Bellator 222 ‘MacDonald vs Gracie’ Recap & Highlights

Bellator 222 ‘Machida vs Sonnen’ aired Fri. night (June 14, 2019) from Madison Square Garden in NYC. MMA Mania brings you a post-fight recap, results, .gifs and interviews from the semifinals of the Welterweight Grand Prix!

Bellator 222: “Machida vs. Sonnen” aired last night (Fri., June 14, 2019) exclusively on DAZN from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. Neiman Gracie (9-0) looked to advance to the finals of the Welterweight grand prix against world champion Rory MacDonald (20-5-1) and capture the Welterweight title in the process.

MacDonald’s best weapon in round one was his footwork and his left hand, landing the jab repeatedly. Gracie’s best weapon was the leg kick, attacking MacDonald’s lead left and leaving welts all up and down it. In terms of the damaging power shots the edge ultimately went to MacDonald 10-9.

Gracie had one big opportunity in the second round when he got a takedown early and went for a knee bar, but MacDonald took the pain and wriggled free then stepped over on a takedown attempt to spend the rest of round two on top. Gracie tried to go to mission control but MacDonald still managed to land enough elbows and hands for a 10-9.

The third round was the first time in a while I was 100% convinced that Rory still “had it.” He easily stopped Gracie’s attempts to land any offense, and when he threw Gracie to the ground into side control, MacDonald dominated every position on top. Gracie made one attempt to secure an armbar and MacDonald quickly stepped over to block it. 10-9.

Round four was more of Gracie eating MacDonald’s left jab uncontested. Gracie tried like hell to get a takedown and wound up upside down on his head sliding off of MacDonald’s back, which ultimately resulted in MacDonald on top again doing increasing amounts of damage to the left side of Gracie’s face. 10-9.

Gracie finally had the round he needed in the fifth but it was too little too late. He scored the takedown after absolutely refusing to let go of MacDonald and going around with him in circles, but once he had MacDonald on the ground his defense stymied anything Gracie tried to do until he rolled for a leg submission with very short time left. MacDonald was able to defend until the bell and give away one round knowing he’d win the bigger war.

The judges returned an official decision of 49-46, 48-47 X2 all for Rory MacDonald. He talked about the victory afterward with John McCarthy.

“I feel pretty good! It’s such an honor to compete in an arena like this in New York City. I truly feel blessed to come so far in my career. I’m looking forward to (Douglas). I’m not surprised (it’s him). He’s a true champion and it’s an honor to compete with a guy like that.”

Douglas Lima had a response as well.

“He’s a warrior. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to get this back and get this rematch going.”

Former UFC fighters Chael Sonnen (31-16-1) and Lyoto Machida (25-8) met in the co-main event of Bellator 222 at Light Heavyweight. Would “The American Gangster” or former champion “The Dragon” prevail?

Sonnen was chasing Machida right from the opening bell, and it looked as though his strategy to turn it into a wrestling match would pay dividends when he took Machida’s back. He slid right off but managed to press Machida into the fence and work knees to the body and stomps to the feet. Unfortunately for Sonnen when Machida broke free he started landing hard shots with body kicks and rocked Sonnen via flying knee. Sonnen managed to hang on for a second round but had a huge mouse under one eye for his trouble.

Instead of changing tactics between rounds, Sonnen rushed right toward Machida again and Machida saw it coming and threw another knee that wrecked Sonnen. He poured on the hammerfists and shots to the head until Todd Anderson saved Sonnen at 0:22.

Machida spoke to “Big” John McCarthy after it was all made official.

“I felt really good tonight. I really appreciate Chael for coming here to fight me. He’s a true gentleman. Please give a hand to Chael Sonnen people! So I didn’t expect Chael to make it (out of round one), he made it, he’s really tough. I put my knee really strong but he took it. Me and my team we studied a lot of Chael’s style, my brother Chinzo, Fabricio Werdum, Rener Gracie, everybody thank you!”

Chael Sonnen left his gloves in the cage after being “honest” with John post fight.

“I’m gonna be honest with you John — I probably lost that first round. I had a hell of a lot of fun, it was a good run, and ladies of gentlemen I’m walking out. I appreciate the memories, and goodbye.”

A rematch of their Rizin 14 bout saw Bantamweight champions collide as Darrion Caldwell (13-2) looked to avenge a loss to Kyoji Horiguchi (27-2). Caldwell smashed Horiguchi early by securing takedowns and smashing Horiguchi in the face with elbows while he had one arm tied behind his back. His size and wrestling ability made him overwhelming in round one.

