Bellator 155 was the only major MMA hitting TV this past weekend. Let’s get right to the rundown.
Bellator 155
BAD: Joey Beltran vs. Chase Gormley
I didn’t really care for this fight at all. It was solid in way, I guess, but there wasn’t enough real action. There were plenty of punches thrown, but not nearly as many landed. Gormley won the close split decision.
GOOD: Alexis Dufresne submits Marloes Coenen
They went to the ground early and were battling back and forth. For the finish, Coenen was on top, but Dufresne tried for a triangle and eventually got the armbar for the tap. Nice win. It’s too bad that Dufresne missed weight by so much, I think it was like five pounds. Still, this is a good win for her.
BAD: Dan Charles vs Augusto Sakai
There wasn’t much going on in this fight for long stretches, other than some nasty low blows early from Sakai. However, at other times, there were plenty of Sakai kicks to go around. Sakai had a point taken in the first round for repeated low blows so that made him more tentative. Charles didn’t do much of anything during this fight. However, the fight was ruled a majority draw. Two of the judges scored things 28-28, meaning they gave Sakai two rounds and Charles one, but with the point deduction things are split. I disagree with that, but okay, they thought Charles won a round. However, the third judge scored it 30-26 in favor of Charles. How in the hell do you give Charles all three rounds? I don’t get that at all. Sadly, this was just part of the bad judging going on tonight.
BAD: Pat Curran vs. Georgi Karakhanyan
This was such a disappointing fight. It started off well, with some good excitement, then things turned into a blanket-fest and everything went down the drain. Curran won the lackluster decision. Meh.
UGLY: Melvin Manhoef vs. Rafael Carvalho
The fight itself was pretty damn bad. The first round might as well have not even taken place because nothing happened. That’s almost literal because you can probably count on one hand how many strikes landed. In the second round, Manhoef came out much more aggressively and was putting it on Carvalho a bit. That might be too generous, but considering how bad this night was, I’ll take what I can get. Carvalho landed repeated eyepokes and repeated low blows, and though John McCarthy is a good referee but there’s no way he shouldn’t have deducted two points from Carvalho. First eyepoke might be a warning, but the second definitely is a deduction. Same with the low blows.
As the fight wore on, Manhoef gassed worse and worse. He is forty, though. Carvalho, on the other hand, spent more time going backwards and running away than anything else. This was as pathetic a performance as you’ll ever see. This was as bad as Kalib Starnes. Carvalho did nothing, and for a second I thought he might jump over the cage and run into the back. That’s so incredibly frustrating, but I suppose it’s the blue moon or something. I don’t know, I can’t explain it. This is absolutely disgusting and Carvalho should be ashamed of himself. However, here comes the worst part.
Rafael Carvalho won by split decision.
That’s not a typo. The guy who did nothing during the fight. The guy who ran away the entire time. The guy who poked his opponent in the eye twice and low-blowed him twice, won. Yeah, Manhoef didn’t exactly light it up himself, but he did more in that second round than Carvalho did in the entire five rounds combined. The judges all scored it 48-47, with two going for Carvalho and one for Manhoef. So it’s not as if the judge who scored it for Manhoef did a good job because Carvalho didn’t win a single round. He didn’t do a damn thing during the fight, how do you give him two rounds?
This is the worst decision I’ve ever seen. Diego Sanchez thinks this was a horrible decision. And that’s not even fair to him because at least Sanchez comes forward and tries to fight, instead of cowering and running away.
The guys who scored this fight shouldn’t be allowed to judge a first grade spelling bee, let alone an MMA fight. This is mind-blowing. My mom doesn’t watch MMA, but even she would have scored this fight for Manhoef. This is the kind of thing that makes people talk of collusion and fight-fixing and stuff like that, because there’s no rational explanation for this decision. As strange as it sounds, it would actually make me feel better to find out that the judges were paid to score the fight this way. Of course, I would be highly upset but at least that would make more sense. Greed, I can understand. What I can’t wrap my head around, though, is anyone legitimately thinking that Carvalho won this fight square. That’s an MMA world that I don’t think any of us want to live in.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
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