Author: Dan Hiergesell

Former UFC champion Lyoto Machida turned back the clock for a memorable finish last night (Fri., June 14, 2019) at Bellator 222 live on DAZN from inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, when he stopped Chael Sonnen via second-round TKO after landing two flying knees to the face.

It didn’t take long for Machida to find his footing in this fight and let his hands do the talking. The Brazilian landed a beautiful flying knee to Sonnen’s head in the first round that temporarily put “American Gangster” to sleep. Sonnen some how regained his composure and made it to the second. That’s where Machida landed another short flying knee to the face along the cage and once again put Sonnen on the canvas. A barrage of punches from Dragon” ultimately spelled the end.

Check out the highlights above courtesy of Bellator/DAZN.

With this performance, Machida locks down his second-straight win since entering the promotion back in December. Overall, Machida has won four in a row and has started to settle in nicely as the newest member of the Bellator stable. The 41-year-old isn’t quite the fighter he was five years ago but he’s still a serviceable veteran with a knack for finishing fights.

For complete Bellator 222 results and coverage click here.

Surging featherweight contender Juan Archuleta continued his dominance earlier tonight (Fri., June 14, 2019) at Bellator 222 live on DAZN from inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, when “The Spaniard” finished former Bellator bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas with a one-punch knockout in the second round.

Following an entertaining first round that saw Archuleta pull ahead with movement and combinations in bunches, “Spaniard” was able to pull a rabbit out of his hat in the final moments of the second. Dantas leaped in for an attack along the cage only to have Archuleta counter and whip a ferocious right hand that caught the Brazilian flush. Dantas immediately went to sleep and Archuleta walked off with a “Knockout of the Year” candidate.

Check out the highlights above courtesy of Bellator/DAZN.

With this performance, Archuleta extends his current win streak to an impressive 18 in a row, which includes five stops inside of the Bellator cage. The 31-year-old has really blossomed under the tutelage of coach Duane Ludwig and teammate T.J. Dillashaw of late and looks poised to make a run for the title by year’s end.

For complete Bellator 222 results and coverage click here.

Former Ultimate Fighter standout and current middleweight contender Uriah Hall will make his return to the Octagon at UFC on ESPN+ 16 on September 14 live on ESPN+ from Vancouver, Canada, when he squares off against submission specialist Antonio Carlos Junior, per a recent report by Brazilian news outlet Combate,

Hall, 34, is coming off a big come-from-behind knockout win over UFC newcomer Bevon Lewis this past December. However, the perennial contender has struggled to string together wins over the past couple of years, dropping soul-crushing knockout defeats to the likes of Paulo Costa, Gegard Mousasi, and Derek Brunson. Hall isn’t going to leapfrog to title contention with a win over Carlos Junior but a two-fight win streak will go a long way in setting the veteran up for a big 2020 campaign.

Carlos Junior, 29, just saw his five-fight UFC win streak snapped at the hands of rising middleweight contender Ian Heinisch back in May. The Brazilian finisher had stopped four of his previous five Octagon outings via submission but was unable to out-muscle Heinish on the ground and it cost him. “Shoe Face” remains one of the most underrated names at 185 pounds yet is capable of ending a fight at the drop of a dime. A victory over a well-known contender like Hall should do Carlos Junior some good in regaining momentum in a division he has called home for the past five years.

UFC on ESPN+ 16, which will take place inside a venue to be named, currently has no main event in place.

Stick with Mania for more UFC Vancouver fight card news.

Aaron Pico’s hype train continued its puzzling derail earlier tonight (Fri., June 14, 2019) at Bellator 222 live on DAZN from inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, when the 22-year-old was finished by undefeated featherweight contender Adam Borics via second-round knockout (flying knee and punches).

Coming off the first knockout loss of his career, Pico came out conservative and started to take Borics down at will. Borics offered little defense as Pico scored considerable top time and was well on his way to a two-round lead. That was until Borics created separation to get to his feet and ended up landing a brutal flying left knee that caught Pico flush. Pico’s arms went limp, he fell to the canvas, and Borics jumped on top for ground-and-pound before the referee stepped in for the stoppage.

Check out the highlights above courtesy of Bellator/DAZN.

With this performance, Borics remains undefeated at 9-0 and captures the biggest victory of his MMA career. The 25-year-old Hungarian prospect was losing this fight at every turn yet still managed to finish Pico in devastating fashon. It was Borics’ fourth stoppage in as many Bellator MMA appearances.

As for Pico, who was once considered the biggest prospect in MMA, he will now have to go back to the drawing board and rebound from his first two-fight losing streak.

