There wasn’t much on the line, but Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler fought tonight at Bellator 67 as if his opponent – PRIDE and UFC veteran Akihiro Gono – was as dangerous as any elite fighter could conceivably be.
…
There wasn’t much on the line, but Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler fought tonight at Bellator 67 as if his opponent – PRIDE and UFC veteran Akihiro Gono – was as dangerous as any elite fighter could conceivably be.
Chandler went right to work, staying light on his feet and backing up Gono up with feints and single punches. In just 56 seconds, however, the former Division I All-American was able to land several hard right hands that dropped Gono to the mat. From there Chandler followed up with lightning quick ground and pound until the referee was forced to save Gono from any additional punishment.
In tournament action, Bryan Baker edged out Ben Saunders to reach the finals in the season six welterweight tournament. Despite what appeared to be a near finish for Saunders in the first round with a combination armbar-triangle attack, Baker managed to escape and use his physical, bruising style of imposition to earn a unanimous decision.
After tense moments in the first, Baker rebounded quickly. In addition to ending round one by taking Saunders’ back, Baker continued to dominate the takedown and was able to positionally control Saunders as well as unload significant ground and pound from a variety of positions on top while avoiding the offensive guard of the American Top Team product.
Perhaps most importantly, Baker was also able to win virtually any and all positional wrestling scrambles where if only for brief moments Saunders was on the advantageous side of his attacks.
Baker will now face the winner of Karl Amoussou vs. David Rickels in the finals of the welterweight tournament. The winner will earn an eventual title shot against current welterweight champion Ben Askren.
Catch up on all the full results from tonight’s card from the Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario, Canada.
MMA Fighting has Bellator 67 results from Friday night’s Bellator action at Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario. In the main event, Michael Chandler will square off against Akihiro Gono. Also on the card, Bryan Baker will face Ben Saunde…
MMA Fighting has Bellator 67 results from Friday night’s Bellator action at Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario.
Undercard Dominic O’Grady def. Nathan Gunn via submission (armbar) at 4:51 of round 2 Nordine Taleb def. Matt MacGrath via second-round TKOat 2:30 of round 2 William Romero vs. Matt Veal Nick Kirk vs. Bo Harris Cosmo Alexander def. Lorawnt Nelson via unanimous decision
* = advances to finals of Bellator welterweight tournament
UFC on Fox 3 isn’t the only Saturday night fight of note. MMA’s combat sports relative in boxing will stage a super welterweight bout with boxing’s king of pay-per-view in Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and WBA super welterweight (154lbs) …
UFC on Fox 3 isn’t the only Saturday night fight of note. MMA’s combat sports relative in boxing will stage a super welterweight bout with boxing’s king of pay-per-view in Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and WBA super welterweight (154lbs) champion Miguel Cotto.
Ahead of his rematch with Amir Khan in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 19th, MMA Fighting (via SB Nation) visited Lamont Peterson’s Head Bangers Gym in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. We asked the WBA and IBF light welterweight champion who he believes would prevail in boxing’s huge bout this weekend. We also asked Peterson’s mentor and head trainer Barry Hunter for his prediction as well.
Editor’s note: MMA Fighting will live blog the Mayweather vs. Cotto fight card on Saturday evening beginning with the featured bout (Jesse Vargas vs. Steve Forbes) all the way through the co-main (Saul Alvarez vs. Shane Mosley) and main event.
After a week off, Bellator returns to action and Canada with a moderately significant main card tonight. The bright spots? Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler returns to action albeit in a non-title super fight. In addi…
After a week off, Bellator returns to action and Canada with a moderately significant main card tonight. The bright spots? Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler returns to action albeit in a non-title super fight. In addition, the Bellator season six welterweight tournament rolls on as Ben Saunders and Bryan Baker look to secure a spot in the finals. And Polish heavyweight Damian Grabowski returns to action against ShoXC veteran David Huckaba as well.
When: Friday, the MTV2-televised card begins at 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday. However, Spike.com will carry the entire fight card beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern.
Where: Casino Rama, Rama, Ontario, Canada
Predictions below for the lightweight non-title main event, a welterweight tournament semi-final and two additional main card bouts.
This is a non-title bout, but it wouldn’t matter. It is extremely improbable (though not impossible) Gono will do anything to Chandler except get dummied. Gono was once a good middleweight, a decent welterweight, but is now only a barely servicable lightweight. It’s MMA, so it’s impossible to rule anything out. Gono, if nothing else, has tremendous experience both in volume and character. But he’s lost his last two (in two different weight classes), is 37 years of age and is incontestably shopworn.
Saunders is a talented welterweight and has the sort of style to give Baker problems. He isn’t as athletic or strong as Baker, but has crisper technique and is offensively aggressive. Even when pushed into defensive maneuvering, Saunders typically does enough to avoid serious damage while posing threats of his own. Baker has a ton of potential, but often lacks focus and can be sloppy. Against Saunders, he’s likely to pay for it.
