By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
Bellator 252 and UFC Fight Night: Felder vs. Dos Anjos were this past week. Let’s get to the rundown.
Bellator 252
GOOD- Yaroslav Amosov vs. Logan Storely
They fought hard and went back and forth, this was a close fight. Amosov gassed a bit but he kept fighting. Amosov won by split decision but Storely almost won it in the third round. He couldn’t lock in the submission, though, and Amosov survived to get the win. Good win for Amosov.
GOOD- Daniel Weichel vs. Emmanuel Sanchez
Sanchez hurt Weichel badly with body shots in the second round. He almost finished the fight but the ref didn’t stop it and Weichel battled back. It didn’t get any better for him, though, as Sanchez kept battering him. Weichel got busted up and was bleeding, limping, and just beat up by the end of the fight. You got to give him credit, though, he never gave up. He showed good toughness and Sanchez showed tenacity and the desire to win and was rewarded with the decision victory. Good win for Sanchez.
GOOD- Patrico “Pitbull” Freire stops Pedro Carvalho
Freire defended his Bellator Featherweight Title here and did so by punishing Carvalho with strikes. He stunned him a few times with right hands before getting the killshot and finishing him off a little over two minutes into the first round. Good win for Pitbull as he continues getting impressive wins.
UFC Fight Night: Felder vs. Dos Anjos
GOOD- Kay Hansen vs. Cory McKenna
This was a tightly contested fight that went the distance, with McKenna getting the decision victory. This was really close but McKenna seemingly did just a bit more. Good win for McKenna.
GOOD- Sean Strickland stops Brendan Allen
Strickland peppered Allen with strikes. He pummeled him over and over until he finally finished him off about a minute and a half into the second round. Good win for Strickland.
GOOD- Miranda Granger vs. Ashley Yoder
Honestly, I didn’t really care much for large parts of this fight. It was solid but I just wasn’t into it. Yoder won the decision and she turned up the heat late, but this was just a close fight where they negated each other a lot. It happens sometimes. Also, maybe I was just too preoccupied with watching the Wisconsin Badgers beat the hell out of the Michigan Wolverines to really get into this. Regardless, good win for Yoder.
GOOD- Khaos Williams stops Abdul Razak Alhassan
Alhassan goes for some legkicks and Williams responds with a straight right hand that drops him like a rock. Boom, fight over in about thirty seconds. Williams showed his tremendous power in his second straight fight. Good win for Williams.
GOOD- Paul Felder vs. Rafael Dos Anjos
Felder came out of retirement to take this fight on less than a week’s notice. He said he was training for a marathon but not a fight. He also called out other guys for missing weight, I guess he had dropped 22lbs. in four days. I’m not a huge fan of that but I agree with the idea of keeping yourself in shape so you can actually fight. There’s no question that RDA had a vintage performance, to quote Michael Cole, but Felder fought pretty well. He was outmatched, but it’s important to remember that RDA was making his return to lightweight, where he’s fought very well. Felder fought hard but this was all about RDA. One of the judges was doing some drugs or something because he scored the fight 48-47 for Felder, the other two judges scored it 50-45 for RDA so Dos Anjos had to settle for a split decision win. I’m sure he has no problem taking that, though, a win’s a win.
After the win, RDA called for a fight with Conor McGregor, which he accepted but said it would have to wait until after McGregor fights Dustin Poirer in January. RDA kind of framed it as a potential title fight but I’m sure there’s a few other guys who would have something to say about that, so that part might not come to pass. RDA looked really good in this fight. If he keeps fighting like this, he’s going to be in the title picture for sure.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank and you can check out my blog athttps://3pr117238763.wordpress.com/ where I talk about wrestling, sports, and videogames. Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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