MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Quinton Jackson (205.9) vs. Muhammed Lawal (205.6) – light heavyweight tournament final
Will Brooks (154.2) vs. Michael Chandler (154.9) – for interim lightweight title
Tito Ortiz (205.5) vs. Alexander Shlemenko (201.9) – non-title fight
Blagoi Ivanov (249.5) vs. Alexander Volkov (236.1) – heavyweight tournament final
Michael Page (170.5) vs. Ricky Rainey (170.1)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV, 8 p.m. ET)
Cheick Kongo (235) vs. Eric Smith (253.8)
Marcin Held (158) vs. Nate Jolly (158) – 158-pound catchweight
Fabricio Guerreiro (147.9) vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev (145.1) – 148-pound catchweight
Mike Richman (145.5) vs. Goiti Yamauchi (145.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com, 6 p.m. ET)
Austin Lyons (152.4) vs. Zach Underwood (152.3) – 153-pound catchweight
Justin Frazier (264.5) vs. Mike Wessel (257.9)
Ben Brewer (170.2) vs. Andy Uhrich (170.5)
Anthony Lemon (170) vs. Codie Shuffield (170)
Brian Hall (125.6) vs. Cortez Phelia (125.6)
Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.
In case the headline didn’t tip you off, Eddie Alvarez is out of Bellator 120—the promotion’s second attempt to break into the PPV market. His rubber match with Michael Chandler will have to wait.
(Well, in a way, MMA’s “greatest trilogy” did kind of end at Bellator 120…)
Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.
In case the headline didn’t tip you off, Eddie Alvarez is out of Bellator 120—the promotion’s second attempt to break into the PPV market. His rubber match with Michael Chandler will have to wait.
Sherdog’s Greg Savage broke the news on Twitter last night. Initially, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebneydenied the rumor, saying the fight was still on. Less than 24 hours later, Bellator hasn’t officially announced anything but mediaoutlets are accepting Alvarez’s withdrawal as fact.
What’ll they do now? Hopefully they convert it to a free card on Spike, like they did with their last ill-fated PPV. It’s unlikely Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo, Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko, Michael Page vs. Rick Rainey [Editor’s note: They were charging money for that fight?] and Will Brooks vs. Nate Jolly will be worth the price of admission. Regarding the last fight, Brooks vs. Jolly, it’s speculated that Brooks will be bumped into the main event against Chandler but who can say for sure.
To surprisingly little reaction this weekend, Bellator announced that the lineup for Bellator 120: Alvarez vs. Chandler 3 — also known as the promotion’s first pay-per-view event — has been set. (Bellator 120 goes down Saturday, May 17th, at the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi.) Don’t worry, Bellator has clearly learned from their whole “plan a pay-per-view around two old guys and some fading UFC castoffs” phase. But are there enough intriguing, quality fights on this lineup to justify paying for a Bellator event? Let’s look over the fight card and determine for ourselves.
All nine of the fights for Bellator 120 — four Spike preliminaries, five main card contests — have been ranked solely by my interest in watching them. If you disagree, feel free to write some terrible things about me in the comments section. I look forward to ignoring them.
I don’t think either fighter is even capable of a boring match, much less a boring match against each other. I could type paragraph after paragraph on how their first two encounters resulted in two of the greatest fights in our sport’s history, and how…oh why am I even trying to pretend that I’m not going to insert an Al Bundy GIF and move along to the next fight:
To surprisingly little reaction this weekend, Bellator announced that the lineup for Bellator 120: Alvarez vs. Chandler 3 — also known as the promotion’s first pay-per-view event — has been set. (Bellator 120 goes down Saturday, May 17th, at the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi.) Don’t worry, Bellator has clearly learned from their whole “plan a pay-per-view around two old guys and some fading UFC castoffs” phase. But are there enough intriguing, quality fights on this lineup to justify paying for a Bellator event? Let’s look over the fight card and determine for ourselves.
All nine of the fights for Bellator 120 — four Spike preliminaries, five main card contests — have been ranked solely by my interest in watching them. If you disagree, feel free to write some terrible things about me in the comments section. I look forward to ignoring them.
I don’t think either fighter is even capable of a boring match, much less a boring match against each other. I could type paragraph after paragraph on how their first two encounters resulted in two of the greatest fights in our sport’s history, and how…oh why am I even trying to pretend that I’m not going to insert an Al Bundy GIF and move along to the next fight:
The go-home show before a pay-per-view is extremely influential on buy rates, which is the only reason why I’m assuming this fight isn’t on the main card. These guys have been with Bellator for ages, and always produce fun, exciting fights. I’d be more than willing to pay for this one; not that I’m complaining about getting it on cable.
