Bellator 204 was this past weekend. Let’s get right to the rundown.
Bellator 204
GOOD/BAD- Tywan Claxton vs. Cris Lencioni
Claxton dominated this fight, but there were moments of inaction. Claxton won the decision, nice win for him.
GOOD- Ricky Bandejas stops James Gallagher
Gallagher landed some good kicks early, but then Bandejas caught him with a right hand, followed by a kick, then a lot more punches to force the ref to step in. Big win for Bandejas as he stops the trash-talking Gallagher, though he didn’t actually stop Gallagher from talking as he kept running his mouth even after getting stopped.
GOOD- Logan Storely stops A.J. Matthews
Storely utterly dominated this fight. He took Matthews down and beat the hell out of him with elbows, knees, punches, and anything else he could hit him with. Matthews showed crazy toughness to last as long as he did, as the ref didn’t jump in until about four minutes into the second round. Big win for Storely.
BAD/GOOD- Darrion Caldwell stops Noad Lahat
Bellator bantamweight champion Caldwell moved up to featherweight here to fight Lahat, as Caldwell has plans to be a dual-division champion. The first round was trash, just completely devoid of anything remotely interesting. The second round started off just like the first, but then Caldwell turned it up with the strikes and forced the ref to jump in about halfway through the second round.
The GOOD is for the finish, but everything else was BAD. I don’t know if Caldwell can become a two-division champ, but it’s always interesting to watch guys try it. It’s become the new thing to do.
*************
Some thoughts on upcoming fights
Curtis Blaydes vs. Francis Ngannou
Some interesting fights have recently been announced/confirmed/heated up. These include Curtis Blaydes vs. Francis Ngannou 2, where Ngannou won the first fight but has lost two in a row while Blaydes has won four in a row, which would be six if he didn’t get a win overturned due to testing positive for marijuana. Blaydes could be looking at a title shot with a win here, but who knows for sure with the way the UFC is.
Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman
Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman 2 is also on tap, Rockhold won the first fight but has since lost two of three. Weidman has lost three of his last four fights, including the loss to Rockhold. So, pride is on the line more than anything else during this fight, apparently, though I guess the winner also has a chance to start trying to make a title run. You got to start somewhere.
Nicco Montano vs. Valentina Shevchenko
Valentina Shevchenko will face women’s flyweight champion Nicco Montano next month, and she recently said that she doesn’t believe Montano will actually show up until they’re locked in the cage together. She believes Montano is running scared. I don’t know about all that, but what I do know is that I’m very interested in this fight. This will hopefully be a really good fight that delivers exciting action. I think it will be, but I don’t want to assume anything.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
NOW READ THIS: HYDEN BLOG: Early thoughts on Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor
Leave a Reply