A real mixed bag this weekend: Friday night's Bellator was ho hum to say the least, ending with a somewhat fitting no contest as the night itself was a dud after the first couple opening bouts. he dropped the whole "fans don't know what they're watching" bit, but the fact is Storley put on a wrestle-half-guard fest and in response to the crowd booing he tried the"that's Division 1 wrestling" line. The whole putting down the crowd as unintelligent when your face immediately following the end of the fight shows that you know it was boring AF just comes off as disingenuous, man. Kimbel's hype train was derailed when he tried to slam his way out of a triangle (it worked in his previous fight) and got tapped. Dantas edged out a guy I hadn't heard of, but looked unimpressive doing so, seeming to coast down the stretch. Kharitonov got his nuts kicked in by Mitrione so everyone went home and got paid for a no contest. Not a terrible way to pass a Friday night laid up in bed from ACL/Meniscus surgery, but also still subpar if we're being honest.
Tonight: the opening bout, and the "My heart will go on" Titanic moment of homegirl Loureda crying and sobbing after winning her pro debut was melodramatic at best, and comically tragic at worst. Act like you've done this before. She pieced up her opponent and the ref let her rain down a good number of unanswered hammer fists and elbows before stopping it.
I'm normally the first to praise Bellator and simultaneously chastise the UFC for subpar cards, but they could've honestly just combined these two half-assed cards and had one solid card out of it, minus a ton of prelims that no one was going to watch but the hardest of the hardcore MMA fans.
Amosov grinded out a win over Erick Silva who looked sharp in the early going but his wrestling failed him as he struggled to respond to one mat return after another.
Kongo somehow edged out Minakov who I guess the judges penalized for looking tired because Kongo spent large portions of the fight literally just backpedaling and circling away.
CroCop also avenged a loss tonight and Edged out Roy Nelson in a battle of fending off takedowns, digging underhooks, uppercuts, and knees to the body with a few body kicks thrown in.
Daley and MVP literally spent the first round with Daley circling at the edge of the cage and MVP in his silly point fighter hopping hands at his waist stance. Daley threw zero strikes this round, maybe 1, this is not an exaggeration, and MVP threw a couple push kicks and maybe a jumping knee. I scored the next 3 rounds for Daley as he succeeded in dragging MVP to the mat and controlled him far more than any errant flashes of striking that MVP attempted in the round. Daley was on his way to winning the 5th round but failed to keep MVP on his back and gave up a near backtake in a scramble. Sigh.
They brought Lima in the cage after the bout and he goes, "yeah, we'll see, no one has solved the puzzle of this guy," and I couldn't help but think, dude, he just got outgrappled by Paul Daley. The puzzle was solved.
Kongo seems to think he deserves a title shot against Bader despite barely fight half the 15 mins of fight time he had in a 5 round fight. CroCop also just notched a win, a less than impressive one as well. At this point, I kinda don't care, because neither will be particularly energetic fights, with Bader being the one who makes them worth watching. I'm normally hype AF on Bellator but this weekend was 2 egregiously boring snooze fests that felt like interminably long broadcasts even with minimal commercial interruption.
I rarely say this, but I'm really hoping the UFC tomorrow on ESPN cleanses my palette. Kron debuts. Sterling fights Rivera. Felder vs Vick. Barbarena vs Luque. Fili vs Jury. Lentz, Barao, et al.
It's a solid card of professionals from top to bottom with a number of guys needing to gain momentum to climb higher up the food chain. What a time to be an MMA fan? 3 events in a weekend, and that's not even counting LFA and One FC.
Tonight: the opening bout, and the "My heart will go on" Titanic moment of homegirl Loureda crying and sobbing after winning her pro debut was melodramatic at best, and comically tragic at worst. Act like you've done this before. She pieced up her opponent and the ref let her rain down a good number of unanswered hammer fists and elbows before stopping it.
I'm normally the first to praise Bellator and simultaneously chastise the UFC for subpar cards, but they could've honestly just combined these two half-assed cards and had one solid card out of it, minus a ton of prelims that no one was going to watch but the hardest of the hardcore MMA fans.
Amosov grinded out a win over Erick Silva who looked sharp in the early going but his wrestling failed him as he struggled to respond to one mat return after another.
Kongo somehow edged out Minakov who I guess the judges penalized for looking tired because Kongo spent large portions of the fight literally just backpedaling and circling away.
CroCop also avenged a loss tonight and Edged out Roy Nelson in a battle of fending off takedowns, digging underhooks, uppercuts, and knees to the body with a few body kicks thrown in.
Daley and MVP literally spent the first round with Daley circling at the edge of the cage and MVP in his silly point fighter hopping hands at his waist stance. Daley threw zero strikes this round, maybe 1, this is not an exaggeration, and MVP threw a couple push kicks and maybe a jumping knee. I scored the next 3 rounds for Daley as he succeeded in dragging MVP to the mat and controlled him far more than any errant flashes of striking that MVP attempted in the round. Daley was on his way to winning the 5th round but failed to keep MVP on his back and gave up a near backtake in a scramble. Sigh.
They brought Lima in the cage after the bout and he goes, "yeah, we'll see, no one has solved the puzzle of this guy," and I couldn't help but think, dude, he just got outgrappled by Paul Daley. The puzzle was solved.
Kongo seems to think he deserves a title shot against Bader despite barely fight half the 15 mins of fight time he had in a 5 round fight. CroCop also just notched a win, a less than impressive one as well. At this point, I kinda don't care, because neither will be particularly energetic fights, with Bader being the one who makes them worth watching. I'm normally hype AF on Bellator but this weekend was 2 egregiously boring snooze fests that felt like interminably long broadcasts even with minimal commercial interruption.
I rarely say this, but I'm really hoping the UFC tomorrow on ESPN cleanses my palette. Kron debuts. Sterling fights Rivera. Felder vs Vick. Barbarena vs Luque. Fili vs Jury. Lentz, Barao, et al.
It's a solid card of professionals from top to bottom with a number of guys needing to gain momentum to climb higher up the food chain. What a time to be an MMA fan? 3 events in a weekend, and that's not even counting LFA and One FC.
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