The Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie trilogy was supposed to end conclusively on Friday night in Houston at the Toyota Center. What we got was a victory with controversy. In the main event of Bellator 149, Royce Gracie scored a TKO win over Shamrock in the very first round after a knee from the clinch seemed to catch the latter in the groin.
Shamrock had a bit of a delayed reaction, as he didn’t favor the sensitive area until after another knee was thrown. He went to the canvas, and Gracie used hammer fists to get the stoppage. It was Gracie’s first-ever victory by TKO.
Almost immediately, Shamrock went ballistic. Per the Spike TV broadcast, you could hear him yelling, “He did that on purpose!” Whether Gracie intentionally landed a shot below the border or not, it doesn’t change the outcome.
No one saw the knee land until after the replay was shown, and by then it was too late. The two men seemed to make up after the official decision was read, but Shamrock was visibly disappointed by the abrupt defeat.
At the pre-fight press conference (Warning: video includes NSFW language), Gracie said that Shamrock was just another opponent. That is hard to believe, but nonetheless, the Brazilian legend did to Shamrock what he’d done to 13 other men in his career and what he’d done to Shamrock in their first meeting.
He defeated him.
At 49 years old, you’d like to think Gracie is at least near the end of his career. If this is his last fight, under the current circumstances, he couldn’t have picked a better way to end things.
The Twitterverse wasn’t kind to the fight or the card on a whole. Duane Finley of MMA Junkie pulled no punches with his assessment:
The bout that preceded Gracie vs. Shamrock was even more bizarre.
Kimbo Slice Outlasts Dada 5000
It took almost three rounds, but Kimbo Slice earned the TKO win over Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris. After a partially entertaining first round, the action slowed tremendously in the second round. Both men threw wild shots, but Slice landed a few more than Dada 5000.
In the third round, both guys were so tired, it was clear one would get knocked out. When Dada 5000 went down in a heap, referee John McCarthy stepped in to stop the fight.
WSHH Fans has the hilarious and pitiful ending. No, this isn’t in slow motion:
Quite honestly, the fight was pretty bad. The techniques were amateurish and the action was nearly nonexistent. Some fans came into the fight looking for a back-alley brawl. Instead, it was a backyard nap.
Slice did what he said he would—figuratively speaking. In an obscenity-laced tirade in the aforementioned pre-fight press conference, Slice said he’d knock Dada 5000 out, and that’s what he did. Truth be told, based on Slice’s advantage in experience, this is a fight he should have won.
Dada 5000 had just two MMA bouts coming into the fight. Slice had seven MMA bouts, seven boxing matches and the experience of participating in a season of The Ultimate Fighter.
If he’d lost this fight, it would’ve been a huge upset.
Slice is 42 years old. There’s still a chance he could have a few more of these kinds of fights. He’ll never be considered a legitimate threat to win the Bellator heavyweight title, but perhaps he could have an openweight scrap against a guy like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who just returned to Bellator, or even Tito Ortiz.
Brent Brookhouse of MMA Junkie is also interested in seeing Kimbo and Ortiz:
Here’s a look at all of the results from Friday’s televised card:
Vassell Gets Revenge
The first battle between Emanuel Newton and Linton Vassell was a thriller. Newton won the bout by submission back in October 2014.
This time, Vassell had a sound game plan and he executed it perfectly. He used his advanced wrestling skills to control Newton on the ground most of the night. He avoided the former Bellator light heavyweight champion’s tricky striking game, and Vassell didn’t allow his opponent to dictate a slow-paced bout. He even had to overcome three low blows from Newton.
The result was a dominant unanimous-decision victory.
Vassell desperately needed this win to validate his standing as a legitimate title threat in Bellator’s light heavyweight division. He had failed in each of his previous bouts against the division’s best.
The avenges the previous defeat to Newton and at the very least sets up a third meeting. That’s a bout that could easily headline a smaller Bellator event or serve as a co-feature. If Vassell can string together a few wins after this one, he may be able to challenge for the title by the end of 2016.
Campos Smokes Guillard
As is the case in most Melvin Guillard bouts, the fight between he and Derek Campos was a slugfest. It’s also not surprising that Guillard came out on the wrong end of the brawl.
After an early flurry from Guillard, Campos seized control of the opening round with a series of momentum-snatching strikes. In the second round, Campos stunned Guillard with a hard left hand against the fence. Campos used a surge of follow-up punches to finish Guillard off.
Coming in, Campos had not only lost three of his last four fights, but he was also finished in each of those losses. The defeats came to more than respectable opponents: Patricky Pitbull, Michael Chandler and Brandon Girtz.
Because of the fighters who have bested Campos, it would appear as though the 27-year-old is what you’d call a gatekeeper or measuring-stick opponent. If that assessment is true, Guillard’s career is in peril. He’s now lost four of five fights, and his most recent loss came at the hands of a guy that most of the elite 155-pounders have beaten.
Campos is still young, so he’ll probably get another crack at one of the top lightweights in Bellator after this win. It remains to be seen if he can do any better than he did the first time through the elite circuit.
Sanchez Takes Another Step Toward Elite Status
It wasn’t easy, but Emmanuel Sanchez squeaked out a split-decision victory over Daniel Pineda on Friday night. Sanchez’s more textbook and fundamental style got the better of Pineda’s creative striking approach.
Pineda may have taken the first round as his speed and quickness seemed to bother Sanchez. By the second frame, Sanchez was able to enforce his will and wrestling to slow Pineda down. In the final round, Sanchez began to land hard shots from top position and was eluding all or most of Pineda’s kicks and attacks.
Sanchez showed excellent poise in weathering the early storm to take the final two rounds.
The 25-year-old Sanchez continues to roll in Bellator. Friday’s win was his third in a row. He’s positioning himself for a shot at the featherweight title sooner rather than later. Defeating an experienced opponent like Pineda—who had 32 pro fights coming in—only adds to Sanchez’s increasingly impressive resume.
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