SAN DIEGO — It was a night filled with a sparkling new sheen for North America’s second-largest mixed martial arts promotion.
When Viacom ousted former Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney earlier this year, the company promised a new direction. By installing former Strikeforce founder Scott Coker, it brought in a man with more than two decades of promoting experience.
And on Saturday night—in the first true Bellator event with Coker’s fingerprints on it—the promotion showed that bringing in Coker was perhaps the smartest decision it has made since the Ultimate Fighting Championship left Spike TV for Fox Sports.
The first place you noticed the new upgrades for Bellator? The new stage and massive screens for fighter entrances. The screens, accompanied by loud, thumping music, were used to signal the arrival of all main card fighters, and the graphics packages were perfectly tailored to each fighter. They reminded you a little bit of PRIDE and a whole lot of World Wrestling Entertainment’s live-television product.
Nowhere was this more clear than in the main event, when aging (or aged, depending on how you look at things) veterans Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar put a fizzling nightcap on a good evening of fighting.
There was a time when Ortiz and Bonnar were probably capable of putting on a good fight. 2014 is not that time. By the end of the final frame, the crowd was politely clapping for both exhausted fighters, but any belief they were capable of putting on a thrilling fight were long since vanished out of the window.
Ortiz scored a split-decision win over Bonnar, who noted that his idea of going into the fight and getting busted up sounded like a good idea in his head, but it was a terrible one in practice. Ortiz challenged Bonnar to a rematch; for the sake of everyone watching at home, let us hope that never happens.
Prior to the post-fight news conference, Ortiz told Bleacher Report that Bellator’s new entrance blew him away.
“It was like UFC 40 all over again,” he said.
Earlier in the night, King Mo Lawal cruised through late-replacement Joe Vedepo to earn a stoppage in the third round that came far later than it should. The best moments of the fight were the entrances, when Bellator’s spectacular new production was highlighted.
Vedepo’s “doctor” nickname was highlighted with a video-graphics package featuring a pulsing heartbeat. He walked to the cage trailed by two women dressed as nurses, while Mo walked out with his crown and three women holding an umbrella.
You know, the typical Lawal entrance.
Vedepo had nothing to offer from the outset of the fight, and his face was badly swollen by the end of the first round.
When the end came, finally, it felt more like mercy than the ending of a fight. Referee Jason Herzog stood as Lawal battered Vedepo, his eyes completely shut, against the cage. When Vedepo fell on his face for a final time, Lawal pounced on him and crushed him with more punches on the ground. Herzog finally stepped in.
“The fight was alright. It was good to be fighting in such a big crowd, and having a big walk out again was awesome. I wanted to get that knockout in the first, but he’s tough,” Lawal said after the fight. “Whatever Coker has next for me, I’m ready. I just want to keep fighting, keep getting paid and get a title around my waist this year.”
Nam Phan’s return to the big leagues lasted mere seconds, as the former UFC and The Ultimate Fighter veteran was quickly obliterated by former Marine Mike Richman.
In a bout between world-class kickboxers wearing MMA gloves, one didn’t have to reach for the idea that violence would ensue. And that’s exactly what happened when GLORY stars Joe Schilling and Melvin Manhoef stepped in the Bellator cage.
In the first round, Manhoef dropped Schilling with a right hand and nearly finished him. Miraculously, the fight went to the ground and stayed there for much of the rest of the round, with Schilling keeping Manhoef in a tight guard.
In the second round, Schilling executed one of the greatest falling-tree knockouts in history when he clipped Manhoef with a right hand. Schilling went to follow up, but it was clear from a single glimpse at Manhoef’s prone body that he would not be recuperating. Schilling walked away, improving his lackluster career mixed martial arts record to 2-3.
“I felt great in my Bellator debut, and the end result was exactly what I wanted. The first round kind of sucked, and I was put in a bad position, but I went back to how I felt during training camp and tough positions I was in through that process,” Schilling said.
“I felt comfortable in the fight, and I know I will continue to feel more comfortable every time I get in the cage. You can expect to see my game continue to evolve, and I am getting better in every aspect.”
In the co-main event, interim lightweight champion Will Brooks finished former champion Michael Chandler in the fourth round to unify the championship that was split in two when Eddie Alvarez left for the UFC.
The ending was strange, at least on first glimpse. In the arena, it appeared Chandler was fouled and was seeking a timeout from referee Jason Herzog. Brooks swarmed on Chandler and finished him with completely clean punches, as Chandler’s arms were at his side. On replay, Chandler was unconscious, yet awake, and Herzog’s stoppage was the correct one.
“I walked up to him, and I realized he was looking around, and I saw he was out of it,” Brooks said. “I didn’t want to be a jerk or anything like that, but I had to go for it.”
Brooks noted after the fight that he was unhappy with some of the promotional work by Bellator leading into the fight, but that he was thrilled with the new direction of the company under Coker.
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