This fight is such a freak show, random, “Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” pairing that Ben Askren has already labeled it a work. Why wouldn’t I be looking forward to it?
(Preliminary Card) Mike Richman vs. Goiti Yamauchi
Back at Bellator 110, it appeared that these two would crush their opponents and meet up in the next round of Bellator’s featherweight tournament. It looked like such an obvious conclusion that I advised you all to bet money on both men winning. Naturally, neither guy advanced, so Bellator booked these two to kick off the preliminaries of their inaugural pay-per-view, because of course this is a thing that’s happening. As forced as this fight feels, I’m not going to act like I won’t at least watch it.
Call me crazy, but I firmly believe that Bellator’s “Sign the UFC’s leftovers” business model isn’t so much an attempt to gain viewers by trotting out guys that fight fans used to sort-of care about as it is an attempt to quell the “These guys haven’t beaten anybody!” criticisms of their roster. In other words, Cheick Kongo isn’t the guy they want, he’s the guy they want to lose to the guys they want. Because, let’s face it, Bellator Heavyweight Champion Vitaly Minakov’s victory over Cup-Cheick did more to establish him as a legitimate heavyweight to most fight fans than a victory over a stoic, doughy Russian they’ve never heard of would have. I’ll pause for you to make your own “Who is Vitaly Minakov?” jokes, I guess (I hope you feel really good about yourself for that super original joke, by the way).
Essentially, Bellator is using Kongo as a “jobber to the stars:” a guy who can beat the not-quite-readies, but isn’t a threat to beat any of the promotion’s top heavyweights. This means that every once in a while they’ll have to book him in squash matches against 6-1-1 nobodies so fans will continue to perceive him as a threat, making his losses against the fighters Bellator actually wants to push seem that much more significant. This fight is a necessary evil, is what I’m saying.
(Main Card) Alexander Shlemenko vs. Whoever Bellator Finds to Replace Tito Ortiz at the Last Minute
(Preliminary Card) Heavyweight Tournament Final: Alexander Volkov vs. Blagoi Ivanov
Yes, Bellator’s heavyweight bouts tend to quickly reduce themselves to two guys sloppily waltzing through a “What’s cardio?” display of all things garbage-ass, but I really like the stoic Russian with an “-ov” in his last name. He’s a beast, and should be a legitimate threat to Vitaly Minakov’s unblemished record.
(Main Card) Will Brooks vs. Nate Jolly
Leave it to Bellator to put a popcorn match on the main card of their first-ever pay-per-view. Nate Jolly has never fought for Bellator, and it’s not like he’s a name that casual fans would at least recognize. If they wanted to use the regional star to entice the locals to buy tickets, there’s no reason why they couldn’t put this fight on the preliminaries and bump Mike Richman vs. Goiti Yamauchi to the main card. Likewise, if they wanted to use this fight to get Will Brooks — a 13-1 fighter who has gone 5-1 in Bellator — over with the fans, then why not book Brooks against a fighter that the average Bellator fan would actually recognize?
I’m not trying to insult either fighter/say that the fight will be boring just because I’m not heavily invested in it/deny that climate change is real/whatever it is that MMA fans automatically assume whenever someone writes that they aren’t very interested in an upcoming fight, I’m just saying that I’m really not that interested in this bout.
Tito wants a fight. Shlemenko wants a fight. As a fan, I would love to see the fight. I think it’s got this incredible, kinda cool dynamic going where a small 85er who could conceptually make 70 is going to move up to 205 to fight one of the greatest fighters in the history of 205.
I can’t even with that logic, so for now let’s just focus on the matchup at hand, and more specifically, how it will never actually happen on account of Ortiz pulling out with an injury or sickness in the coming weeks.
Tito Ortiz may be one of the greatest 205ers of all time, but he also has, as Rebney admitted, “a longand storied history of getting injured preparing for fights.” He was injured pretty much his entire UFC career, if you were to ask him, and it’s been the same for his Bellator career thus far. That being the case, we all might as well speculate as to the extent of the injury he will inevitably pull out of *this* fight with, right? It’s the Christian thing to do, so join us after the jump to vote in our poll.
Tito wants a fight. Shlemenko wants a fight. As a fan, I would love to see the fight. I think it’s got this incredible, kinda cool dynamic going where a small 85er who could conceptually make 70 is going to move up to 205 to fight one of the greatest fighters in the history of 205.
I can’t even with that logic, so for now let’s just focus on the matchup at hand, and more specifically, how it will never actually happen on account of Ortiz pulling out with an injury or sickness in the coming weeks.
