Friday night saw the return of Bellator Fighting Championships to televisions across North America with the opening event of the promotions sixth season.
Bellator 60 took place at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana featuring the opening quarterfinal bouts of this seasons featherweight tournament.
Advancing into the semi-finals with wins last night were 2011 Summer Series finalist Marlon Sandro (21-3), Alexandre ‘Popo’ Bezerra (13-1), Mike Corey (12-2-1) and season four finalist Daniel Straus (18-4).
At the post fight press conference, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney announced the semi-final matchups, pitting Sandro against fellow Brazilian ‘Popo’ Bezerra, while Bellator vet Straus takes on Corey who now has his third bout under Bellator.
Sandro put in a dominant performance against opponent Roberto Vargas on the main card, landing big shots early in the first round. After stunning Vargas, Sandro moved in looking to finish with his fists but quickly switched to a rear-naked choke to finish at 3:35 of round 1.
Bezerra had been scheduled to face Genair da Silva but after da Silva failed to make weight, undercard fighter Kenny Foster was moved up as his opponent. Bezerra was the dominant fighter, scoring points on the ground before finishing the fight with three seconds in the second via rear-naked choke.
Corey faced English fighter Ronnie Mann. Mann would score early with some big punches that looked to have Corey finished in the first round. Surviving into the second, Corey took the fight too the mat and it was his fight from there on. Corey controlled Mann from the top position for the next two rounds cruising to a decision win by scores of 29-28 from all three judges.
Straus was the last tournament fighter to secure his spot, battling Jeremy Spoon for three rounds. It was the least exciting of the four matches as Straus appeared happy to control the fight from the clinch on the way to a unanimous decision win.