Prindle’s record stands at 9-1 with the aforementioned 1 no-contest, with three of those wins coming under the Bellator banner. In his promotional debut, Prindle scored a second round TKO due to doctor stoppage victory over Josh Burns at Bellator 40 in April of 2011, then cruised past TUF 10 vet Abe Wagner by UD the following October in their season five heavyweight tournament quarterfinal match. In the semi’s, Prindle demolished fellow power puncher Ron Sparks in just forty seconds at Bellator 56 via one punch knockout, earning his spot in the finals alongside Thiago Santos, who had racked up two straight rear-naked choke finishes in his preliminary matches.
Videos of both the Sparks and Santos fights, along with the full lineup for Bellator 61, are after the jump.
Prindle’s record stands at 9-1 with the aforementioned 1 no-contest, with three of those wins coming under the Bellator banner. In his promotional debut, Prindle scored a second round TKO due to doctor stoppage victory over Josh Burns at Bellator 40 in April of 2011, then cruised past TUF 10 vet Abe Wagner by UD the following October in their season five heavyweight tournament quarterfinal match. In the semi’s, Prindle demolished fellow power puncher Ron Sparks in just forty seconds at Bellator 56 via one punch knockout, earning his spot in the finals alongside Thiago Santos, who had racked up two straight rear-naked choke finishes in his preliminary matches.
Prindle vs. Sparks
Prindle vs. Santos
Bellator 61 Lineup Main Card
Middleweight Quarterfinal bout: Maiquel Falcao vs. Norman Paraisy
Middleweight Quarterfinal bout: Vitor Vianna vs. Brian Rogers
Middleweight Quarterfinal bout: Vyacheslav Vasilevsky vs. Victor O’Donnell
Middleweight Quarterfinal bout: Giva Santana vs. Bruno Santos
Preliminary Card (Spike.com)
Lightweight bout: Quaint Kempf vs. Josh Quayhagen
Middleweight bout: Trey Houston vs. Jeremiah Riggs
Welterweight bout: Derrick Krantz vs. Eric Scallan
Lightweight bout: Derek Campos vs. Patrick Cenoble
Bantamweight bout: Jeremy Myers vs. Jason Sampson
Eric Prindle vs. Thiago Santos, fight ending low blow comes at the 2:07 mark. All videos in this post props to IronForgesIron.com
Coming fresh off of Last week’s action packed show, Bellator looked to keep building momentum last night in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The good news for Bellator is that, for the most part, the card delivered exciting, entertaining fights. The bad news for Bellator? That above video not only happened, but was supposed to be this season’s heavyweight tournament finale.
Rather, this season’s heavyweight tournament ends with a controversial no contest. On one hand, it would be anti-climatic to name a number one contender by disqualification from to an illegal kick. On the other hand, if Santos was aiming for the inside of Prindle’s thigh, it sure didn’t look like it. Prindle will meet Santos again to determine a contender for Cole Konrad, although a date for their next meeting hasn’t been announced yet.
Eric Prindle vs. Thiago Santos, fight ending low blow comes at the 2:07 mark. All videos in this post props to IronForgesIron.com
Coming fresh off of Last week’s action packed show, Bellator looked to keep building momentum last night in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The good news for Bellator is that, for the most part, the card delivered exciting, entertaining fights. The bad news for Bellator? That above video not only happened, but was supposed to be this season’s heavyweight tournament finale.
Rather, this season’s heavyweight tournament ends with a controversial no contest. On one hand, it would be anti-climatic to name a number one contender by disqualification from to an illegal kick. On the other hand, if Santos was aiming for the inside of Prindle’s thigh, it sure didn’t look like it. Prindle will meet Santos again to determine a contender for Cole Konrad, although a date for their next meeting hasn’t been announced yet.
Fortunately for Bellator, this season’s bantamweight tournament ended with a much more exciting, much less controversial fight. While Alexis Vila managed to push the pace and earn takedowns in the first round, twenty two year old Brazilian prospect Eduardo Dantas came back to take the unanimous decision victory. Dantas utilized his reach advantage to keep Vila at bay and threatened with numerous submission attempts in the second and third rounds. Dantas will meet bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky for a title shot next season.
Also of note, New Jersey native Kurt Pellegrino was knocked out in just fifty seconds by Patricky “Pitbull” Freire. Pellegrino got caught early, and appeared to be working for a takedown while the fight was called. The Atlantic City crowd began chanting bullshit, but after the fight, Kurt announced that he had lost “fair and square” and that this fight would be his last. At thirty two years old, coming off of a loss to a promising lightweight prospect, it’s hard not to believe Pellegrino when he says that he’s retiring for real this time. Thanks for the memories, Batman.
