Bellator 202, Bellator 203, and UFC Fight Night 133 were all this past weekend. Let’s get straight to the rundown.
Bellator 202
GOOD- Rudy Schaffroth stops Jon Hill
Schaffroth dropped Hill almost immediately and then pounded him out for the stoppage win. Good win for Schaffroth.
GOOD- Valentin Moldavsky stops Ernest James
Moldavsky closed up the eye of James and then punished him some more before the referee jumped in to stops things late in the second round. James was tough, but he was taking a beating. Good win for Moldavsky.
GOOD- Chris Honeycutt vs. Leo Leite
Honeycutt basically destroyed Leite. All three judges scored the fight 30-25 for Honeycutt, which means he got two 10-8 rounds from the judges. To be honest, it very easily could have been three 10-8 rounds from the judges. It probably should have been, but it doesn’t matter because Honeycutt still clearly dominated things. Good win for him.
GOOD- Michael McDonald stops Eduardo Dantas
McDonald came out strong and plastered Dantas for the stoppage in about fifty seconds. Good win for McDonald, who unfortunately hurt his hand again, which has him contemplating retirement due to the repeated nature of his hand injuries.
GOOD- Julia Budd stops Talita Nogueira
Budd successfully defended her Bellator Women’s Featherweight Title here, as she started slowly but picked up steam and started blasting Nogueira with big shots before finishing her off in the third round. Good win for Budd, as she shows she’s one of the best featherweights around.
Bellator 203
GOOD- Maxim Radu stops Simone La Preziosa
Radu was all over La Preziosa from the start and kept hitting him with big shots on the ground. He did whatever he wanted and eventually the ref had to step in to stop things. Good win for Radu.
GOOD- Andrey Koreshkov stops Vaso Bakocevic</b.
Koreshkov dropped Bakocevic with a kick to the body and the ref jumped in to stop things a little over a minute into the first round. Good win for Koreshkov.
GOOD- Alen Amedovski stops Will Fleury
Amedovski dropped Fleury with a powerful right hand that ended the fight about a minute and a half into the first round. Nice power shown by Amedovski and a good win for him.
GOOD- Alessio Sakara stops Jamie Sloane
Sakara landed some big shots early and Sloane fell to the mat, where Sakara poured it on and forced the stoppage about one minute and twenty seconds into the first round. Good win for Sakara in front of the hometown crowd in Italy.
GOOD/BAD- Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Daniel Weichel
Freire successfully defended his Bellator Men’s Featherweight Title here, in another fight that started slowly and built up. There was a lot more slow moments in this fight than in the Bellator Women’s Featherweight Title fight the previous night. There were some good moments as well, and the fight was really close, so that tips it into GOOD territory a bit more. The fight went the distance and Pitbull picked up the split decision. Good win for him.
UFC Fight Night 133
GOOD/BAD- Cat Zingano vs. Marion Reneau
Zingano controlled the fight throughout with her wrestling on route to the decision victory. This was a solid fight, nothing great, but good enough. Nice win for Zingano.
GOOD- Chad Mendes stops Myles Jury
Not much going on in the first few minutes but then Mendes blasts Jury with a big right hand and jumps on him, forcing the stoppage just under three minutes into the first round. Big win for Mendes as he returns from suspension with the explosive finish.
GOOD- Niko Price stops Randy Brown
Price knocked out Brown while on his back. It was crazy and I’m not even sure if I should try to describe it because this is a finish you just need to see to believe. He punched him out from the mat. You’ll be better off just watching the clip online if you’re interested. Good win for Price.
GOOD- Dennis Bermudez vs. Rick Glenn
Glenn won the split decision, but I thought Bermudez would get the win because he landed a lot of takedowns. Glenn was doing his thing and it was really close but I thought Glenn should have won because of his striking and activity. The biggest complaint I would have for Bermudez is that he didn’t really do much of anything with all the takedowns he got. He seemed content to just keep control so I’m glad the judges gave Glenn the victory. Good win for Glenn.
GOOD- Sage Northcutt stops Zak Ottow
Ottow started strong and got some takedowns, but then Northcutt started landing and he almost finished the fight at the end of the first round, but Ottow was saved by the bell. That wouldn’t happen in the second round, though, as Northcutt got a takedown of his own and in the scramble, pounced on him with strikes to force the stoppage. Good win for Northcutt.
BAD- Junior dos Santos vs. Blagoy Ivanov
I didn’t care for this fight. It was solid and smart on their part, but it was dull to watch. It happens, sometimes fight just aren’t very good. I wouldn’t expect either man to take huge chances in order to try to excite the crowd but this can be the result sometimes. Dos Santos won the decision, which is surely what he wanted. I can’t fault him for that, you got to win any way you can. It wasn’t exciting, but it was effective.
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