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The series continues with the welterweights in this edition, as many of the top 10 were seen in recent action.With Bellator’s welterweight tournament nearing it’s end, we’ve gotten a good grasp of where the entrants stand, and how they stack up with th…
The series continues with the welterweights in this edition, as many of the top 10 were seen in recent action.
With Bellator’s welterweight tournament nearing it’s end, we’ve gotten a good grasp of where the entrants stand, and how they stack up with the international talent featured by promotions such as KSW and M-1 Global.
Where does your favorite non-Zuffa welterweight stand?
On paper, the layout of the Bellator MIddleweight semifinals seemed in the concrete favor of a rematch between former Bellator middleweight challenger Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko and former WEC middleweight standout Bryan “The Beast” Baker.Baker had ev…
On paper, the layout of the Bellator MIddleweight semifinals seemed in the concrete favor of a rematch between former Bellator middleweight challenger Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko and former WEC middleweight standout Bryan “The Beast” Baker.
Baker had everything going his way after a win over one Jared Hess, but then he ran into a surefire underdog in Wand Fight Team prodigy VItor Vianna, who is notorious for being a training ally of MMA legend and current UFC 139 co-headliner “The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva.
On paper, Vianna was not supposed to beat Baker, as his own punching power was not solid enough to put away a durable Sam Alvey and therefore it was presumed that Vianna needed to take the equally durable Baker down in order to find a tap.
As Baker would learn last night in the first Bellator middleweight semifinal bout of Season 5, however, multiple grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu championships does not always mean that a man has inferior striking to his competition.
Alexander Shlemenko would be wise to remember this, because when Bellator 58 rolls around, he may have to contend with something similar to this, and it could cost Shlemenko his shot at a rematch with Hector Lombard.
Of course, we can talk about Lombard later, preferably when his bout with Trevor Prangley draws closer. But for right now, feel free to see what happens when you write off the striking of a multi-time Jiu-Jitsu champion.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com
Filed under: Bellator, NewsMaiquel Falcao, one of few fighters to win his UFC debut and then be released, has found a new home.
The Brazilian middleweight powerhouse was signed by Bellator, the promotion announced on Saturday night.
Falcao’s one an…
Maiquel Falcao, one of few fighters to win his UFC debut and then be released, has found a new home.
The Brazilian middleweight powerhouse was signed by Bellator, the promotion announced on Saturday night.
Falcao’s one and only UFC fight was memorable for the wrong reasons, as he came to the organization behind big expectations as an explosive striker but ended up out-pointing Gerald Harris in a UFC 123 fight that was short on action. Afterward, UFC president Dana White criticized the win, memorably pointing out that “this isn’t the Ultimate Staring Competition, it’s the Ultimate Fighting Championship.”
Less than a month after that win, Falcao was arrested in Brazil on a warrant stemming from a 2002 incident, and due to his outstanding legal issues, the UFC dropped him.
Since the release, Falcao has won two of three fights, and his career record stands at 28-4 with 23 TKOs. Just last week, he needed just 75 seconds to earn a first-round TKO over Douglas Del Rio.
Bellator did not immediately announce a date or opponent for Falcao’s organizational opener, but he’s clearly a welcome addition to a division headlined by champion Hector Lombard.
Shlemenko vs. Rogers from last night’s Bellator 54
If last night’s Bellator 54 in Atlantic City, New Jersey was a preview of things to come, then under no condition should you skip the finale of this season’s middleweight tournament. Unless you don’t like watching exciting brawls and devastating knockouts. In that case, I really don’t know why you’re here in the first place.
Alexander Shlemenko and Brian Rogers both promised a knockout before the fight, and it quickly became apparent that neither man planned on breaking that promise. A back and forth battle from the opening seconds, the fight saw each fighter land hard shots to his opponent. In the second round, however, Shlemenko’s superior clinch game helped him get the better of Rogers, as Shlemenko rocked Rogers with knees to the head before the referee stopped the fight. Alexander Shlemenko is now 42-7 in his MMA career, and 6-1 in Bellator.
The evening’s co-main event, Vitor Vianna took home a quick TKO over Bryan Baker. From the start of the fight, Baker showed little respect for Vianna’s striking. Bryan Baker chose to throw bombs at Vianna in hopes of getting a quick finish. Bryan Baker chose poorly.
