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Bellator 203 ‘Pitbull vs Weichel 2’ aired Saturday night (July 14, 2018) from Foro Italico in Rome, Italy. MMA Mania brings you a post-fight recap, results, .gifs and interview highlights from a card where two time Featherweight champion Patricio Pitbull faced Daniel Weichel again!

Bellator 203 “Pitbull vs. Weichel 2” took place last night (Sat., July 14, 2018) at Foro Italico in Rome, Italy. The Featherweight title was up for grabs as two time champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (26-4) gave Daniel Weichel (39-9) a second chance after their thrilling fight at Bellator 138 in 2015.

The first round featured so little activity that I considered it a 10-10. Other than a few leg kicks from Weichel almost nothing landed. The second round saw Freire find a home for his heavy right hand, forcing Weichel to backpedal and pull guard to save himself, giving away the round in the process.

Weichel knocked an off balance Freire to the mat in R3 and jumped on top, riding out the majority of the round while occasionally throwing a right elbow at Freire’s forehead. When Freire sat up Weichel went for an anaconda choke but Freire managed to push off the fence with his feet and escape. It was the most dominant round of the fight thus far for Weichel.

Freire rocked Weichel in the fourth round and has his face bloodied from a hard elbow to boot. If any judges thought Weichel won the first that tied it up 2 apiece, but the final round would decide it all either way. Freire appeared to out-strike him in the frame and two judges agreed – 40-46 and 48-47. One judge gave it 48-47 to Weichel but it wasn’t enough – “Pitbull” retained via split decision.

“Big” John McCarthy spoke to the winner Freire afterward.

“This guy is a fucking monster. Thank you Rome! I am here to make a show for you guys. Come on Bellator no more rematches please. I want an easy fight one day. Ask James Gallagher. Do we have a deal? C’mon McGregor. Where’s your gym? Where your team? They’re easy to me. You know that! I can beat everyone in there. C’mon Kavanagh I’m here I’ve been asking. This belt is for my son. I love you buddy.”

Local favorite Alessio Sakara (19-12, 2 NC) was also in the spotlight and looking to rebound from a loss to Middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho as he moved up to Light Heavyweight against UK fighter Jamie Sloane (8-3, 1 NC).

Sloane either slipped or was tripped to the ground early in the first round and that wasn’t where he wanted to be, as Sakara dived on top and pummeled him with left hands for the TKO at 1:19 of round one. John McCarthy spoke to him after the finish.

“Is my first time fight in Rome. I love everybody. I fight only in other country but here good energy. This is giving me the power to come back to the cage. Super heavyweight power I have with this energy. (205) for life never no more 185. I love pizza, pasta.”

Up and coming prospects met at 185 as SBG Ireland’s own Will Fleury (4-0) took on Macedonian knockout artist Alen Amedovski (5-0).

This one went fast. Fleury’s game plan was to take it to the ground despite having a height and reach advantage, and although this initially worked Amedovski was able to wall walk to his feet and crack Fleury with MULTIPLE right hands. When he crashed to the mat one last shot put the exclamation point on a knockout win for Amedovski at 1:39 of round one.

Former Welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov (20-2) and seven fight win streak holder Vaso Bakocevic (33-17-1) also had a spot on the main card. The entrances took longer than the fight.

Koreshkov was packing a significant height and reach advantage coming in, but all he needed to finish the contest was one spinning right back kick to the body. Bakocevic crumpled immediately and Koreshkov was trying to pour on right hands on the ground as Todd Anderson ran over to wave it off at 1:06 of R1. John McCarthy and a translator stepped in the cage to interview him afterward.

“It was a plan. My coach said to me use knee or back kick and I used back kick. I want to be in the (Welterweight) tournament. I will fight with anyone, anybody, it doesn’t matter who. For me it doesn’t matter — really.”

Local favorites met at Lightweight as Simone La Preziosa (3-4) put his three fight win streak on the line versus Maxim Radu (8-1).

This wasn’t much of a contest. Preziosa managed one leg kick before Radu took him down. Preziosa squirmed his way out of a potential guillotine choke and stood up only for Radu to quickly put him back on the mat again… and again… and again. One last takedown led to a heavy barrage of hammerfists and left hooks that made Dan Miragliotta wave it off at 4:15 of round one.

