Bellator light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader isn’t thrilled with his first contender. On Nov. 3, Ryan Bader will meet Linton Vassell inside the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Pennsylvania. The championship tilt is set to headline Bellator 186. It’ll be Bader’s first title defense. In a recent interview with Bellator play-by-play commentator Mike Goldberg, Bader […]
Bellator light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader isn’t thrilled with his first contender. On Nov. 3, Ryan Bader will meet Linton Vassell inside the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Pennsylvania. The championship tilt is set to headline Bellator 186. It’ll be Bader’s first title defense. In a recent interview with Bellator play-by-play commentator Mike Goldberg, Bader […]
Spike released the ratings for Bellator 185, which took place this past Friday night and featured the promotional debut of Gegard Mousasi. Mousasi defeated Alexander Shlemenko in the main event. According to a release, the card was viewed by an average of 523,000 fans, peaking at 792,000. Bellator returns next Friday night with Bellator 186 […]
Spike released the ratings for Bellator 185, which took place this past Friday night and featured the promotional debut of Gegard Mousasi. Mousasi defeated Alexander Shlemenko in the main event. According to a release, the card was viewed by an average of 523,000 fans, peaking at 792,000. Bellator returns next Friday night with Bellator 186 […]
After making a highly-publicized jump to Bellator MMA after five straight wins in the UFC, Gegard Mousasi made his promotional debut for Scott Coker against former champion Alexander Shlemenko at last Friday’s (October 20, 2017) Bellator 185 from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. Things didn’t go quite as planned for “The Dreamcatcher,” however, […]
After making a highly-publicized jump to Bellator MMA after five straight wins in the UFC, Gegard Mousasi made his promotional debut for Scott Coker against former champion Alexander Shlemenko at last Friday’s (October 20, 2017) Bellator 185 from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
Things didn’t go quite as planned for “The Dreamcatcher,” however, as Shlemenko landed a huge overhand left that broke Mousasi’s orbital bone and left him fighting with one eye for the majority of the match-up. He was able to use his wrestling and grappling to ground Shlemenko and take his back in the first two frames, but ate a ton of damage in the third and looked to be fading badly.
Regardless, Mousasi pulled out a decision win, but not without some controversy, of course – and the all-too-predictable online backlash to follow. The former Strikeforce champion discussed the win with Ariel Helwani on today’s The MMA Hour, where Mousasi admitted he wasn’t happy with his debut when asked, but had to escape with a win:
“No, not at all. But he punched me right in the eye in the first minute, so I was fighting on instinct, you know, I was trying to survive. I was fighting with one eye for almost three rounds, so yeah, it didn’t work out the way I wanted, but a win is a win, you know?”
Photo by Dave Mandel for USA TODAY Sports
Throes of haters supposedly flocked to Mousasi to call his win over ‘Storm,’ a robbery, and true to form, he had quite the response for anyone trolling him online:
“The the haters, they can suck it. I have a pretty long one; they can all get in line and suck it.”
In a more technical point of view, Mousasi then shifted focus to Shlemenko’s experience in MMA, pointing out that he has an insane amount of victories.
With that established, Mousasi wanted critics of his win to realize Shlemenko is far from the bum they supposedly called him in blasting the bout:
“I fought with one eye. I don’t know what people want me to do. The guy is a former champion, he has 56 wins, that’s more than maybe four or five combined champions of UFC. So I wasn’t fighting a bum or something.”
The plans that world boxing champion Heather Hardy had going into her fight against Kristina Williams at Bellator 185, which took place on Friday, October 20, 2017, at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, didn’t play out as she wanted. The preliminary card aired online at 7:00 pm EST while the main card aired […]
The plans that world boxing champion Heather Hardy had going into her fight against Kristina Williams at Bellator 185, which took place on Friday, October 20, 2017, at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, didn’t play out as she wanted.
The preliminary card aired online at 7:00 pm EST while the main card aired on Spike TV at 9:00 PM EST. As seen in the fight, she got smashed by Williams, who picked up the second-round TKO win.
Although this fight marked Hardy’s second professional mixed martial arts (MMA) bout, she did hold an undefeated record of 20-0 (1 NC) as a pro boxer.
