Check out the breakdown of Saturday’s Bellator Birmingham main card, headlined by former lightweight champ Brent Primus taking on Tim Wilde.
Bellator Birmingham is set to kick off today, May 4th, from the United Kingdom, headlined by former lightweight champ Brent Primus taking on England’s own Tim Wilde.
This will be Primus’ first bout back since dropping his title in his rematch with current 155-pound king Michael Chandler. Don’t let his record fool you. With a youthful 8-1 under his belt, Primus reached the mountaintop relatively early in his career, but he actually made his pro debut way back in 2010. Primus is a sizable lightweight with a high skillset in the grappling department, he hits reasonably hard, and possesses a sturdy chin which is always a plus. Add to that, back to fights with Chandler gives Primes a level of experience that reaches far beyond his 9-fight record would indicate at a glance.
As for Tim Wilde, he’s the Golden Ticket Fight Promotions’s lightweight champ and on a three-fight winning streak. Two of those victories came by a rather cool finish. Wilde is going to have his hands full here. He has consistently given up the takedown to far worse grapplers than Primus, and even if Wilde made it out those positions regionally, Primus is a different animal. Wilde’s path to victory here boarders on a miracle. It is what it is.
Before that, 14-fight Bellator veteran Derek Campos will be facing SBG Ireland’s Pedro Carvalho. Campos is known for throwing his bolos with tremendous horsepower, sometimes sacrificing safety in pursuit of inflicting damage. He’s built up a wealth of experience, competing against Bellator’s upper echelon for every bit of half-a-decade. Campos was originally slated against the ever-exciting Ryan Scope, so kudos for Carvalho for stepping up.
At 9-3, Carvalho has already successfully debuted under the Bellator banner, at featherweight. He pulled out a 43-second submission at Bellator 211 this past December. Moving up a division to face his stiffest competition to date is going to be an uphill battle to say the least. Traditionally, you have blast Campos on the feet before putting him away. That might be asking a lot from Carvalho. Bless his heart.
Also on the main card, the 6-0 Fabian Edwards, the larger brother of the UFC’s #11 ranked welterweight Leon Edwards, welcomes the 11-9 Falco Neto Lopes to Bellator. This is a classic prospect versus veteran matchup. Edwards is pretty much lethal everywhere, yet still relatively green. Lopes has already had 20-fights, but has alternated wins and losses across nine-fights spread over the course of five-years. He’s not to be trusted.
Opening up the Bellator Birmingham main card, phenomenal kickboxer Raymond Daniels is pitted against fellow kickboxer Wilker Barros, but in a MMA match. Daniels has already had one MMA-fight, but that was back in Strikeforce in 2008. He lost by a second round RNC. His opponent Barros, isn’t nearly as decorated and will be making his pro-mma debut. There is absolutely no telling what this will look like. Time and time again, we’ve seen branded kickboxers make the transition into MMA, get pitted against one another, just to have the match predominately take place on the ground. This could definitely be strictly kickboxing with small gloves, but that’s far from a guarantee.
Bellator Birmingham takes place this Saturday, May 4th, and will air live on the Bellator app at 5:00 P.M. ET and on Channel 5 in the UK. The prelims will air online at 12 PM ET, also on the Bellator app.
Main card: 5PM ET
Brent Primus vs Tim Wilde
Derek Campos vs Pedro Carvalho
Fabian Edwards vs Falco Neto Lopes
Raymond Daniels vs Wilker Barros
Prelims: 12 PM ET
Brian Moore vs Son Le Binh
Saul Rogers vs Aiden Lee
Domingos Barros vs Rob Beech
Jim Wallhead vs Giorgio Pietrini
James Mulheron vs Lee Chadwick
Dominique Wooding vs David Khalsa
Craig Turner vs Ashley Reece
Kane Mousah vs Mateusz Piskorz
Daniel Cassell vs John Nicholls
Mohammad Yahya vs Gavin Hughes
Yannick Bahati vs Adis Dadovic
Kieran Lister vs Constantin Gnusariev
Raphael Uchegbu vs Lee Percival
Akonne Wanliss vs Sam Slater
Nicolò Solli vs Simon Ridgway