Eric Prindle vs. Thiago Santos declared a no contest (unintentional foul) – Round 1, 1:24
Patricky “Pitbull” Freire def. Kurt Pellegrino via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 0:50
Eduardo Dantas def. Alexis Vila via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Marcin Held def. Phillipe Nover via split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29)
OFFICIAL PRELIMINARY CARD RESULTS
Karl Amoussou def. Jesus Martinez via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 2:20
LeVon Maynard def. Chris Wing via unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 30-26)
Lucas Pimenta def. Doug Gordon via knockout (elbows) – Round 1, 0:40
Scott Heckman def. Brylan Van Artsdalen via submission (standing guillotine choke) – Round 1, 1:38
Gregory Milliard def. Brandon Saling via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Filed under: BellatorIn addition to Kurt Pellegrino’s swan song, Saturday night’s Bellator 59 event also featured the Season 5 tournament finals in the heavyweight and bantamweight divisions. But while the bantamweight tournament final was a solid figh…
In addition to Kurt Pellegrino’s swan song, Saturday night’s Bellator 59 event also featured the Season 5 tournament finals in the heavyweight and bantamweight divisions. But while the bantamweight tournament final was a solid fight that crowned a new top contender in the division, the heavyweight fight was a debacle.
That heavyweight fight, Thiago Santos vs. Eric Prindle, came to a confusing and confounding ending, with a conference including the referee, cageside doctor and athletic commission officials taking much longer than the fight itself. It was ultimately ruled a no contest.
With Prindle on the ground on his back, Santos kicked him right between the legs, and the referee called a halt to the action for an illegal low blow. After five minutes Prindle said he still couldn’t continue fighting, and it was announced that the low kick was unintentional, so the fight was declared a no contest. But it’s hard to see how anyone watching the kick could think it was unintentional: If Santos didn’t intend to kick Prindle between his legs, what did he intend to do?
In any event, Santos and Prindle will now have to have a rematch to determine which one of them gets the next crack at Bellator heavyweight champion Cole Konrad. That’s a disappointment for Bellator, which was hoping to find itself a good contender for Konrad to fight.
At bantamweight, Eduardo Dantas beat Alexis Vila by unanimous decision, 29-28 on all three judges’ cards, to win the Bellator bantamweight tournament. The fight gave Vila the first loss of his MMA career and improves Dantas to 13-2. Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky will defend his belt against Dantas next year, and that should be a good fight: Bellator has a fun and exciting bantamweight division, and it’s too bad that the bantamweight tournament final was overshadowed by the mess at heavyweight.
And in a big surprise to begin the MTV2 televised broadcast, the 19-year-old Polish lightweight Marcin Held won a split decision victory over former Ultimate Fighter finalist Phillipe Nover. The fight easily could have gone for Nover, and the decision had the crowd booing. A Held-Nover rematch would make a lot of sense for Bellator in 2012.
The final Bellator Fighting Championships event of 2011 also featured the final fight of Kurt Pellegrino‘s career.
Fighting in front of his home-state fans in New Jersey, Pellegrino was defeated in just 50 seconds by Patricky “Pitbull” Freire, and he said afterward that he won’t fight again.
“I started my career in Atlantic City and I wanted to end it in Atlantic City as well,” Pellegrino told the fans at Caesar’s Atlantic City afterward. “I lost fair and square. I love you all so much. This is the last time you’ll ever see me fight again.”
Pellegrino telling the fans (many of whom were his friends and family) that he had lost fair and square seemed to quell their anger at an apparent fast stoppage in his loss to Pitbull. Although Pitbull leveled Pellegrino with a left-right combination and then jumped on top and hit him with several punches on the ground, Pellegrino did still appear to be intelligently defending himself at the time of the stoppage, and the fans loudly booed the outcome.
A UFC veteran who went 7-5 inside the Octagon, Pellegrino left the UFC on a two-fight losing streak in May, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. It was a surprise when he returned to MMA to fight for Bellator, but it’s not a surprise that he’s now saying he’s done fighting at the age of 32.
Nick Diaz tops UFC 137 salaries with $200,000. Donald Cerrone vs. Nate Diaz slated for UFC 141 in Las Vegas on December 30th. Carlos Condit didn’t step aside so much as Georges St. Pierre chose.
Maiquel Falcao vs. 
Norman Paraisy
Brian Rogers
Vyacheslav Vasilevsky vs. 
The final 
