Everything you need to know for Saturday’s Bellator 226 main card, including a heavyweight title fight and the opening round of the featherweight GP.
Bellator MMA is back to bring you a heavyweight title fight, and the first half of the opening round of their featherweight World Grand Prix—all this Saturday, September 7th, in San Jose, CA.
The top of the billing will see Bellator ‘champ champ’ Ryan Bader defend his heavyweight belt against surging veteran Check Kongo. Since his departure from the UFC as a light heavyweight, Bader has only added to his winning streak—picking up titles at 205 and 265-pounds simultaneously. Bader’s speed in the big-man division is a major asset, and couple that with his unrivaled wrestling chops, he is quite the handful for his larger opposition.
After claiming revenge in his rematch with Vitaly Minakov, Check Kongo is getting another shot to challenge for Bellator gold. His first attempt didn’t pan out when he dropped a decision to the then champ Minakov way back at Bellator 115 in 2014. Since then, Kongo has gone 10-1 with the promotion, only dropping a grapple-heavy decision to former collegiate wrestler King Mo. Now riding an eighty-fight winning streak, could this be the time that Kongo avoids being out-grappled by a hot-ish wrestler, and finally becomes a world champion?
The featherweights dominate the rest of the Bellator 226 main card. The first-night of the promotion’s 145-pound 16-man World Grand Prix is set to launch, with the other half taking place at Bellator 228 on September 28. The tourney winner will be walking away with a cool million-dollar payout, as well as becoming the division’s world champion.
Let’s dive in…
In the Bellator 226 co-main event, former 2x-champ Daniel Straus meets fellow Bellator vet Derek Campos. After missing all of 2018 due to an unfortunate motorcycle accident, Straus made a return to the sport with a first-round submission over Shane Kruchten back in March. It was a great sign to see Straus walk right through an opponent after such a devastating accident. How he does against top competition remains to be seen, as Kruchten isn’t exactly a world beater. Nonetheless, the former champ is back in the saddle, with the chance to compete for his third world title and the largest payday of career.
His opponent, Campos, has the least amount of momentum behind him out of anyone in this tournament. After reeling off four straight solid wins, Campos hit a hard wall, dropping three straight—and getting finished in two of those. He packs some serious dynamite in his haymakers, and will need every ounce of that horsepower if he hopes to knockout someone who typically gets submitted, and not snuffed silly. To say Campos has his back to the wall is an understatement, but his power is a great equalizer.
Further down the card, another former two-time champ in Pat Curran will get another shot at handing a prospect his first loss—when he meets the 13-0 Adam Borics. Curran has been around for some time now (nearly a decade in fact) having faced the very best that Bellator has had to offer. After missing all of 2018, Curran made a return against an undefeated prospect in AJ McKee, and ended up dropping a unanimous decision. He has all the tools in the world, but his real competition at this point is Father Time.
Standing across from him will be the finish-happy Borics, who has stopped all four of his Bellator opponents—including the odd case that is Aaron Pico. In that specific matchup, Borics was failing to defend the wrestling of Pico, before he came up with that tide-turning flying knee. He will more than likely want to avoid those kinds of exchanges against a more complete of a grappler in Curran. This is a huge step up in competition for Borics, but he’s lethal enough to make it interesting.
Former title contender Emmanuel Sanchez will be squaring off with Ty-wan Claxton, who owns the youngest record in the entire tournament. Sanchez really has a lot going for him; age, technique, gas tank, experience, toughness, and training at Roufusport are all attributes that make for one complete fighter. Sanchez prefers to throw volume over power, and the only real knock on him might be his willingness to be wild out there. Other than that, he is one tough out that has already faced seven of the GP participants, having beat four of them.
Claxton exploded onto the Bellator scene with a flying knee knockout heard around the world. He might be best known for that professional/promotional debut win, but make no mistake, Claxton was a D2 All American wrestler and has been showcasing those takedowns. Inexperience is his most apparent downside. The explosive 5-0 fighter is still pretty green and has never faced an opponent with five wins to their name. Now he’s up against a former title challenger. Talk about having nothing to lose, Claxton has a major opportunity to get fast tracked to a title shot and a million dollar payday.
The night’s first GP matchup will be between UFC veteran Sam Sicilia and streaking SBG Ireland product Pedro Carvalho. Both men got the best of Derek Campos in their last outings. Sicilia took a tough split decision while Carvalho stormed Castle de Campos in just over two-minutes. This seems like a classic case of one fighter on the rise against a veteran on the decline. Despite having less experience on the big stage, Carvalho is probably the more trustworthy fighter here.
In what seems like a minor footnote, the Bellator 226 main card will open up with a standard non-GP featherweight matchup between the 5-1 Gaston Bolanos and the 6-3 Daniel Carey. Although irrelevant in terms of the tourney, this matchup should be quite exciting and likely to end early.
Main card
-Ryan Bader (27-5) vs. Check Kongo (30-10-2): Heavyweight title
Featherweight GP opening round:
-Daniel Straus (26-8) vs. Derek Campos (19-9)
-Pat Curran (23-8) vs. Adam Borics (13-0)
-Emmanuel Sanchez (18-4) vs. Tywan Claxton (5-0)
-Sam Sicilia (16-9) vs. Pedro Carvalho (10-3)
Non-GP featherweight main card opener:
Gaston Bolanos vs. Daniel Carey