Filed under: Bellator
The fourth season of Bellator Fighting Championships came to an end on Saturday night, with the promotion’s first light heavyweight champion being crowned and a featherweight title rematch getting booked.
In the main event at Bellator 45, Christian M’Pumbu won the light heavyweight championship by defeating Richard Hale by third-round TKO. M’Pumbu landed a huge right hand to knock Hale down, then landed several more punches on the ground as Hale tried to recover. Although Hale did a nice job of protecting himself at first, eventually M’Pumbu managed to get through Hale’s defense, land more punches, and force the referee to step in to stop the fight.
It was an impressive finish for M’Pumbu, improving his record to 18-3-1 and giving him his third consecutive TKO victory inside the Bellator cage.
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire took a unanimous decision victory over Daniel Straus to win the Season 4 featherweight tournament, effectively controlling the fight and winning 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 on the judges’ scorecards. The victory earns Pitbull a rematch with the only man who has defeated him Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren, in what promises to be a great fight.
“I’m happy to give him a rematch and the second loss on his record,” Warren said immediately after the fight.
In the other televised fight, Sam Alvey came back from a brutal beating in the first round of his bout with Karl Amoussou to win a split decision. Early on Amoussou turned Alvey’s head into a bloody mess with a series of vicious elbows, and it looked like the fight might need to be stopped. But Alvey fought just well enough in the second and third rounds to eke out a victory, with two judges giving it to Alvey 29-28 and one judge giving it to Amoussou 29-28.
The fight card was the last of Bellator’s fourth season, and the promotion will now take a five-week hiatus before returning for its “Summer Series” on June 25. Whether Bellator can build on what it’s done this year and build up some more fan interest over the summer remains to be seen, but Bellator is wrapping up an impressive fourth season.