Here’s the scoop on tonight’s Bellator 245 main card, including a rematch between Phil Davis and Lyoto Machida, plus the promotional debut of Cat Zingano.
Bellator 245 is setting sail today (September 11th) as the first event of the promotion’s doubleheader weekend from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The top of the billing is getting a light heavyweight rematch between the promotion’s former champ, Phil Davis, and the UFC’s former title holder, Lyoto Machida.
The first time these two top-tier titans collided was way back at UFC 163 in 2013. Davis took home a highly competitive unanimous decision, earning three scores of 29-28. Quite a lot has happened up until this point, aside from a global pandemic. Phil found some lethality and won himself a world title with Bellator, just to turn right around and lose it to his nemesis Ryan Bader. But since then, he’s beaten everyone that has been put in front of him not named Vadim Nemkov.
As for Machida, his path to this rematch has been a bit less glorious, and arguably a great deal more challenging. The Karate master had to endure a couple of brutal finishes at the hands of some the UFC’s top 185-pounders, but did rebound with a couple of epic knockout wins over some old veterans. Father time has hit Machida a lot harder athletically than it has Davis, which really hinders “The Dragon’s” style that relies heavily on reflexes and surprising speed. That reduction in quickness pitted against a more evolved, and always risk adverse, Davis could make swaying the judges even more of a challenge for Machida than it was the first go-round.
The co-main event of the evening will see the Bellator debut for former UFC women’s bantamweight title challenger, Cat Zingano, who will meet the 6-5 Gabrielle Holloway. Zingano is the last person to defeat the undeniably great Amanda Nunes, and also holds a finish over another former world champ in Miesha Tate. Her first professional loss came from a 14-second Ronda Rousey armbar, and Cat has only won one match out of three since that happened. Perhaps a new promotion is just what the now featherweight Zingano needs to get her career back on track, but she’ll have to get through a very game .500 fighter in Gabrielle Holloway first. It should be noted that Holloway missed weight by 4 lbs.
The Bellator 245 main card will also see collegiate wrestling standout, Ed Ruth, make his return up to the middleweight division where the 5-1 Taylor Johnson will be waiting. Ruth is on the mend after dropping an important decision to welterweight contender Yaroslav Amosov this past February, and will be taking a sizable step down in terms of caliber of opposition. His opponent Johnson has earned several ground and pound finishes, but good luck getting on top of someone with the wrestling chops of Ruth. Kicking off the main card (literally), prolific kickboxer Raymond Daniels looks to sport the small gloves and square off with fellow GLORY Kickboxing veteran, Peter Stanonik. The striking of Daniels really is poetry in motion, and he’ll be getting an opponent in Stanonik who is likely going to oblige him in a standup fight.
The Bellator 245 undercard is full of familiar faces that are worth tuning in for. The company’s former middleweight champion, Rafael Carvalho, is looking to get himself into the win column at 205-pounds by taking on undefeated Bellator newcomer, Alex Polizzi. After falling short in dramatic fashion to Timothy Johnson in his last outing, heavyweight prospect Tyrell Fortune hops back on the horse to face UFC and PFL veteran Jack May. Longtime MMA veteran Leslie Smith is also on the prelims and she will battle it out with the 7-6 Amanda Bell. It should be noted that Bell missed weight by 3 lbs.
The Bellator 245 main card can be seen live on September 11, 2020 on the Paramount Network at 10:00 PM ET, with the prelims streaming online at 8:15 PM ET.
Main card:
- Phil Davis vs. Lyoto Machida: Light Heavyweight
- Cat Zingano vs. Gabrielle Holloway: (W) Bantamweight
- Ed Ruth vs. Taylor Johnson: Middleweight
- Raymond Daniels vs. Peter Stanonik: Welterweight
Prelims:
- Rafael Carvalho vs. Alex Polizzi: Light Heavyweight
- Tyrell Fortune vs. Jack May: Heavyweight
- Keith lee vs. Vinicius Zani: 140 pounds
- Leslie Smith vs. Amanda Bell: (W) Featherweight