Shlemenko vs. Rogers from last night’s Bellator 54
If last night’s Bellator 54 in Atlantic City, New Jersey was a preview of things to come, then under no condition should you skip the finale of this season’s middleweight tournament. Unless you don’t like watching exciting brawls and devastating knockouts. In that case, I really don’t know why you’re here in the first place.
Alexander Shlemenko and Brian Rogers both promised a knockout before the fight, and it quickly became apparent that neither man planned on breaking that promise. A back and forth battle from the opening seconds, the fight saw each fighter land hard shots to his opponent. In the second round, however, Shlemenko’s superior clinch game helped him get the better of Rogers, as Shlemenko rocked Rogers with knees to the head before the referee stopped the fight. Alexander Shlemenko is now 42-7 in his MMA career, and 6-1 in Bellator.
The evening’s co-main event, Vitor Vianna took home a quick TKO over Bryan Baker. From the start of the fight, Baker showed little respect for Vianna’s striking. Bryan Baker chose to throw bombs at Vianna in hopes of getting a quick finish. Bryan Baker chose poorly.
In a non-title bantamweight scrap, Bellator champion Zach “Fun Size” Makovsky took home a first round north-south choke against a game, but overmatched Ryan Roberts. The victory marks Makovsky’s eighth straight. Meanwhile, Roberts is still searching for his first victory in Bellator, having lost a unanimous decision to Eric Marriott at Bellator 32 in his last appearance with the promotion.
Also of note, those of you who watched the prelims on Spike.com have noticed that Bellator has signed UFC veteran Maiquel “Big Rig” Falcao. The 28-4 Chute Boxe product is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with twenty three of his victories ending via knockout. Unfortunately, you probably remember him for beating Gerald Harris at UFC 123 in a fight so boring that both men were subsequently bounced from the UFC. To be fair, Big Rig was technically cut due to legal issues. Hopefully Falcao will add more exciting fights to a middleweight division already full of them.
Full results, courtesy of MMAJunkie.com:
MAIN CARD RESULTS
Alexander Shlemenko def. Brian Rogers via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 2:30 – middleweight-tourney semifinals
Vitor Vianna def. Bryan Baker via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 0:54 – middleweight-tourney semifinals
Champ Zach Makovsky def. Ryan Roberts via submission (north-south choke) – Round 1, 4:48 – non-title bantamweight fight
Jacob Kirwan def. Rene Nazare via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
PRELIMINARY CARD RESULTS
Duane Bastress def. Daniel Gracie via TKO (cut) – Round 2, 5:00
Joey Kirwan def. Lewis Rumsey via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 1:40
Claudio Ledesma def. Brian Kelleher via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Andria Caplan def. Adrienne Seiber via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, RankingsNow that Frankie Edgar has finally beaten Gray Maynard, it’s time to break up the bottleneck at the top of the lightweight division.
Unfortunately, it’s not clear that we’re actually close to see…
Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, Rankings
Now that Frankie Edgar has finally beaten Gray Maynard, it’s time to break up the bottleneck at the top of the lightweight division.
Unfortunately, it’s not clear that we’re actually close to seeing that happen.
In 2010, the only lightweight title fights were Frankie Edgar vs. B.J. Penn, and in 2011, the only lightweight title fights have been Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard. Edgar will definitely fight someone new in 2012, but who? We’ll go over some of the options as we run through the list of the Top 10 lightweights in MMA below.
Top 10 Lightweights in MMA
(Editor’s Note: The fighter’s rankings the last time we ranked the lightweights are in parentheses.)
1. Frankie Edgar (1): UFC President Dana White says Edgar would be even better at featherweight than he is at lightweight, but I disagree. I think part of Edgar’s greatness is his speed and stamina, and both of those advantages over his lightweight opponents would be diminished if he were fighting against faster opponents at featherweight, and weakening himself the day before the fight by cutting an additional 10 pounds. I think Edgar is fighting right where he belongs.
2. Gilbert Melendez (3): The Strikeforce lightweight champion would have a good chance of beating Edgar, but he’s not going to get that chance just yet. Up next for Melendez is Jorge Masvidal in December.
3. Gray Maynard (2): Maynard will get a long layoff after getting knocked out by Edgar, but when that layoff ends I’d like to see him take on the loser of the upcoming fight between Clay Guida and Ben Henderson, assuming the winner of that fight gets the next crack at Edgar.
