In today’s UFC Morning Update, I shared the video of the horrific beating that Joe Warren took at the hands of Pat Curran at Friday night’s Bellator 60 card. In reality, the beating wasn’t just issued by Curran, but also by referee Jeff Malott, who sho…
In today’s UFC Morning Update, I shared the video of the horrific beating that Joe Warren took at the hands of Pat Curran at Friday night’s Bellator 60 card. In reality, the beating wasn’t just issued by Curran, but also by referee Jeff Malott, who should be reprimanded and stripped of his license, never to referee another professional fight again.
I did not get a chance to see the Curran/Warren fight the other night because they were on right before me, but Warren did not look in good shape at all backstage after the fight. I’m not one to have my stomach easily turned either, but I was genuinely afraid for him when he passed by as they were practically carrying him. I keep hearing it was a late stoppage, and then that it wasn’t, back and forth. Either way, I genuinely hope that he is OK. That’s a scary thing to see.
It’s not a stretch to say that Warren’s career may have been prematurely ended by an incompetent referee on Friday night. I don’t have any kind of confirmation on Warren’s current condition, but I know he’s out of the hospital.
He almost certainly suffered at least one concussion and possibly two, and that’s the kind of thing that will make a 35 year old man think long and hard before stepping back in the cage for a fight.
We had quite the weekend in mixed martial arts action, didn’t we? Things kicked off Friday night with the newly-revamped Ultimate Fighter Live and didn’t stop until Bob Sapp’s awful sham of a performance on Sunday morning’s Supe…
We had quite the weekend in mixed martial arts action, didn’t we? Things kicked off Friday night with the newly-revamped Ultimate Fighter Live and didn’t stop until Bob Sapp’s awful sham of a performance on Sunday morning’s Super Fight League debut in India. Let’s take a look at the latest and greatest from the MMA […]
This Saturday, the Bellator season-six middleweight tournament kicks off, featuring eight fighters who many people may not have heard of.However, just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they aren’t good fighters.These eight men will be look…
This Saturday, the Bellator season-six middleweight tournament kicks off, featuring eight fighters who many people may not have heard of.
However, just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they aren’t good fighters.
These eight men will be looking to earn three victories and, with that, earn a shot at the winner of the Hector Lombard-Alexander Shlemenko fight.
Let’s take a look at the eight men involved in the tournament and learn a little about each of them.
I have no idea if this is going to change anything or have an effect on anyone. I don’t want to consider this a movement, although I would like to consider it a rallying cry. The purpose of this post is pretty simple: I want you to go watch Bella…
I have no idea if this is going to change anything or have an effect on anyone. I don’t want to consider this a movement, although I would like to consider it a rallying cry. The purpose of this post is pretty simple: I want you to go watch Bellator. This will probably be long and rambling, but bear with me, as it is my way. Ready? Let’s begin.
I’ve been a Bellator fan since they debuted on MTV2. I came relatively late to the party, but I still consider myself a diehard fan. I just think that there are “tiers” to being a diehard fan, and the ones that saw Bellator from the beginning are simply in a higher tier than me.
Before the MTV2 deal, I was only marginally familiar with Bellator. It just wasn’t on my radar at all. And I can admit, I wanted to see Bellator on MTV2 mostly because I wanted to see how long it would take for this idea to fail.
Can you blame me? A live, weekly MMA event on a network like MTV2? It just seemed strange, downright bizarre. I knew from the get-go that if the shows didn’t perform, there was almost zero chance that MMA would click with the MTV2 audience. With a lot of hesitation and a decidedly morbid sense of curiosity, I began watching Bellator regularly.
What I saw, and what I continue to see, was and is one of the greatest Mixed Marital Arts promotions I have ever seen in my life.
There are so many things to like about Bellator. First off, their presentation is a lot of fun. Every time I see a Bellator event, I know that I’m watching something that is uniquely Bellator.
The commentary team is spot-on, and in my opinion, they’re only second to Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg. The design of their cage also instantly gives the promotions their own unique feel.
And of course, you can’t beat weekly, live MMA.
Think about that for a second: Every single week, for a few months straight, you’re getting live Mixed Martial Arts events. I can only guess how hard that must be to pull off, and my guess is that it isn’t easy. Not even the UFC can offer weekly events for months straight.
And now we come to the meat of my argument: my No. 1 reason to watch this promotion. I could give countless examples from countless Bellator events, up and down Bellator’s sometimes-tumultuous history. But it all boils down to one key point.
Pound-for-pound, Bellator may be the best MMA promotion in the world right now.
I say “pound for pound” because you have to consider one simple fact.
On the tightest budget of all three of the major MMA promotions, and with a history of being on the smallest and most obscure network of the three major MMA promotions, Bellator FC has still somehow managed to deliver fights that have matched and even sometimes surpassed any of the fights/events that Strikeforce or even the UFC has put on.