The second round started to shift the momentum as Caldwell once again secured the takedown but did virtually nothing on top and Horiguchi landed small strikes, boxing Caldwell about the ears. It’s very hard on my own scorecard to score the guy on bottom when he’s not landing damaging blows, but John McCarthy thought Horiguchi did enough.

In the third round Horiguchi found his groove, sprawling to block a takedown and searching for a potential guillotine. He couldn’t get it. Horiguchi got on top and all Caldwell could do was hang on and try to hold onto the arms. When he did get up he got nailed with three or four hard lefts, and immediately had another takedown blocked. Solid 10-9 for Horiguchi.

The next two rounds can be debated. It seemed that Horiguchi won the fourth and that the fifth was a potential toss up. Caldwell threw a rising elbow that opened up a cut by Horiguchi’s right eye. Despite that Horiguchi was landing nasty elbows to the side of the head when Caldwell went for one more takedown attempt late in R5.

On the scorecards I had it 48-47 Horiguchi as did one judge, while the other two gave him 49-46 and made him the new “champ-champ” of both Bellator and Rizin!

John McCarthy spoke to Horiguchi after the belt was put around his waist with the assistance of an in-cage translator.

“I do apologize for it being a ‘lack-of-action’ fight. Yeah that was the plan. The plan was to conserve energy at the beginning and then to finish strong.”

At a catchweight of 175 lbs. the brash jiu-jitsu artist Dillon Danis (1-0) once again faced a more experienced foe in Max Humphrey (3-2).

Humphrey put up more of a fight than Danis’ first opponent in Bellator, but the result was ultimately the same. Danis was able to secure the takedown 25 seconds in and although at first he seemed ready to win by TKO, he eventually went back to his roots and fished for submissions from one position to the next until he secured the armbar tap at 4:28 of round one. He spoke to John McCarthy afterward.

“I said this before. I’m the fucking best in the world. Let’s see who can stop me. Jon Jones, Rory, any of those bitches can get it. This one I wanted to beat someone’s ass a little bit. You don’t get arrested out there so I was like let’s go, let’s fucking do it. He was just holding there and stalling so I was like you know what? It’s time to finish this guy.”

Bellator 222 featured a Featherweight bout between former Bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas (21-6) and the streaking “Spaniard” Juan Archuleta (22-1). The first round saw Dantas try to maximize his vaunted speed with a fast start, but Archuleta was able to drag him to the ground and keep him in a three point stance. He landed the better strikes including hard knees to the legs, but Dantas did score with one spinning backfist.

Archuleta was already ahead on the scorecard as round two wore on, having eluded Dantas with his footwork and scored by coming in and out with significant strikes, but rather than settling for a moral victory on the scorecard he destroyed Dantas with a right hook right before the bell to score the knockout victory at 4:59 of round two. Here’s a bit of how it looked before the final destruction.

“Big” John McCarthy spoke to the winner of 18 straight fights about his tremendous finish.

“John I’m on an 18 fight win streak, I’m the No. 1 contender at 135 and 145, Horiguchi where are you at? You’re not leaving the United States with that belt. I’m signing my contract for a title fight tonight. WOOOO! Big John all I can say is all I was thinking about was HORIGUCHI!! I’m telling you John, three titles, here I come. I’ve had four before in one organization, let’s go!”

One of the latest additions to this card was a Bantamweight bout between the undefeated Patrick Mix (10-0) and the tough and gritty Ricky Bandejas (11-2). Despite having gone three rounds with fellow MSG fighter Juan Archuleta his last time out, Bandejas found himself in a terrible predicament early when “Patchy” leapfrogged onto his back with both hooks in.

Mix was able to sink an arm in deep under the chin for the tap to a rear naked choke at 1:06 of round one. An elated Mix talked to John McCarthy about his New York state of mind.

“I feel great man! Greg Jackson, all my training partners, all my coaches — if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have hit that. I knew I was relentless. I’ll walk through fire to get there. I said if I was losing 14 minutes and got him down in the last minute, I’d still finish him. I see my fans, my old high school wrestling coach, it means EVERYTHING to win here in Madison Square Garden. I want James Gallagher! I’m the one who does rear naked chokes. I got the record. I want you next!”

For complete Bellator 222 results and coverage click here.