scheduled defense was against Karina Rodriguez, who missed weight, which turned their scheduled fight into a 3-rounder that Porto won. After that she signed with Bellator and in her first fight lost to Liz Carmouche
(Fun fact: the head of the Kansas athletic commission? Former Bellator and current BKFC commentator Sean Wheelock, who is from Overland Park. Now you know why Kansas is the only state north of Tennessee to host a BKFC event.)
Ilara Joanne trains with the Pitbull Brothers, but that's not important. You probably know her best because her nickname is "Arya Stark". She has a win over Bec Rawlings but also lost to Kana Watanabe. This fight was supposed to be a couple months ago, but got pushed back due to injury.
150 lb Catchweight: Gadzhi Rabadanov vs. Daniel Carey
Rabadanov is a Russian fighter whose previous US experience came in the PFL: he was part of the 2019 featherweight tournament, where he beat Steven Siler before getting defaulted out after missing weight against both Daniel Pineda and Lance Palmer. He has a combat sambo background, which is always cool. Carey is 7-4 and fights out of Arkansas, but not Westside MMA with Bryce Mitchell: his most notable fight is a loss to Aaron Pico.
Featherweight: Khasan Magomedsharipov vs. Jonathan Quiroz
Yes, it's Zabit's little brother. Khasan has racked up a 5-0 record on the Russian regional scene, with all but one coming by stoppage. His beard's coming in nicely, too. Quiroz is a 3-4 Mexican fighter who has fought for Combate Americas/Global, lost to Kyler Phillips in LFA, and picked up a win on a California regional card called "The Meryl Streep Showcase". (This was in 2017, after the star of Sophie's Choice and The Devil Wears Prada said that "if you kick foreigners out of the US, you'll have nothing left to watch but mixed martial arts--which are not the arts" while accepting a Golden Globe for her role in The Post. The Golden Globes aren't serious awards, anyway.)
180 lb Catchweight: Johnny Cisneros vs. Joshua Jones
Remember when I said that Bellator likes to work with local promoters to fill its undercard? We're getting to that bit now. Cisneros, aka "The Tattooed Terror", is a veteran of California Bellator cards whose most notable fight is a loss to Curtis Millender. He's 13-7. Jones is 10-5, fights out of Antonio McKee's Bodyshop gym, and has mostly traded wins and losses, including a win on the Golden Boy MMA card. Remember that? Good, now you are thinking of elder abuse.
Lightweight: Georgi Karakhanyan vs, Kiefer Crosbie
Another thing to note: Bellator has a broadcast deal with the BBC, and has recently taken to putting British/Irish fighters on earlier to make up for the time difference. Georgi Karakhanyan is a 30-11-1 veteran who's fought just about everyone: he was an original Bellator fighter, lost to Pitbull in Season 2, beat Din Thomas in an LFA card back when they were on HDNet, has wins over PFL darlings Lance Palmer and Bubba Jenkins, and has lost to two other fighters on this card, namely AJ McKee and Emmanuel Sanchez, the latter twice. Crosbie is an SBG Ireland prospect signed as part of Bellator's European expansion, made possible by Viacom wanting cheap content on its Euro channels. He lost to Mike Jackson, but not the same Mike Jackson that beat CM Punk.
Bantamweight: Brian Moore vs. Jordan Winski
Moore is another SBG Ireland guy signed as part of the Euro plan. His Tapology page has as many cancelled fights as it has wins. Winski is making his Bellator debut and, again according to Tapology, is nicknamed "I'm Gonna" Winski.
190lb Catchweight: Justin Barry vs Daniel Compton
Barry is making his pro debut and Compton is a 3-3 Cali regional fighter.
There it is, far too many words about Bellator. It should be a good card despite the insipid commentary, questionable pacing, and the ring announcing "skills" of Michael C. Williams.
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Jul 7, 2021 20:34
