Maybe at some point down the road a trilogy is in the cards for Attila Vegh and Emanuel Newton.
In the rematch of their 2012 bout, Newton avenged his loss to Vegh — his only defeat in the last four years — and unified Bellator’s light heavyweight belt. Newton used a steady, forward-moving style at Bellator 113 in Kansas City, in which the Californian picked his shots, switching stances and levels throughout the five rounds en-route to a tough split decision. The fight was contested almost entirely on the feet, and Newton was the aggressor throughout, pushing the pace for the bulk of the five rounds. Judge’s saw the fight for Newton 48-47, 47-48, 49-46.
Newton will now meet the winner of the May 17 pay-per-view fight between Muhammed Lawal and Quinton Jackson.
“It was a tough fight, you know, Vegh was countering me real good,” Newton said afterwards. “I think I pushed the pace and put his back against the cage. This is MMA, it’s not called ‘the waiting game,’ so, he was just waiting more. To Rampage and Mo, it’s going to be a good fight between them, but I’m definitely going to have to get better before I go in there and face either of those men again.”
Meanwhile Bellator’s Season 10 lightweight tournament got underway, and Patricky Freire came out of the quarterfinals looking like a man on a mission. He dropped David Rickels in the second round with a left hook, and after a follow-up right hand punched his ticket into the semifinals. Pitbull has now won consecutive fights for the first time since 2011.
In other action with the Season 10 lightweight tournament, Derek Anderson scored a violent knockout of Brandon Girtz with counter knee to the head in the second round, and Marcin Held submitted Rodrigo Cavalheiro via a first round toehold. Rounding out the 155-pound semifinals field is Derek Campos, who won a unanimous decision over Montana’s Tim Welch.