Completing the card were Featherweight prospects Michele Martignoni (4-0) and Simone D’Anna (4-1). It’s a shame this fight wasn’t aired on Paramount as they certainly would have had the time. Six seconds into the first round Martignoni nailed D’Anna with a head kick knockout to improve to 5-0.

For complete Bellator 203 “Pitbull vs. Weichel 2” results and coverage click here.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned to the hurt business last night (Sat., July 14, 2018) with UFC Fight Night 133 from inside CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho, live and free on Fox Sports 1. The event saw Junior dos Santos defeat Blagoy Ivanov via unanimous decision after five rounds of main event action (recap). In the co-main, event, Sage Northcutt stopped Zak Ottow to earn his third straight win at Welterweight.

Biggest Winner: Chad Mendes

Two years on the sidelines due to a fail drug test administered by USADA didn’t do anything to slow Chad Mendes down, as “Money” looked like he hadn’t skipped a beat in his first fight back against Miles Jury. Halfway through the opening round, Chad clipped Jury with a sneaky left that dropped him. What ensued was a vintage Chad Mendes ground-and-pound beatdown, as he took it to Jury until the ref had no choice to put an end to the punishment. It’s a huge victory for “Money,” which also netted him a cool $50,000 in “Performance of the Night” honors.

His return also bolsters up the Bantamweight division, which at the moment seems to be a three-man game of musical chairs with T.J. Dillashaw, Cody Garbrandt and Dominick Cruz. While he may need a few more wins before he gets back “into the mix” when it comes to the title, I’m willing to bet Mendes can get there pretty quick since he’ll likely want a quick turnaround.

Runner Up: Sage Northcutt

Don’t look now but “Super” has his first three-fight win streak inside the Octagon, as the young, up-and-coming up star is starting to finally find his groove after settling on the Welterweight division. And he scored his latest win by showing he can overcome adversity. After getting dropped in the first round, which initially looked like he’d be out, Northcutt shook off the cobwebs to storm back and score a stoppage win in the very next round. Though he is still a long way from title talk, Sage has shown vast improvements since making his debut a few years ago. If he can secure a few more wins, we can see Sage climbing the ranks sooner, rather than later, and starting forcing himself into the title conversation. Furthermore, it seems his move to Team Alpha Male has proven to be a recipe for success. That, and he’s no longer bothered with school work.

Biggest Loser: Dennis Bermudez

I don’t mean in that Dennis got worked, but his split-decision defeat to Rick Glenn was his fourth straight loss inside the Octagon, which could put his UFC career in danger. It seems like it wasn’t too long ago that he was riding a seven fight win streak spanning two years, even defeating Max Holloway during that span. But over his last eight fights, Dennis has lost six of them including his current skid. Where he goes from here is anyone’s guess, but Bermudez’ future inside the Octagon is definitely now in limbo. Where it all went wrong for Dennis is unknown, but he better right his ship before it drowns just in case the promotion wants to give him one more try to get back into the win column. It’s an opportunity he may get seeing as how the decision was highly-questionable.

For complete UFC Fight Night 133 results, including play-by-play, click here

Here’s all four fighters that earned a performance bonus at UFC Fight Night 133 from Boise, Idaho.

UFC Boise is now behind us, and I must say it was a pretty entertaining card for a little Fight Night even in potato land, Idaho. Even though the main event between Junior dos Santos and Blagoy Ivanov didn’t end in a finish, there was more than enough knockouts running down the card to keep things lively. And while the right people didn’t always win via decision, most of the three round scraps were solid back and forth battles.

But let’s get to the meat, what you’re here for: the $50,000 performance bonuses. Here’s who got them this time:

Fight of the Night: Holobaugh vs. Barcelos

Performance of the Night: Niko Price

Performance of the Night: Chad Mendes

There’s no one on the card who needed that bonus more than Mendes, who spent the past two years on the shelf after (he claims) a prescription skin cream led him to fail a USADA drug test. Now Mendes isn’t just back in the featherweight title picture, he’s sitting on a nice little bit of bonus money to boot. Not bad, “Money.”