They’ve done it with a roster of talent from around the world and from all walks of life. Some divisions are admittedly weaker than others. But fans are realizing more and more lately that many of the top Bellator stars, particularly in Bellator’s lighter-weight divisions, could make serious runs in both Strikeforce and the UFC.
And when you consider the “new age” of Strikeforce, with almost all of Strikeforce’s biggest stars now in the UFC, I think it’s only a matter of time before Bellator surpasses Strikeforce in all areas.
Every time Bellator starts up a new season, they deliver highlight-reel moments again and again, seemingly with ease.
Maybe it’s an awesome submission (inverted triangle anyone?) or a crazy KO (Pat Curran anyone?). Maybe it’s a three-round or even five-round all-out war. Maybe it’s the shock of a tournament favorite losing, or the surprise of a tournament “dark horse” fighting to the finals.
The world of Bellator is filled with stories that twist and turn, but no matter what else happens, it all ends with two guys in the cage giving their all.
Before I go, let me say this: Bellator is not a perfect promotion. They’ve had bad fights, they’ve even had entire events that I haven’t liked.
I can even admit, somewhat apologetically, that in the grand scheme of things, sometimes I’ve simply forgotten about Bellator for a few days and missed a Bellator show entirely. But as with any sport, you have to take the bad with the good.
And maybe that’s my entire point: Bellator has had its bad moments, but there are so many good things about this promotion that I want to try to convince as many people as possible to do one simple thing: go watch Bellator.
This entire post has more or less been me standing on the soapbox, and there may be more of that in the posts/articles to come where I continue to make my case for why I love this promotion so much.
As I said in the beginning…bear with me, it is my way. I will leave you with this: just give it a chance. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to become a fan of this promotion. I should know, I was that guy not so long ago, and I’ve even gotten some of my friends hooked on Bellator when they too knew practically nothing about the promotion.
It’s a treat, it’s a breath of fresh air, it’s a welcome divergence from the norm. It is Bellator, and there is only one Bellator.
So go watch Bellator.
And one final note: if you’re a Twitter user and want to get in on the discussion and/or offer up your own insight, feel free to use #gowatchbellator in your tweets to help spread the word.
Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan, and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews, and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.
It’s that time once again: Another major MMA event has come and gone, and it’s time for my unofficial “Best Performance of the Night” award.Bellator 60 had a slew of good performances from many of Bellator’s top featherwei…
It’s that time once again: Another major MMA event has come and gone, and it’s time for my unofficial “Best Performance of the Night” award.
Bellator 60 had a slew of good performances from many of Bellator’s top featherweights in the opening round of Bellator’s Season 6 Featherweight Tournament. But the main event of Bellator 60 featured one of those “Bellator moments” that Bellator fans love to talk about.
Here’s why Pat Curran’s brutal and beautiful KO win over Joe Warren took home “Best Performance of the Night.”
Let’s begin as we always do, fans and friends: by putting the situation into context.
Coming into this fight, Warren was still Bellator’s featherweight champion despite coming off of a KO loss. That loss came to Alexis Vila (who eventually fought to the finals of that tournament) in the opening round of Bellator’s Season 5 Bantamweight Tournament. Before the tournament, Warren made the bold claim that he would become the first man in Bellator history to ever hold two championships.
That is not what happened.
Indeed, Vila’s KO’ing of Warren will probably hold a permanent spot on Vila’s highlight reel. Ironically, Warren only grew cockier following the most humbling and high-profile loss of his career. He virtually cast aside his opponent, Curran, in the build-up to Bellator 60.
Curran, meanwhile, spent much of 2010 and 2011 rising from relative obscurity to become one of Bellator’s biggest stars. It all started with a run at lightweight that saw Curran beat former UFC star Roger Huerta and Bellator star Toby Imada.
Curran came up short in his shot at Bellator lightweight gold, losing to then-champion Eddie Alvarez by unanimous decision, but he immediately rebounded by fighting in and winning Bellator’s “Summer Series” Featherweight Tournament, winning two of his three tournament fights by highlight-reel stoppage.
If you don’t know how the Curran vs. Warren fight turned out, do yourself a favor and find a .gif of the final moments or, even better, the full video of the fight. Curran more or less controlled Warren and picked him apart, waiting for the optimal opportunity to begin a fight-ending barrage.
That fight-ending barrage eventually came in the form of an epic beatdown consisting of knees, hooks and uppercuts as Warren put up next-to-no defense.
Was it a late stoppage? I’m just about certain that it was. Warren was eating a tremendous amount of shots, and to be completely honest, the only thing holding him up was the cage.
Even one of the Bellator announcers pointed this out. When Curran landed some final uppercuts and legitimately KO’d Warren, the fight should’ve realistically been over at least 10 seconds beforehand.
