Bellator 203 “Pitbull vs. Weichel 2” took place July 14, 2018 at Foro Italico in Rome, Italy. You may have already surmised this from the event’s title but Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (26-4) defended his Featherweight title as Daniel Weichel (39-9) for a second time. Even though their first match was a short exciting two round affair, the rematch went a bit longer.
The lineup for Rome also featured local flavor in Alessio Sakara and international flavor thanks to “The Spartan” Andrey Koreshkov. Despite his nickname Koreshkov doesn’t hail from Greece — he calls Omsk, Russia home and is the former Welterweight champion of Bellator. On this night he brought a 20-2 record to a fight with Vaso Bakocevic (33-17-1).
Referee Todd Anderson called for the fight to get underway and “The Spartan” got to work. Bakocevic may have been more experienced on paper, but against the formidable size and power of Koreshkov, he had no choice but to backpedal and look for counter strikes when and where there was an opening. Koreshkov never gave him one and finished the bout after just 66 seconds with a MASSIVE spinning back kick to the body that made his foe wilt. Even though he went for follow up shots on the ground, not a single one was necessary.
The strength of this win would earn Koreshkov a spot in the Welterweight Grand Prix for a chance to reclaim the title that had once been his.
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