Bellator 237 was this past weekend and it featured a matchup between two legends. Let’s get to the rundown.
Bellator 237
GOOD/BAD- Michael “Venom” Page stops Shinsho Anzai
Page was clearly the better fighter and this was a fairly entertaining fight, but at the same time it’s getting ridiculous for MVP to keep fighting these guys who don’t have much of a chance to beat him. I see people joking that Scott Coker has been asking his cabbie if he wants to fight MVP. Or sometimes it’s his barber, his waiter, his IT guy, his bartender, etc.
As expected, Page beat the hell out of Anzai and stopped him early in the second round. MVP is better than this. At a certain point, you have to stop the squash matches. Of course, if MVP is the one wanting this, that’s fine so long as he knows that he’ll continue to be the guy opening shows instead of closing them. Regardless, good win for Page.
GOOD- Goiti Yamauchi submits Daron Cruickshank
Not a whole lot to this fight. Yamauchi got the fight to the ground, then worked for and locked in the rear-naked choke to get the submission just a little over three minutes into the first round. Good win for Yamauchi.
BAD/GOOD- Kana Watanabe submits Ilara Joanne
This seemed like a sparring match for most of the first two rounds. It wasn’t until the third round when things started picking up a bit. Watanabe had some submission attempts throughout the fight so it wasn’t all bad or anything, but it wasn’t all that good either. She got the stoppage towards the end of the third round with some ground-and-pound. It wasn’t pretty but it was effective. Good win for Watanabe.
GOOD- Lorenz Larkin vs. Keita Nakamura
Larkin spent the majority of this fight beating up Nakamura with hard and repeated shots. He busted up the left eye of Nakamura and cut him open. Larkin attacked the body and the head and didn’t give Nakamura much chance to get his own offense in. Larkin won the clear decision, good win for him.
GOOD- Michael Chandler stops Sidney Outlaw
Chandler pummeled Outlaw with body shots which opened up the head and set up the finish. Chandler dropped Outlaw with a big right hand and got the stoppage just about three minutes into the first round. Good win for Chandler.
GOOD- Fedor Emelianenko stops Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
Fedor started throwing early and often. They traded strikes before Fedor dropped Rampage with a counter right to get the knockout and stoppage not quite three minutes into the first round.
This is the best Fedor has looked in a while. Granted, it was against a guy who didn’t look to be in shape but Fedor looked fast here. He still has good hand speed and his power has never left. He said after the fight that he wants to fight a few more times. I’m not sure who he’ll face, but he should enjoy this because it was a good win.
As for Rampage, he said after the fight that he’s done at heavyweight. He said he feels too big and wants to get in better shape. I don’t know how much he has left in the tank but it sounds like he also plans to keep fighting. I hope for his sake that he’s able to get into better shape and we see what he’s truly still capable of. This fight really took me back to the glory days of PRIDE. It was a great and exciting way to end a good night of fights from Japan.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.comand you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
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