Tag: Bellator 198

Frank Mir Testifies In Deadly Chokehold Case Involving Police Officer

Frank Mir testified in a Las Vegas case involving a supposedly fatal choke hold:

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No one knows submissions like Bellator heavyweight Frank Mir.

The former UFC champion has broken the arms of Tim Sylvia and Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira, submitted Brock Lesnar with a kneebar, and choked Cheick Kongo completely unconscious in a little over a minute.

So his testimony in a case involving Las Vegas police officer Kenneth Lopera, who stands accused of fatally choking out Tashii Farmer, also known as Tashii Brown. Lopera’s police union doesn’t believe the chokehold caused Brown’s death and rather attributes it to an enlarged heart and drugs in his system during his struggle with Lopera.

While the exact nature of Mir’s testimony remains secret, a local news station reports Detective Steve Grammas with the Las Vegas Police Protective Association says Mir saw the video evidence and quickly came to Lopera’s defense (via MMA Mania):

“When he did that one of his first reactions to me was, Steve, there is no way this guy killed the suspect involved. There’s no way.”

An autopsy report determined cause of death to be asphyxia due to police restraint procedures and other significant conditions included methamphetamine intoxication and (enlarged heart).

The choke Lopera used on Brown was considered a low-level use of force prior to the incident but has since been moved up to the intermediate-level use of force.

Mir most recently fell in his return fight against Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 198 following a two-year USADA suspension.

Prior to that, Mir had an illustrious if somewhat inconsistent career in the UFC where he was known for his ruthless submissions, where he would break a bone without flinching if his opponent didn’t tap.

Mir himself is a life-long Las Vegas resident.

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Stay In Your Lane: Michael Bisping & RDA Own Dillon Danis On Twitter

Dillon Danis may have just won his first professional MMA fight, but he’s already making quite a lot of enemies. After attracting most of his attention as Conor McGregor’s friend and Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, Danis made a successful debut at Bellator 198 last weekend after scoring a toehold sub on a 2-5 opponent. After the […]

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Dillon Danis may have just won his first professional MMA fight, but he’s already making quite a lot of enemies.

After attracting most of his attention as Conor McGregor’s friend and Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, Danis made a successful debut at Bellator 198 last weekend after scoring a toehold sub on a 2-5 opponent.

After the victory, Danis decided to trash talk UFC middleweight Michael Bisping after hearing some unflattering things the Brit said about him.

Once Danis heard that Bisping had called him a “secondhand Conor McGregor,” the upstart called “The Count” out for his own fashion choices:

Of course “The Count” could help himself from responding, as the former middleweight champion is well known for his trash talk.

Bisping snapped back a day later and managed to put Danis is his place, to which former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos inexplicably agreed:

Then Danis told RDA not to ‘speak out of turn,’ which prompted a hilarious response from the surging welterweight heading into his fight with fellow trash talker Colby Covington at UFC 225:

Finally, Danis clapped back by saying that dos Anjos should relaax because he would pull out of a fight if he were to play with Legos:

Danis certainly being groomed to be Bellator’s next big star, as the promotion but a lot of time and attention promoting the 24-year-old jiu-jitsu ace. Perhaps that’s gone to his head, especially when he’s picking fights with only recently-deposed UFC champions, or perhaps it’s a well-executed plan to get his name on the mouths of MMA fans everywhere.

It’s certainly working.

What do you think of Danis’ form of self-promotion? Does he indeed copy too much of Conor McGregor’s style, or is he riding the perfect gameplan to MMA stardom?

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Bellator 198’s Peak Numbers Show That Fedor Emelianenko Is Still A Big Draw

Earlier this week, the viewership numbers for last weekend’s Bellator 198 event were released, and the event averaged about 750,000 viewers. That’s not a great number by any means, but that number represents a small boost in Bellator’…

Earlier this week, the viewership numbers for last weekend’s Bellator 198 event were released, and the event averaged about 750,000 viewers. That’s not a great number by any means, but that number represents a small boost in Bellator’s viewership compared to the promotion’s recent events, which were highly criticized by observers of the sport. It’s […]

The post Bellator 198’s Peak Numbers Show That Fedor Emelianenko Is Still A Big Draw appeared first on MMA News.

Dillon Danis Responds To Al Iaquinta’s Unintentionally Hilarious Callout

Say what you will about Bellator prospect Dillon Danis, but he knows how to get people talking. Three days after a submission victory over a 2-5 late replacement in his MMA debut at Bellator 198, a host of prominent MMA personalities including Michael Chandler, Ben Askren, and Michael Bisping have weighed in with their seething […]

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Say what you will about Bellator prospect Dillon Danis, but he knows how to get people talking.

Three days after a submission victory over a 2-5 late replacement in his MMA debut at Bellator 198, a host of prominent MMA personalities including Michael Chandler, Ben Askren, and Michael Bisping have weighed in with their seething assessments of Danis’ performance and/or personality.