For complete Bellator 222 results and coverage click here.

Conor McGregor is about to add another name to his list of potential fights.

McGregor, who is currently “retired” from UFC, made headlines yet again last week when he challenged Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg to a fight inside of the cage. “Notorious” was chiming in on the recent fight rumors involving Justin Bieber and Tom Cruise and decided to take another shot at “Marky Mark.”

“I challenge Mark Walhberg on the very same card,” wrote McGregor via Twitter. “Back when mark wahlberg was marky mark, I’d’ve still slapped the ears off him and took my ufc shares back.”

Now, after his most recent shot at Wahlberg, McGregor is catching some heat from one of boxing’s most promising champions.

Regis Prograis, who holds the WBA light welterweight title and a professional record of 24-0 (20 KO), happens to be co-managed by Wahlberg and took offense to McGregor’s call out of the actor. The 30-year-old undefeated boxer recently took to Instagram to challenge McGregor to a fight inside of the ring, and surprisingly, a grudge match inside of the Octagon.

“@thenotoriousmma don’t call out an actor if you’re a real fighter,” wrote Prograis. “Matter of fact, don’t call out my manager. I’m probably the only world boxing champ who would fight in the ring and in octagon.”

While Prograis is a superb boxer with great potential in his own sport, he wouldn’t offer much for “Notorious” inside of the Octagon. The boxing-to-MMA crossover is often talked about but rarely played out, and that’s for good reason. McGregor would simply smoke Prograis if the two squared off in MMA.

Of course, that is according to who you ask. When it comes to famed boxing personality Lou DiBella, who currently promotes Prograis, the welterweight boxer could end up beating McGregor at his own game as well.

“I give Regis a much greater chance of beating McGregor in MMA than I do of McGregor beating Regis in a boxing match,” DiBella told Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole. “If he got into a ring with Regis, he wouldn’t get out of the sixth round.”

Despite the social media challenge, Prograis is unlikely to get much of a reaction out of McGregor. The former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion is too busy plotting his revenge on undefeated Russian sensation Khabib Nurmagomedov to worry about a call out from yet another boxer.

Or is he?

Chael Sonnen will collide with former UFC champion Lyoto Machida later tonight (Fri., Jun 14, 2019) at Bellator 222 live on DAZN from inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, in hopes of locking down a future title shot with current Bellator light heavyweight king Ryan Bader.

At 42 years of age, this may be the last chance for Sonnen to win a major world title. He wasn’t able to do it under the UFC banner after losing twice to the legendary Anderson Silva at 185 pounds and once to pound-for-pound great Jon Jones at light heavyweight, and has been unable to put himself back in position to challenge for gold over the past six years.

Sonnen, who made a promise to his late father that he wouldn’t stop fighting until he earned himself a world title, is hoping to take out Machida this evening at Bellator 222 and lock down presumably his last title shot against the aforementioned Bader, who is also Bellator MMA’s heavyweight champion.

“At this point, I almost regret it and wish I would’ve kept it as a personal motivation for myself,” Sonnen told MMA Junkie. “It is a lot of pressure. … I will either win the championship, or I will be a failure, I believe that wholeheartedly. I was told when I was 17-years-old by Matt Lindland, we were both on a wrestling quest at that time. But, he told me, ‘You cannot retire unless you win a world championship; you can only quit.’ I don’t want to be a quitter.”

Sonnen, who is coming off a disappointing TKO loss to the great Fedor Emelianenko last October at heavyweight, has posted an even 2-2 record since making his Bellator MMA debut back in 2017. In both his wins and losses, Sonnen has leaned on the same gameplan to try and tire opponents with strong wrestling and a suffocating top game. Things will be no different tonight at Bellator 222 as “American Gangster” aims to take “Dragon” off his feet.

“Looking at it going in with, say the intimidation factor, he’s right up there because he’s so weird,” Sonnen added. “I don’t have anybody in Portland that does what he does. We don’t do karate. In my mind we settled this debate of wrestlers vs. karate guys in 1993. That’s what I thought happened, but he stuck around, and that’s a credit to him. But somehow he’s found a way to make a sport that sucks effective.”

Even at this stage of his career Sonnen remains one of the most popular names in MMA. Should he get past Machida and back in the win column there’s no doubt that Bellator will push him into a title fight with Bader and let Sonnen try one more time to hoist a world championship.

Bellator 222’s main card will start at 10 p.m. ET with “Prelims” undercard bouts at 6:30 p.m. ET, both of which will stream exclusively on the aforementioned DAZN. MMAmania.com will deliver results and play-by-play for the entirety of the Bellator 222 card below.