But let’s not dwell on that because it diminishes an amazing performance. Curran did what he had to do to get the win, and you know what he did?
He gave us the greatest performance of his young career, and he sent a firm message both during the fight and in his post-fight interview: This is only the beginning.
And you know what? I believe the man. With this victory, and with all his other performances in Bellator, I think at this point you have absolutely got to consider Curran one of the top 10 featherweights in the world.
I even think you can consider him the best lighter-weight fighter currently competing outside of the UFC, period. Because he realized his full potential by putting on one of the most brilliant and dominant performances I’ve seen from a lighter-weight fighter in quite some time, Curran definitely takes my “Best Performance of the Night” award for Bellator 60.
Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan and lifelong video-game nerd. For more news, views, previews and reviews on all things mixed martial arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.
In terms of a season-opener, you couldn’t ask much more from Bellator 60. We had entertaining fights featuring some of Bellator’s best lighter-weight stars, and the cherry on top was Pat Curran’s KTFO’ing of Joe Warren to win Be…
In terms of a season-opener, you couldn’t ask much more from Bellator 60. We had entertaining fights featuring some of Bellator’s best lighter-weight stars, and the cherry on top was Pat Curran’s KTFO’ing of Joe Warren to win Bellator’s Featherweight Championship.
But which stars shined brightest, and what moments will fans be talking about in the following weeks? Here’s my take on the matter: my top five best moments of Bellator 60.
5. Welcome Back, Bellator!
It’s become a bit of a tradition to do a “welcome back, Bellator” bit when I do a “Top 5” post on whichever Bellator event starts the season. The gist is simple: Whenever I watch a new Bellator season, it immediately makes me remember how much I’ve missed this promotion. It’s one thing to host a series of live MMA shows every week for a few months straight. That’s impressive, for sure, but it’s nothing if the fights don’t deliver.
But in Bellator, the fights do deliver, and they deliver a bigger bang for your buck than virtually any other promotion.
Bellator may still be No. 3 in the grand scheme of MMA promotions, but it’s a promotion with a look, feel and soul of its own that has carved out an impressive niche amongst hardcore fans and fans of highlight reel moments. I’m more than happy to consider myself a hardcore Bellator fan.
4. I Now Know Who Mike Corey Is
I won’t lie: I really wanted Ronnie Mann to win this fight. If he had, I think Bellator would’ve made the smart move and made Ronnie Mann vs. Marlon Sandro a reality. That fight would’ve been a pretty epic stand-up war.
But alas, it was not to be. I can’t blame Mike Corey for that, though. Mike Corey is still the dark horse of this tournament, but I now know he’s got very good wrestling and takedown ability. The man that holds the No. 3 spot on this list was in the exact same position when he entered Bellator as an unknown, and now he’s one of my favorite Bellator fighters. I’ll be paying close attention to Mike Corey.
3. Daniel Straus May Be the Best Lighter-Weight Wrestler in Bellator
Every time I see Daniel Straus, I notice improvements. Maybe it’s the way his stand-up has changed bit by bit to the point where he’s more or less holding his own against anyone. Maybe it’s the way he constantly fights to get out of guard so he can posture up and throw some serious hurt.
Straus hasn’t made a giant leap in any one area since debuting in Bellator, but to be honest, he was already pretty good to begin with, as evidenced by his fighting to the finals of Season 4.
It’s been a joy to watch Daniel Straus perform in Bellator, and I’ll continue to watch and cheer for him.
2. Marlon Sandro’s Performance Was One of the Best He’s Ever Put in under the Bellator Banner
I don’t know enough about Roberto Vargas to have an opinion on him, but from what I saw, it was clearly evident that Sandro was many, many levels above him.
What’s so important to note about this fight was that Sandro dominated his opponent no matter where the fight went. After a performance like that, it’s obvious that Sandro is a heavy favorite to fight to the finals and maybe even win it all.
And my personal pick for the best moment of Bellator 60 is…
1. Pat Curran KO’ing Joe Warren
I say this without hyperbole: It’s fights like this that both remind me of why I’m an MMA fan and make me proud to be an MMA fan.
It’s possible, even probable, that this fight wasn’t called off quickly enough and Warren took a lot of unneeded punishment. But it’s the story and the culmination of that story that made me literally jump out of my seat and cheer: the eager young upstart who rose from obscurity versus the cocky veteran who considers himself the “baddest man on the planet.”
It was an amazing victory and an amazing moment, and I think Curran winning the Bellator Featherweight Championship is officially the benchmark for Bellator’s sixth season in terms of highlight reel moments.
Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts, as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.
In today’s UFC Morning Update, I shared the video of the horrific beating that Joe Warren took at the hands of Pat Curran at Friday night’s Bellator 60 card. In reality, the beating wasn’t just issued by Curran, but also by referee Jeff Malott, who should be reprimanded and stripped of his license, never to referee another professional fight again.