(Props: BellatorMMA)
For those of you who had better things to do on Saturday, Bellator put together this helpful video recap of their Season Five heavyweight tournament quarterfinals. And for a card full of relatively obscure big-men, the show wasn’t half bad.
Ron Sparks (8-0) continued his rise towards relevancy with an 84-second knockout of Mark Holata. Sparks also happens to be one of those dudes with his own last name tattooed on his stomach, but we won’t hold it against him. Speaking of stoppages, Blagoi Ivanov (5-0, 1 no contest) also kept his unbeaten record, smashing Zak Jensen standing then putting him to a sleep in the second round with a guillotine choke.
Things didn’t fare any better for the other TUF 10 vet on the card, Abe Wagner, who lost two out of three rounds to an increasingly beet-red Eric Prindle (8-1). And in the night’s biggest upset, Neil Grove — the runner-up in Bellator’s previous heavyweight tournament — got outworked by Mike “300″ Hayes (16-4-1) en route to a split decision loss. Complete Bellator 52 results are below…
MAIN CARD
– Mike Hayes def. Neil Grove via split decision (29-28 x 2, 28-29, 29-28)
– Blagoi Ivanov def. Zak Jensen via technical submission (guillotine choke), 2:35 of round 2
– Eric Prindle def. Abe Wagner via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
– Ron Sparks def. Mark Holata via KO, 1:24 of round 1
PRELIMINARY CARD
– Genair da Silva def. Bryan Goldsby via submission (brabo choke), 3:51 of round 1
– Josh Quayhagen def. Cosmo Alexandre via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Justin Frazier def. Liron Wilson via TKO, 1:50 of round 1
– Matt Van Buren defeated Nick Nichols via TKO, 2:29 of round 2