Odds makers have Ford as the slight underdog, but it’s hard for me to have a ton of faith in Santos. Yes, he’s vastly more experienced. Yes, he’s got more offensive tools than Ford. But I do wonder if Ford’s wrestling could trip Santos up, figuratively and literally. I’ll go with Santos here very reluctantly. Neither fighter is going to set the world on fire with a win here, but the odds on this one are close for a reason.
Not the most amazing fight ever. It’s also one Grabowski should never lose. Huckaba is a journeyman who has spent a considerable amount of time on the Gladiator Challenge circuit. He’s 37 and his last relevant win (if such a thing can be said) came over Ruben Villareal. Grabowski has more than enough submission skills to put Huckaba away early.
There was quite a bit of news from yesterday’s UFC on Fox 3 presser, right? We’ve covered most of it in today round-up (don’t forget about our photos!), but they’re worth going over again.
Every UFC event – particularly when Dana …
There was quite a bit of news from yesterday’s UFC on Fox 3 presser, right? We’ve covered most of it in today round-up (don’t forget about our photos!), but they’re worth going over again.
Every UFC event – particularly when Dana White is there – is always so interesting because the universe of MMA is rewritten each time. News is confirmed or denied, the future is forecasted and many things we thought were true – X fighter is better than Y, for example – often turn out to be terribly untrue. In some sense, you can judge an event’s significance by how much MMA is different after it’s over.
That’s the same reason that makes me wonder if tomorrow’s event is really that big. Still, I’m looking forward to it. The buzz finally got me. I’m most looking forward to Josh Koscheck vs. Johny Hendricks, but there are obviously other fights of quality to choose from. I don’t know if the MMA world will be re-written come Sunday morning, but at the very least Saturday night should be fun and that’s nothing to take for granted.
Speaking of fun, on today’s round-up we’ve got comedians joshing fighters as well as Chael Sonnen heckling Anderson Silva (surprise!), news from yesterday’s presser and some of the Twitter war between Tara LaRosa and Miesha Tate.
So, what is this? A picture of four comic book characters? Sort of. Yes, it is that, but it’s also who UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva says are his five – yes, FIVE – favorite superheros of all time.
Today’s Fanpost of the Day comes courtesy tomvale 13 who are argues there are three movies that could’ve been better with MMA fighters. One of his suggestions? Sex & The City…With Cyborg Santos:
Scene: It’s 2008, and in New York a wild horse has run rampant through the City – terrorising both shoe stores and the groins of many an unsuspecting man. The horse has recruited a gang of 3 misguided harpees who have taken to the liberation of woman-kind in the most ironic fashion – by being complete whores. With their motto of “Any Ham-Javelin will do” and catch-cry of “We demand a typhoon of penises!!” they aid the horses rise to power in the underworld.
The mayor is under siege from the general public, there is seemingly nothing he can do – until he remembers a sadistic criminal he locked up 5 years prior.
Chris Cyborg plays “Cyborg” a sadistic murderer with an irrational hatred of horses – she was originally sent to jail by the city for a string of horse murders so severe, that Jockeys were forced to ride upon Donkeys for a brief period due to a horse-shortage.
With no-one left to turn to – the Mayor releases Cyborg on one condition: Kill the shit out of this annoying fucking horse.
Cyborg skips the usual montage that would follow and gets straight to the killing – she easily dispatches of the harpees by putting a poster up near their favourite trendy coffee shop which reads “All the p——- you can eat – Brooklyn Convention Center NO HORSES ALLOWED” – then tracks down the evil horse of New York by following it’s awkwardly laid out trail of high-hoof marks.
The final scene takes place atop a sky scraper, Cyborg fly kicks the horse in its bent nose and sends it flying down and onto the sidewalk to its death, the applause from the crowd of citizens below is deafening and Cyborg is made Chief Deputy of the newly formed “Horses Suck” department of the police force.
Found something perfect for the Morning Report? Just hit me on Twitter @SBNLukeThomas and we’ll include it in Monday’s post.
NEW YORK — UFC lightweight Nate Diaz spoke to the media at today’s open workouts ahead of his bout with Jim Miller at UFC on Fox 3. The Cesar Gracie black belt discussed his respect from Ricardo Almeida and his team, why competin…
NEW YORK — UFC lightweight Nate Diaz spoke to the media at today’s open workouts ahead of his bout with Jim Miller at UFC on Fox 3. The Cesar Gracie black belt discussed his respect from Ricardo Almeida and his team, why competing is as much about skill as it is performing correctly on the right day, his admiration and respect for Ronda Rousey as well as Miller’s style of fighting, training for a five-round fight and being unable to find for a rather notable New York City landmark.