While almost none of it has been positive, it’s safe to say Danis has been able to get the mixed martial arts world focused on him during a slow week without a UFC event to build to this weekend.

And last night, recent UFC title contender Al Iaquinta hopped into the mix with a Tweet from Costa Rica, saying he hoped Chandler worked Danis and calling him a ‘putts (sic)’:

Never one to deny a chance to hype himself up more, Danis quickly responded with a short but sweet reply:

Indeed haters will hate, and Danis has a growing flock of them in high places after just one MMA fight against a sub-.500 opponent.

Love him or hate him – and it appears most hate him – the touted Brazilian jiu-jitsu wiz’s scope of attention and star power is growing each day, something that could also be said about the meteoric rise of his good friend and training partner, Conor McGregor.

If his overall fighting skills can ever match the heat he incites out of the cage, look out.

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Frank Mir Won’t Return To Bellator Next After Fedor Knockout

Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir defected to rival MMA promotion Bellator following his two-year USADA suspension following his final UFC bout in 2016, but don’t expect to see him back in Bellator for his next fight. Mir took a 48-second thrashing at the hands of Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 198 last weekend, but his Bellator […]

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Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir defected to rival MMA promotion Bellator following his two-year USADA suspension following his final UFC bout in 2016, but don’t expect to see him back in Bellator for his next fight.

Mir took a 48-second thrashing at the hands of Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 198 last weekend, but his Bellator contract was essentially a one-and-done.

In fact, Mir revealed on his “Phone Booth Fighting” podcast is looking to get into the cage sooner than later, and will likely take a fight with Russian-based MMA promotion ACB, where Mir handles commentary duties (via MMA Junkie):

“Bellator came to me, and they’re talking about October. I would like to get a fight in with the ACB before that, so I can just get more time in clocked under me so I can get my timing back on for fighting.”

Mir’s first fight back following his USADA suspension started off strongly for the first 10 seconds, as the former UFC champion rocked Emelianenko right out of the gate. But suddenly, the always-crafty Russian managed to toss the bigger man into the air and onto the mat with incredible ease.

Mir says that throw was the beginning of the end:

“I lost my cool; I let my ego dictate how I fought. I’m pretty good at being emotionless and trying not to let that enter, but as soon as I got thrown through the air, it was such a highlight-reel throw, my ego was very injured.”

“When we got up, I went into street fighter mode. Because I was pissed off that I got thrown through the air, all of a sudden I just went for the kill instead of trying to fight like a martial artist. I fought like a street fighter, and that didn’t fair so well.”

Mir (18-12) could very well compete for Bellator again, but it seems like he’s looking to take a fight before then.

Who could Mir fight outside of the UFC and Bellator before jumping back into the shark tank?

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Michael Bisping Goes Off On ‘Secondhand Conor’ Dillon Danis

Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping knows a thing or two about trash talking to sell a fight. The brash Briton has made a successful career out of doing just that, paving the way for current mic masters like Conor McGregor. While Bisping has always been complimentary of McGregor, but the same can’t be said […]

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Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping knows a thing or two about trash talking to sell a fight.

The brash Briton has made a successful career out of doing just that, paving the way for current mic masters like Conor McGregor.

While Bisping has always been complimentary of McGregor, but the same can’t be said for Dillon Danis. Danis, who’s McGregor’s Jiu-Jitsu coach and close friend, made his professional MMA debut over the weekend at Bellator 198 and seems to have mimicked McGregor’s style and tone while promoting himself as “the highest-paid fighter in Bellator” after only one fight.

Bisping excoriated Danis as a style-biter during a recent episode of his podcast, and didn’t hold back in classic Bisping fashion (via MMA Mania):

“Not only is he Conor McGregor’s jiu-jitsu coach, he’s seeming to try to morph and copy McGregor’s antics. Certainly his clothing. Conor does wear some fucking really nice, cool shit and Dillon Danis is like the poor, second-hand, overwashed, hand-me-down version because his clothes are fucking terrible.

“But, he’s trying to be Conor so hard, it’s laughable. He even said, ‘After this weekend, I will own Bellator.’ That sounds vaguely like a line where Conor said, ‘I will own boxing.’ He probably knows that this kind of behavior, as it did with me, encourages more people to want to see you get knocked out than win. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. The bullshit that he’s doing, the shit that he’s spewing is working.”

Danis won his MMA debut with a toehold over an unheralded Kyle Walker on Saturday but didn’t appear to share his mentor’s striking acumen in any way, shape, or form.

Walker tagged Danis at will before the submission ace got the fight to the ground, and from then it was all over, but it seems that Danis has a ton of work to do on his all-around game.

Do you agree with Bisping’s assessment of Danis?

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