Tito Ortiz may be one of the greatest 205ers of all time, but he also has, as Rebney admitted, “a longand storied history of getting injured preparing for fights.” He was injured pretty much his entire UFC career, if you were to ask him, and it’s been the same for his Bellator career thus far. That being the case, we all might as well speculate as to the extent of the injury he will inevitably pull out of *this* fight with, right? It’s the Christian thing to do, so join us after the jump to vote in our poll.
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(Complete lack of facial expressions? Unbuttoned shirt, to expose a gold medallion with possible religious significance? I’m going to take a wild guess and say this man is from…Russia? / Props: YouTube.com/alnado)
Bellator’s “Alvarez vs. Chandler III” pay-per-view card is just over a month away, but only three fights have been officially confirmed so far. And so, reigning middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko has decided to do a little YouTube matchmaking to get a big fight on the card. Here’s what “Storm” had to say in a video statement released yesterday; I’ve done my best to transcribe it in its entirety…
“Tito Ortiz, you say you want to fight May 17th on Bellator’s PPV. I will fight you. I will beat you. Tito, I respect you but I must beat you because I am champion. I know that Tito Ortiz, different weight class. I know that Tito Ortiz, light-heavyweight. This is not problem for me. I ready. I ready fight with light-heavyweight, no problem. Bjorn, make this fight for me because I am champion. I am ze best. I will make good fight. Fight of the night.
Ortiz has already accepted the challenge via Instragram and is already doing the kind of intense training that will lead to a back injury about three weeks from now. You heard it here first.
UPDATE:According to Sherdog, Shlemenko vs. Ortiz has been booked for the 5/17 PPV.
(Complete lack of facial expressions? Unbuttoned shirt, to expose a gold medallion with possible religious significance? I’m going to take a wild guess and say this man is from…Russia? / Props: YouTube.com/alnado)
Bellator’s “Alvarez vs. Chandler III” pay-per-view card is just over a month away, but only three fights have been officially confirmed so far. And so, reigning middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko has decided to do a little YouTube matchmaking to get a big fight on the card. Here’s what “Storm” had to say in a video statement released yesterday; I’ve done my best to transcribe it in its entirety…
“Tito Ortiz, you say you want to fight May 17th on Bellator’s PPV. I will fight you. I will beat you. Tito, I respect you but I must beat you because I am champion. I know that Tito Ortiz, different weight class. I know that Tito Ortiz, light-heavyweight. This is not problem for me. I ready. I ready fight with light-heavyweight, no problem. Bjorn, make this fight for me because I am champion. I am ze best. I will make good fight. Fight of the night.
Ortiz has already accepted the challenge via Instragram and is already doing the kind of intense training that will lead to a back injury about three weeks from now. You heard it here first.
UPDATE:According to Sherdog, Shlemenko vs. Ortiz has been booked for the 5/17 PPV.
It’s Friday night, and that means Bellator! This was the promotion’s 114th outing, and it was a feisty one. It featured the semifinals of the season 10 featherweight tournament and one semifinal bout of the middleweight tournament. The Bellator middleweight title was also up for grabs.
The event opened with UFC vet Kendall Grove taking on Bellator mainstay Brett Cooper. This was a middleweight tournament semifinal bout, the only one of the night.
Early in the first round, Cooper landed a stiff leg kick that floored Grove. Cooper pounced on him, but Grove reversed his fortunes. He took Cooper’s back and maintained the position for the rest of the round. He was unable to secure a rear naked choke despite several attempts. Towards the end of the round he resorted to ground and pound. As he poured more on, Cooper wilted and turtled, but he was saved by the bell.
The second round was much closer. Both fighters managed to pepper each other. Grove worked his jab, and Cooper’s money combination was a left uppercut followed by a straight right. It was this same combo that sent Grove crashing to the mat late in the second frame. Some vicious follow-up ground and pound from Cooper starched Grove and Big John McCarthy stepped in, perhaps a little too late.
It’s Friday night, and that means Bellator! This was the promotion’s 114th outing, and it was a feisty one. It featured the semifinals of the season 10 featherweight tournament and one semifinal bout of the middleweight tournament. The Bellator middleweight title was also up for grabs.
The event opened with UFC vet Kendall Grove taking on Bellator mainstay Brett Cooper. This was a middleweight tournament semifinal bout, the only one of the night.
Early in the first round, Cooper landed a stiff leg kick that floored Grove. Cooper pounced on him, but Grove reversed his fortunes. He took Cooper’s back and maintained the position for the rest of the round. He was unable to secure a rear naked choke despite several attempts. Towards the end of the round he resorted to ground and pound. As he poured more on, Cooper wilted and turtled, but he was saved by the bell.
The second round was much closer. Both fighters managed to pepper each other. Grove worked his jab, and Cooper’s money combination was a left uppercut followed by a straight right. It was this same combo that sent Grove crashing to the mat late in the second frame. Some vicious follow-up ground and pound from Cooper starched Grove and Big John McCarthy stepped in, perhaps a little too late.
