A busy card for Bellator 171 on Friday night from Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane, Kansas, featured 10 bouts headlined by the Melvin Guillard and Chidi Njokuani 180-pound catchweight tilt.
Here are the card’s results from Friday night:
Undercard Results
- Jordan Young def. Chris Harris via unanimous decision 30-26, 30-27, 30-27
- Justin Overton def. Gaston Reyno via rear-naked choke, 0:34 R2
- Jarod Trice def. Kevin Woltkamp via KO, 3:17 R2
- Tyrell Fortune def. Will Johnson via TKO, 4:27 R2
- Bruna Ellen def. Carmella James via unanimous decision 29-28, 30-27, 30-27
Main Event
Chidi Njokuani dominated Melvin Guillard in Friday night’s main event with a win by unanimous decision, as the judges scored the fight at 30-25, 30-24, 30-26.
Njokuani might have won each of his last seven fights entering Friday night, but he was facing a fighter in Guillard who had collected 21 of his 32 wins by knockout, including four of his last five.
But there would be no fireworks in Kansas.
With no action in the first 1:30, referee John McCarthy momentarily stopped the fight and ordered the two to start going after each other.
Once the two got locked up though, Guillard was immediately called for a low blow. A lot of that had to do with the height discrepancy. Njokuani is 6’3″, while Guillard is just 5’9″.
Almost a minute later, Njokuani was called for an illegal knee after Guillard fell out of position, capping off the action in an uneventful, choppy first round.
Despite his height advantage, Njokuani couldn’t find his striking range, while Guillard resorted to takedowns as his only form of offense. Once he brought Njokuani down, though, there was little he could do.
With 10 seconds left in the second round, Njokuani landed a big kick to Guillard‘s mid-section, momentarily stunning him. However, the bell restricted Njokuani from capitalizing any further despite outstriking Guillard 59-3 after two rounds, via the Spike telecast.
He came out firing in the third round with quick body shots, but a takedown of Guillard saw the two stay on the canvas for most of the round, closing out the win in front of a dissatisfied audience.
In a crowded division, wins aren’t the only thing that matters. If a fighter can come up with a stylish victory, it does even more for his reputation and his future in MMA.
While Njokuani got the win on Friday with six of the nine cards being scored at 10-8, he didn’t get those style points needed to further build his name.
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