By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
Bellator 287 and UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Allen were both held
yesterday. Who won and who lost? Let’s get to the rundown.
Bellator 287
GOOD- Justin Gonzalez vs. Andrew Fisher
Gonzalez is the aggressor early but Fisher is firing back. Gonzalez
gets a takedown but Fisher is able to get back up pretty quickly. The
first round ends after some more striking. The second round opens with
them exchanging more strikes. Fisher is aggressive but Fisher lands
some strong leg kicks and the round ends. The third round sees
Gonzalez push forward and land some damaging strikes. Gonzalez wins
the round and the decision from the judges to improve to 14-1 while
Fisher drops to 19-9-1 with 1 No Contest. Good win for Gonzalez.
GOOD- Saul Rogers vs. Tim Wilde
Rogers lands an early takedown and they grapple for most of the rest
of the first round. Rogers works for a submission but can’t lock
anything in. The second round opens with some kicks from Wilde before
Rogers gets another takedown. Wilde gets back up quickly, though, and
then gets a takedown of his own and does some work from on top. The
third round sees them exchange strikes until Rogers gets a takedown.
Wilde defends well and we go to the judges, who score it in favor of
Wilde by Split Decision. Wilde improves to 15-4-1 while Rogers drops
to 15-5 and has alternated wins and losses in his last 8 fights. Good
win for Wilde.
GOOD- Fabian Edwards vs. Charlie Ward
They exchange strikes until Edwards slips and Ward jumps on top. The
round ends without anything else major happening. The second round
starts with Edwards getting a takedown. Ward gets back up and lands
some strikes until Edwards gets another takedown. Ward gets up again
just to be taken down again. Edwards cuts Ward with some nasty elbows
before the round ends. The third round sees Edwards get another early
takedown and start looking for the submission. He can’t get it and the
fight goes the distance. Edwards wins the decision and improves to
11-2 while Ward drops to 10-5 and has his 3 fight winning streak
snapped. Good win for Edwards.
GOOD- Mansour Barnaoui submits Adam Piccolotti
Piccolotti gets an early takedown and aggressively goes for
submissions. They grapple for the rest of the round. Barnaoui takes
Piccolotti’s back and locks in a rear-naked choke. Piccolotti hangs on
until Barnaoui lets go and elects to drop strikes from on top to close
the round. The second round sees Piccolotti get another takedown.
However, Barnaoui again reverses and he takes Piccolotti’s back again.
This time, however, he forces the tap with a rear-naked choke not
quite three minutes into the second round. Barnaoui wins and improves
to 20-4 and has won 8 straight fights while Piccolotti drops to 13-5
and has alternated wins and losses in his last 6 fights. Good win for
Barnaoui.
UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Allen
GOOD- Dustin Jacoby vs. Khalil Rountree
Thjey exchange strikes early and often, mixing in punches and kicks.
They both land some damaging shots and the round ends. The second
round sees more of the same, with Jacoby being the aggressor. The
third round is again more of the same, though I would say Rountree did
more there. We go to the judges and somehow Rountree wins the Split
Decision. I don’t agree with that but whatever. Rountree improves to
11-5 with 1 No Contest while Jacoby drops to 18-6-1 and has his 4
fight winning streak snapped. Good win for Rountree.
GOOD- Tresean Gore submits Josh Fremd
Gore gets an early takedown. Fremd fights free but Gore slams him back
down. They spend the rest of the first round trading strikes. The
second round opens with Fremd working some strikes until he goes for a
takedown. Gore counters with a guillotine and Fremd fights it until he
passes out almost fifty seconds into the second round. Gore improves
to 4-2 while Fremd drops to 9-4. Good win for Gore.
GOOD- Waldo Cortez-Acosta vs. Jared Vanderaa
They exchange a lot of kicks early before mixing in some punches.
Vanderaa is relentless with those leg kicks and they’re taking a toll.
The second round opens with Vanderaa throwing more leg kicks.
Cortez-Acosta is limping but trying to fire back as best as he can.
The third round sees Cortez-Acosta get even more aggressive as he
lands a bunch of strikes. A dance-off even breaks out as they trade
strikes and we go to the decision. The judges give the decision to
Cortez-Acosta and he improves to a perfect 8-0 while Vanderaa drops to
12-10 and has lost 5 straight fights. Good win for Cortez-Acosta.
GOOD- Max Griffin vs. Tim Means
Means is throwing a lot of kicks early. However, Griffin fires back
and drops Means with a big right hand. Means works his way up and they
exchange strikes for the rest of the round. The second round sees
Means work the body and just throw a lot of strikes in general. The
third round opens with Griffin getting a takedown. They go back and
forth getting up and going down and we go to the judges. Griffin wins
by Split Decision and improves to 19-9 while Means drops to 32-14-1
with 1 No Contest. Good win for Griffin.
GOOD/UGLY- Arnold Allen stops Calvin Kattar
They start tentatively with little action for the first few minutes.
They then open up and Allen lands some hard strikes. They’re
exchanging strikes but Allen seems to be getting the better of it.
Kattar is hitting some nice stuff but hurts his right knee landing
after a flying knee attempt. The fight should have been stopped right
then and there, especially after Kattar visibly reacted the way he
did. Anyone who’s watched sports for a while knows what happens next.
This was at the end of the first round, mind you. So the cageside
doctor should have gone in there, felt around, looked at the replay if
he had to, and stopped the fight. Instead, we start the second round,
Allen kicks Kattar’s left leg and you can see the right knee go. This
was Kevin Durant style (though that was an Achilles) where you see the
pop. It shouldn’t have gone down this way.
I don’t want to take away from Allen, though. This was a really good
performance from him. Allen wins less than ten seconds into the second
round and improves to 19-1 and has won 12 straight fights while Kattar
drops to 23-7. Good win for Allen. Winning 12 straight fights shows
how good he is and he should rise in the UFC Featherweight Rankings as
a result of this win.
*************
In boxing news, for anyone who happens to care, Uriah Hall beat former
NFL Running Back Le’Veon Bell by decision after four rounds. The
judges gave Hall all four rounds. I don’t know about that, I thought
Bell looked really good considering his lack of experience.
Jake Paul beat Anderson Silva by decision after eight rounds. Paul
looked fine, Silva is obviously old but Paul had a lot to lose so this
is just one of those things where if you’re into this or him you were
probably very interested. Otherwise, you don’t care. Paul did knock
Silva down in the 8th round and he showed enough promise that you
could see him fighting guys who aren’t old or broken down. However,
what you can’t see is Paul beating Canelo Alvarez, who he called out
after this win. For those who may not know, Canelo Alvarez is one of
the better boxers in the world and currently holds multiple
championships and has been champion in four weight classes. I could
keep going but you get it. Alvarez is also only 32 years old.
Paul would be a lot better off fighting Nate Diaz, who he also called
out. I could see that fight coming about. That might be interesting to
some people but we’ll have to wait a little bit to see who Paul fights
next.
My new fantasy book is now out. It’s called Kingdom of Zarias: The Steep
Price of Revenge. It’s the second book in my epic fantasy Kingdom
of Zarias series and follows the adventures of the Summers siblings as
they seek revenge for the wrongs inflicted on them. This book also
introduces lots of other characters as the scope of the world
continues to expand. There’s lots of action, magic, and monsters in
the Kingdom of Zarias. It’s like a tabletop game in novel form. It’s
on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other places. If you’re
interested, I would greatly appreciate it if you would check it out
and support me. Also, here’s the link to my new Compendium book about
the Kingdom of Zarias series- KoZ Compendium Thank you
very much, have a good day.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at
hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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