People are praising Hardy for putting up a great effort, but at the end of the day, she is still dealing with a broken nose, which the cage side doctor’s decided she had enough at the end of the second round.
The next day after the loss and reflecting on it, she decided to take to her official Instagram account to issue a statement.
“I’m sorry I let everyone down. I gave it my all out there, and I truly hope it showed,” Hardy wrote via Instagram. “I’d rather lose then give y’all a boring fight because I appreciate every one of you… sponsors, coaches, friends, family and fans… and the worst part was knowing I couldn’t get the job done for all of you.
Congrats to a game Kristina Williams, who had an answer for everything I tried. OSU! And in case everyone is wondering, YES, I will be back. Nothing will ever take the fight out of me, not even this broken nose. I knew coming into this new world I was taking a big risk, and this is all part of my journey. You’ve all heard how resilient I am. Now watch me bounce back.”
A post shared by Heather Hardy (@heathertheheat) on
Hardy seems resilient in her approach to MMA despite the loss to Williams being considered a huge upset. She was able to conquer the boxing world and escape it without a loss. Now, stepping back inside of the cage at this point may actually bring out a side in Hardy she didn’t know she had.
After deciding to leave the UFC behind and sign with Bellator MMA on the heels of a five-fight win streak earlier this year, top-ranked middleweight Gegard Mousasi made his promotional debut against former champion Alexander Shlemenko in the main event of Bellator 185 tonight (Fri., October 20, 2017) from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. But […]
After deciding to leave the UFC behind and sign with Bellator MMA on the heels of a five-fight win streak earlier this year, top-ranked middleweight Gegard Mousasi made his promotional debut against former champion Alexander Shlemenko in the main event of Bellator 185 tonight (Fri., October 20, 2017) from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
But while the former Strikeforce and DREAM champion was favored to weather the “Storm,” in reality, the flashy Russian striker took Mousasi to the limit, to the point where the decision will be considered at least somewhat controversial. Overall, the main event was a fitting conclusion to an action-packed Bellator event with quite a large amount of blood.
It unfolded when Shlemenko landed an absolutely thunderous overhand left to “The Dreamcatcher’s” eye, badly swelling it and changing the course of the fight. From that moment, Mousasi instantly abandoned his otherwise dangerous striking and took the fight to the ground, taking Shlemenko’s back and attempting several rear-naked choke submissions while landing a few good punches and elbows in between. Despite great submission defense, it was a clear round one win for Mousasi.
Dave Mandel for USA TODAY Sports
In the second round, Shlemenko came out with his trademark spinning back kicks to the body and spinning backfists upstairs, and was controlling the pace with Mousasi reluctant to engage. But the former UFC contender got the action to the canvas just past the halfway point in the round, once again taking the back and controlling the fight in a dominant position.
The final frame saw Shlmenko uncorking an endless onslaught of various strikes on a clearly tired Mousasi, who even stalled on the ground towards the end of the fight, his right eye swollen shut and rendering his striking game useless. The third was one-sided for “Storm,” essentially making the fight come down to the ultra-close second round. One of the commentators made it seem like Mousasi’s two takedowns and back control was not enough to overcome Shlemenko’s striking edge in the second round, but it truly could have gone either way.
In the end, all three cageside judges scored the bout 29-28 in favor of Mousasi, who will now move on to a potential Bellator middleweight title bout. The win was a close if not controversial debut for Bellator, and certainly affected largely by Mousasi’s swollen eye, but it’s still accurate to say there was solid chance he would have been finished were the bout a five-round main event.
That would have continued the trend of some of Bellator’s biggest names getting beaten badly, so Mousasi winning on the cards was a relieving sight, even if it wasn’t quite the impact they had hoped for in “The Dreamcatcher’s” first fight.
Gegard Mousasi barely got past Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 185. The two were in a bit of a feeling out process the first minute of the fight. Shlemenko went for a body kick. A right hand from Shlemenko caused Mousasi to go for the takedown. He completed it. Mousasi’s right eye looked swollen shut already. […]
Gegard Mousasi barely got past Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 185. The two were in a bit of a feeling out process the first minute of the fight. Shlemenko went for a body kick. A right hand from Shlemenko caused Mousasi to go for the takedown. He completed it. Mousasi’s right eye looked swollen shut already. […]
