It wasn’t the most exciting main event, but maybe for Iowa it was at least familiar.
Paul Bradley used his wrestling to take Josh Neer down in the first round at Bellator 129 in Council Bluffs, and it didn’t feel like he let him up for the next 15 minutes. Bradley cruised to a unanimous decision victory in Friday night’s main event. The judge’s scored the fight 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.
The loss snapped a three-fight win streak for Neer (36-14-1), who was frustrated afterwards and refused a handshake from his long-time acquaintance, Bradley. For Bradley, who was competing in his third fight in Bellator, it was a successful return after dropping a decision to Nathan Coy at Bellator 112 in March.
In the co-main event, a back-and-forth fight between 42-year old Houston Alexander and former Strikeforce fighter Virgil Zwicker ended in a majority draw (29-28, 28-28, 28-28).
It was Alexander’s fight, but the Nebraska native was deducted a point in the third round after landing a second illegal headbutt on Zwicker. He was warned by referee Rob Hinds in the first round when he landed a headbutt on the prone Zwicker, and was penalized later when he repeated the action. The second headbutt resulted in a large hematoma on Alexander’s temple.
Alexander controlled portions of the fight by using his wrestling, but even with the ground-and-pound — and headbutts — couldn’t put the resilient Californian away. With the draw, Zwicker moves to 12-4-1, while Alexander goes to 16-10-1-(2)
Meanwhile, Brazilian veteran Andre Santos was able to outstrike 33-year old James Terry en-route to a unanimous decision victory. Both fighters were throwing wildly in the first round, but Santos was able to get the better of the exchanges throughout. Judges scored the fight 30-27, 30-27, 30-27 for Santos (37-9). He made it six wins in a row.
Kicking off the main card was a middleweight bout between Davin Clark against hometown guy, Joe Vedepo. The wrestler Vedepo pressured Clark from the opening bell, and scored a TKO victory in the third round. The end came at 2:27. With the victory, Vepedo improved to 17-8. Clark is now 5-2-2.