Filed under: Bellator
Pat Curran used a spectacular head kick to knock out Marlon Sandro Saturday night and win the Bellator Fighting Championships Summer Series featherweight tournament.
Four minutes into the second round of what had been a good, back-and-forth fight, Curran exploded with his right leg directly across Sandro’s face, knocking him flat on his back and out cold. Curran pounced and landed three punches on the ground, but those were unnecessary: The head kick was what did it.
“I’m speechless,” Curran said after the fight. “I feel great. I can’t explain it — I feel great.”
The victory establishes the 23-year-old Curran as one of the most exciting fighters in the featherweight division, not just in Bellator but in all of mixed martial arts. Sandro was widely regarded as the best featherweight outside the UFC, and now Curran has stopped Sandro in sensational fashion.
Curran previously won a Bellator lightweight tournament before dropping down to featherweight, and overall he’s 6-1 in Bellator, with the only loss coming to the promotion’s lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez. Curran’s overall MMA record is 15-4, and he has to be considered one of the real rising stars of the sport. His finishing kick on Saturday night was spectacular.