The next match was the first featherweight tournament semifinal. Des Green faced Will Martinez. After a minute or two of feeling out, Martinez landed a tremendous right hand that wobbled Green. Green managed to maintain his composure though, shooting for a double leg, driving Martinez completely across the cage and taking him down. Martinez stood back up shortly after hitting the mat. Some sloppy striking exchanges ensued, with both fighters missing big. Martinez hit Green with a wicked body kick, then clinched and started dirty boxing. He maintained dominance over the striking for the rest of the first round, scoring with right hands at will—that is until he was taken down with about a minute to go in the round. Green hit a couple of great right hands from inside Martinez’s guard, and Martinez landed a nice upkick. The rounded ended with a bit of blood coming from Martinez’s mouth.
Green started the second round aggressive. Martinez made him pay with a left hand that wobbled him. Nevertheless, Green pushed through it and clinched with Martinez, taking his back while standing and tenderizing Martinez’s thighs with knees. After about a minute or two of this, Green slammed Martinez with a stunning suplex. Repetition was the story for the rest of the round. Green sat in Martinez’s guard. Martinez went for a submission, and Green avoided it.
The third round began with Martinez rushing forwards, throwing three jabs and slipping. After that, Martinez intentionally parked himself against the fence. It appeared as though Martinez was attempting to bait Green. It worked, but not as Martinez intended. Green came in and nailed him with a right hand. Martinez recovered quickly. Very late in the round, Martinez rocked Green with a left hook, but it was too little, too late. Green ended the fight with a takedown, practically guaranteeing the round and the fight. The judges agreed with this assessment; Green won a unanimous decision victory.
The co-main event, and last featherweight tournament semifinal, pitted Daniel Weichel against Matt Bessette. Things started off poorly for Bessette. Weichel floored him with a straight right counter to a leg kick. Weichel followed it up with some ground and pound; Bessette’s rubber guard was ineffective. The first round stalled out at that point. Weichel didn’t pass into half guard until there was a minute left in the first round. Bessette managed to escape with about 30 seconds left, but received a stiff knee to the face for his efforts.
Weichel started round 2 by literally shoving Bessette to the canvas. He let Bessette return to his feet. The two exchanged knees. There were some more missed or otherwise meaningless strikes. Bessette was the more active fighter, which might’ve won him the round on the scorecards, though the same claim could be made for a takedown Weichel scored late in the round (but Bessette rose to his feet immediately afterwards).
Bessette tried to continue turning the pace up in the third frame but Weichel stymied him with a takedown. He spent much of the round in Bessette’s guard, easily shrugging off submission attempts and stalling until the end of the fight. Not surprisingly, the judges awarded Weichel with a unanimous decision win. He’ll be meeting Des Green in the finals.
The night’s main event featured a middleweight title fight between champion Alexander Shlemenko and challenger Brennan Ward. Ward frustrated Shlemenko early on, hitting the champ with a good uppercut as well as a stiff knee. He also managed to evade and block much of Shlemenko’s offense..that was until he ate a few punches and a knee. Shlemenko blocked a Ward takedown but wound up pressed against the fence. A low blow from Ward put a stop to the action for a minute. After the fight resumed, Ward took Shlemenko’s back. A neck crank failed to end the fight. A rare stand-up from the back occurred (we still don’t know what Big John was thinking) and the two started wildly exchanging. Shlemenko wobbled Ward with a hook, but he still had enough composure to drag the Russian to the mat and take his back a second time. He couldn’t sink in a choke before the round ended.
The two exchanged hooks to start the next round. Shlemenko hit a trio of knees to Ward’s body and missed an outside trip. He followed that up with a nasty round kick to the body. Ward tried to take Shlemenko down off a kick, but wound up in an extremely tight guillotine, so tight that Ward tapped before Shlemenko even dropped to guard. A good showing from Ward, though. He gave Shlemenko a tougher fight in the first round than most expected.
Here are the complete results:
Main Card
Alexander Shlemenko def. Brennan Ward via submission (guillotine), 1:22 of round 2
Daniel Weichel def. Matt Bessette via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Desmond Green def. Will Martinez via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Brett Cooper def. Kendall Grove via KO (punches), 3:33 of round 2
Preliminary Card
Justin Wilcox def. Jason Fischer via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Bubba Jenkins def. Sean Powers via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Linton Vassell def. Trevor Carlson via submission (rear naked choke), 1:54 of round 2
Gavin Sterritt def. Mike Estus via submission (guillotine choke), 3:29 of round 1
Joe Rodriguez def. Eric Wahlin via submission (arm triangle), 2:06 of round 2
