Monday, October 21, 2013

Oh Yeah, there was a Bellator Friday Night

Given the length of my weekend, working at my other job, competing, reading ADCC updates on facebook (thanks Dirty While Belt and Grappling Weekly), then *ahem* watching the UFC on replay yesterday, I totally forgot I watched the Bellator Friday night before heading home to rest then help set up for US Grappling/Pendergrass Classic.

Reading over the write-up on MMAJunkie.com, it sounds like you may have missed a good card. Perhaps the undercard was amazing or something. Perhaps I was tired from traveling to the Maryland Judo tournament then training through to get ready for Saturday's Jiu-Jitsu tournament.

I actually left before the main event (Hawn vs Weedman) wrapped up. I headed home to sleep.
The heavyweights in Bellator are passable at best.
War Machine didn't address the guy hanging around his neck/on his back.
Rick Hawn fought a repeat fight of his win over Brent Weedman. Hawn has not had the killer instinct he once had in his fights. I don't know if it's his age, 37, and he's just slowing down, or if the grind of the tournament means he's saving himself for the final to avoid injury. Or perhaps, he's just tired of making a living fighting.

Kendall Grove shows flashes of greatness, but then has holes in his game where he ends up on bottom and potentially gives away rounds. He looks for the finish which is great, but he looked like a Bellator level fighter on Friday, not a guy on his way back to the UFC.

At any rate, I try to stay grateful that I can watch MMA on my Friday night, and typically the Bellator cards deliver, but this one was just....meh. The Patricky Freire main/event fight the week prior did not help as Pitbull never really tried to put his opponent away, but rather, seemed to be working his Jiu-Jitsu/Wrestling as parts of his game to improve with some cage time.
I dunno, maybe I'm over thinking this. Perhaps, Bellator just tends to have exciting fights and finishes and this card lacked that, so it's a good problem to have that this main card was exceptional only in that it lacked what I like about MMA which is the propensity to finish.

"
Main Card
Rick Hawn def. Brent Weedman via Unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Ron Keslar def. War Machine via technical submission (rear naked choke), 3:31 of Round 1
Kendall Grove def. Joe Vedepo via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Peter Graham def. Eric Prindle via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Preliminary Card
Paul Bradley def. Karl Amoussou via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Paul Sass def. Rod Montoya via submission (toe hold), 2:01 of Round 1
Robert Emerson def. Jared Downing via submission (heel hook), 1:44 of Round 1
Brandon Girtz def. Mike Estus via submission (armbar), 4:25 of Round 1
Cliff Wright def. Derek Loffer via submission (armbar), 4:28 of Round 2
Andre Tieva def. Chris Lane via TKO (punches), 2:14 of Round 1"

No comments:

Post a Comment