Zane Simon, Eddie Mercado, & Victor Rodriguez return to break down this week’s Bellator and ONE Championship events. With picks and analysis for the main cards, and maybe even a few odds.
Outside the UFC this week, there are two other major MMA shows for fans that just can’t get enough action. On Friday night, Bellator returns with a fight card largely booked to get name talent some wins. Saad Awad and Brandon Girtz fight in the main event, while Daniel Straus, Andrey Kreshkov, and Joe Schilling all get opponents they look primed to defeat.
The real ‘big’ show this week, however, belongs to ONE Championship on Sunday morning. The Singapore-based promotion heads to Japan for their ‘New Era’ card, featuring four title fights. Eduard Folayang rematches Shinya Aoki in the main event, with home-grown star Angela Lee taking on Jingnan Xiong in the co-main. Aung La Nsang rematches Ken Hasegawa for the middleweight title, and Bibiano Fernandes gets his rubber match against bantamweight champ Kevin Belingon. Oh… and Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson make their debuts in the quarter-final rounds of the flyweight and lightweight Grand Prix tournaments.
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Here’s a look at the Bellator 219 card (main card starting at 9pm EST on the Paramount Network) and the ONE Championship: A New Era card (main card starting at 5:30am/2:30am ET/PT on the ONE APP) as they stand right now.
BELLATOR 219: AWAD VS GIRTZ
PARAMOUNT MAIN CARD | 9PM ET/PT
Saad Awad vs. Brandon Girtz
Daniel Straus vs. Shane Kruchten
Andrey Koreshkov vs. Mike Jasper
Joe Schilling vs. Keith Berry
ONLINE PRELIMS | 8PM/5PM ET/PT
Darren Smith Jr. vs. Joshua Jones
Shawn Bunch vs. Dominic Mazzotta
AJ Matthews vs. David Rickels
Janay Harding vs. Marina Mokhnatkina
Cody Vidal vs. Dalton Rosta
Joey Davis vs. Marcus Anthony
POSTLIM BOUTS
David Pacheco vs. Kelvin Gentapanan
Johnny Cisneros vs. John Mercurio
Ricky Furar vs. Roman Puga
Sunni Imhotep vs. Eugene Correa
ONE CHAMPIONSHIP: A NEW ERA
ONE APP MAIN CARD | 5:30AM/2:30AM ET/PT
Eduard Folayang vs. Shinya Aoki
Jingnan Xiong vs. Angela Lee
Aung La Nsang vs. Ken Hasegawa
Kevin Belingon vs. Bibiano Fernandes
Demetrious Johnson vs. Yuya Wakamatsu
Eddie Alvarez vs. Timofey Nastyukhin
Yodsanklai Iwe vs. Andy Souwer
BLEACHER REPORT LIVE PRELIMS | 2:30AM/11:30PM ET/PT
Danny Kingad vs. Senzo Ikeda
Kairat Akhmetov vs. Reece McLaren
Rodtang Jitmuangnon vs. Hakim Hamech
Hiroki Akimoto vs. Joseph Lasiri
Mei Yamaguchi vs. Kseniya Lachkova
Garry Tonon vs. Anthony Engelen
Panicos Yusuf vs. Mohammed Bin Mahmoud
Chang Min Yoon vs. Bala Shetty