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Saturday, May 18, 2013

Bellator Doing Big Things: Bellator 96 Card Update

I have to say, Bellator comes to play ball and play ball as close to the big leagues as they possibly can and NOT be the UFC.

They've added the start of a heavyweight 4 man tournament to bolster their first Summertime card, Bellator 96, headlined by Dave Jansen vs Michael Chandler.
I highlighted the card HERE earlier, but this really just spruce it up quite a bit.

"Bellator MMA Main Card:

Bellator Lightweight Title Fight: Michael Chandler (11-0) vs. Dave Jansen (19-2)
Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament: King Mo Lawal (9-2) vs. Seth Petruzelli (14-7)
Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament: Renato "Babalu" Sobral (37-10) vs. Jacob Noe (11-2)
Bellator Heavyweight Tournament: Vinicius "Spartan" Queiroz (6-3) vs. Rich Hale (21-5)
Bellator Heavyweight Tournament: Vitaly Minakov (10-0) vs. Ron Sparks (8-1)
Welterweight Feature Fight: War Machine (12-4) vs. Blas Avena (8-6)"

Friday, May 10, 2013

Bellator 96 Preview (With Videos!)

For the kickoff to the summer-series-whatever-Bellator-time-between-full-fledged-tournaments, we have Michael Chandler defending his strap against Dave Jansen.
How each guy wins and loses: Chandler has never lost and has finished 15 of his 17 opponents.
Jansen slightly more overall wins, but 2 losses by decision, and less stoppages in his winning efforts.

Michael Chandler:

"Wins 11 4 KO/TKO (36%) 5 SUBMISSIONS (45%) 2 DECISIONS (18%)

Losses 0 0 KO/TKO (0%) 0 SUBMISSIONS (0%) 0 DECISIONS (0%)

Dave Jansen:

Wins 19 1 KO/TKO (5%) 10 SUBMISSIONS (53%) 8 DECISIONS (42%)

Losses 2 0 KO/TKO (0%) 0 SUBMISSIONS (0%) 2 DECISIONS (100%"

---Jansen strikes me as a more patient fighter with more technical skills in footwork, movement, range and counter-punching, whereas Chandler has what I'd guess is the edge in power and overall physicality AKA "Beast Mode". Jansen has likely not fought guys with the strength of Chandler in the clinch and takedown department but Chandler has become enamored with the KO as of late and Chandler's finishing of Eddie Alvarez was largely spent on the feet, however, against Rick Hawn more recently, Chandler quickly put the Olympic Judoka on his back with an expertly timed single leg if I recall correctly.

I'm not overly impressed with Chandler as a fighter and his submission of Rick Hawn while impressive was not the textbook smooth, efficient Jiu-Jitsu you'd expect but rather the overpowering aggression capitalization of an opponent who gave up his back (and surprisingly appeared MUCH smaller than Chandler).

I have to go with Chandler in this one as Jansen's wrestling has won him rounds and decisions in previous bouts but I doubt he'll be able to use that as the deciding factor here against the more powerful and wrestler-build Chandler.

War Machine will beat some guy you've never heard of.

King Mo will put Petruzelli on his back since he's coming off of a loss and should realize his low shoulder Money Mayweather boxing skills aren't first rate.
From MMAJunkie.com:
"MAIN CARD (Spike TV, 7 p.m. ET)