4. Clay Guida (4): If he beats Ben Henderson at the upcoming UFC on Fox event, he’d have to be considered the favorite to get the next crack at Edgar. Guida is on a four-fight winning streak and is one of the UFC’s most popular lightweights, and it would be hard for the UFC brass to turn down the possibility of a very entertaining Edgar-Guida title fight.
5. Anthony Pettis (5): Pettis is a lot of fun to watch, but I got the sense during his UFC 136 victory over Jeremy Stephens that he had decided to fight with a more cautious, deliberate style, perhaps burned by his last fight, a unanimous decision loss to Guida. What makes Pettis special is his unique, exciting style. I hope he doesn’t lose that.
6. Ben Henderson (6): After losing his WEC title to Pettis, Henderson has bounced back in a big way by beating Mark Bocek and Jim Miller in the UFC. If he beats Guida to move to 3-0 in 2011, he’d likely get a title shot in his first fight of 2012.
7. Shinya Aoki (7): Aoki likes to stay active, and he’s won six fights since his loss to Melendez a year and a half ago. The problem is that as long as he’s fighting in Dream, there aren’t many big fights available to him. A Top 10 lightweight should be fighting better opposition than Rob McCullough, whom Aoki beat at Dream.17.
8. Jim Miller (8): Miller had a title shot within his reach before he lost to Henderson. His 20-3 career record is impressive, but the three losses were to Edgar, Maynard and Henderson — the only three times he’s fought truly elite competition.
9. Eddie Alvarez (10): An injury forced Alvarez to delay his Bellator lightweight title fight with Michael Chandler until November 19. Alvarez is Bellator’s top fighter and biggest draw, and an inexperienced prospect like Chandler probably won’t give him much of a challenge. There’s talk of an Alvarez-Aoki rematch in Bellator in 2012, which could be the biggest non-UFC fight of the year.
10. Dennis Siver (NR): With Melvin Guillard dropping out of the Top 10, Siver moves back in. Siver will attempt to run his winning streak to five straight fights when he takes on Donald Cerrone at UFC 137.
Filed under: BellatorAlexander Shlemenko and Vitor Vianna put on a couple of exceptional performances Saturday night at Bellator 54, winning their semifinal fights and advancing to the finals of the Bellator Fighting Championships middleweight tourname…
Filed under: Bellator
Alexander Shlemenko and Vitor Vianna put on a couple of exceptional performances Saturday night at Bellator 54, winning their semifinal fights and advancing to the finals of the Bellator Fighting Championships middleweight tournament.
Shlemenko used vicious knees to finish off Brian Rogers in the main event, winning a second-round TKO after a round and a half of wild, back-and-forth brawling. Rogers hurt Shlemenko with some hard shots to the body, but it was Shlemenko’s more diverse striking arsenal that was the difference in the fight. As he always does, Shlemenko showed off some of his trademark spinning strikes, but what was even more impressive was the way Shlemenko would control Rogers in the clinch and land knees, both to the body and to the head. Eventually those knees connected enough times that Rogers had no answer, and the referee stopped the fight.
Now Shlemenko will advance to the tournament final, where he’ll face Vianna — who looked plenty good himself on Saturday night.
Vianna is known primarily as a Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner, but it was his striking that looked sensational in his victory over Bryan Baker. Vianna leveled Baker with an overhand right, then pounced on him against the cage and finished him with hammer fists. Vianna’s TKO victory lasted just 54 seconds.
Afterward Vianna said he’s looking forward to the chance to face Shlemenko.
“He’s a tough fighter. I know it will be a great challenge. I will be ready,” Vianna said.
In a non-title fight, Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky sunk in a north-south choke to force Ryan Roberts to tap out with just seconds remaining in the first round. It was an easy victory for Makovsky, who ran his record to 14-2, including 6-0 in Bellator.
And in the first fight of the live MTV2 card, Rene Nazare, a previously undefeated Brazilian lightweight who was viewed by many as a promising prospect, was soundly beaten by Jacob Kirwan. Two judges gave the fight to Kirwan 30-27, and one judge scored it 29-28. It was a disappointing performance from Nazare and the biggest win of Kirwan’s career.