* Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky will stop by the studio to talk about his Bellator 54 non-title fight against Ryan Roberts. He’ll also do a couple of T-shirt giveaways from his sponsor, Yoked Up apparel.
* And MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiapetta will look at all the storylines coming out of UFC 136.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the replay below. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
* Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky will stop by the studio to talk about his Bellator 54 non-title fight against Ryan Roberts. He’ll also do a couple of T-shirt giveaways from his sponsor, Yoked Up apparel.
* And MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiapetta will look at all the storylines coming out of UFC 136.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the replay below. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
No disrespect to UFC lightweight champion Frankie “The Answer” Edgar and his UFC 136 win by TKO, but if this was not the real Knockout of the Night for Saturday, October 8, 2011, then I don’t know what is.Yes, the UFC lightweight champion avenged an ea…
No disrespect to UFC lightweight champion Frankie “The Answer” Edgar and his UFC 136 win by TKO, but if this was not the real Knockout of the Night for Saturday, October 8, 2011, then I don’t know what is.
Yes, the UFC lightweight champion avenged an early-UFC-career loss to Gray “The Bully” Maynard, but the answer (no pun intended) for the question of which fight was last night’s true knockout victory of the night does not come from the UFC.
Instead, it comes from one of the finishers on the Bellator Fighting Championships 53 card—specifically an underrated Brazilian prospect named Douglas Lima.
They don’t call Lima “The Phenom” because Bellator is trying to scoop up Vitor Belfort; they call Lima “The Phenom” because of the sensationally-ridiculous manner in which he puts people away.
Don’t believe it?
Watch this video of Lima’s finish of “The Cleveland Assassin” Chris Lozano, and try and tell me otherwise.
Just another note: he faces Ben Saunders in the Bellator welterweight finals this season…so tell me, are we still supposed to be writing Saunders off as the winner of the tourney, or can we give some credit where it’s due to a clear welterweight prospect that the world’s largest MMA organization would be foolish to overlook?
Ben Saunders and Douglas Lima both looked great on Saturday night. Next they’ll face each other.
Saunders and Lima earned impressive victories in the semifinals of the Bellator Fighting Championships welterweight tournament, earning a spot in the final where they’ll meet each other next month.
For Saunders, it was a dominant, one-sided victory over Luis Santos in which he finally forced Santos to tap out with an americana in the third round. For Lima, the victory came when he landed a beautiful right cross to the chin of Chris Lozano, knocking him cold.
The wins by Saunders and Lima were part of an entertaining Bellator 53 card on Saturday night, which also featured some solid undercard action:
— Giva “The Arm Collector” Santana made his Bellator debut and did exactly what everyone expected him to do, submitting Darryl Cobb with an armbar in the first round. It improved Santana’s record to 17-1, including an incredible 13 wins by armbar.
— In a fast-paced featherweight contest, Ronnie Mann submitted Kenny Foster with a triangle choke. The victory improves Mann’s record to 21-4-1, including 11 wins by submission. Mann showed that he’s one of the top fighters in Bellator’s featherweight division, which is the promotion’s best weight class.
— And in the heavyweight division, Thiago “Big Monster” Santos finally made his Bellator debut and made quick work of Josh Burns. Santos easily controlled Burns on the ground and forced him to tap out to a rear-naked choke midway through the first round. It was a solid Bellator debut for the Brazilian.
Ben Askren walked around the city of Joplin, Mo., in late May and could hardly believe what he was seeing.
The Bellator welterweight champion had been in the nearby town of Neosho to help at a wrestling clinic not long after a massive EF5 tornado devastated Joplin, ravaging everything in its path. It was one of the deadliest tornados in world history, killing 162 people.
Askren went to view the damage with friends from his days wrestling for the University of Missouri. Looking at the destruction, he knew there had to be a way to give something back – some how, some way.
“We went to one guy’s house, and it wasn’t even a house,” Askren told MMA Fighting on Thursday, recalling the devastation. “It was just two walls, the roof was all gone, and you just look at that and think, ‘I can’t imagine this being my house. There’s nothing left here.’ Everything they owned is just gone, and they’re staying with family and friends. You feel for people at times like that.”
As Askren continued to look around, seeing buildings destroyed, cars thrown around like toys, trees uprooted and houses of his friends’ friends ripped apart, he decided to ask his boss, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, if the promotion could find a way to do something to help.
“It just blows your mind,” Askren said. “You see it on TV, but you could never really imagine until you actually go there. So I texted Bjorn and said, ‘Hey, it would be nice if we could do something for all these people.'”
Rebney, though, didn’t have any quick answers.
“He said, ‘What can we do? Can I do something?’ Rebney said. “He was just reaching out asking what could be done. And I said, ‘I don’t know, buddy. I don’t know what we can do.'”
Admittedly, Rebney said, coming up with a plan for the people of Joplin “fell off the radar screen” over the summer. But earlier this fall, when the promotion finalized the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Okla., a short drive from Joplin, for Saturday’s Bellator 53, a plan finally got put into place – when Askren again reached out and was adamant in his desire to try to make a contribution.
Friday night, Bellator and Buffalo Run Casino will give away 300 tickets to Saturday’s show to Joplin residents at Joplin High School’s homecoming football game. For those still trying to rebuild the lives they knew before May 22, it won’t change anything. But a temporary reprieve might help, even for just one night.
“I just hope the people that were affected can have some enjoyment for one night of fighting that Bellator’s going to put on,” Askren said. “It’s not a huge gesture. It’s not like we’re rebuilding their houses. But every small thing helps.”
“It’s a great thing to do,” Rebney said. “It’s not going to change the dynamic of anybody’s life in Joplin, but the people have been through a lot here. It’s an opportunity to kind of kick back and forget about your issues for four or five hours.”
Rebney said it was Askren’s perseverance in wanting to find a way to give something to the people of Joplin that ultimately got the plan rolling, and started Bellator down the community service path, really for the first time.
“Thank God we haven’t been in communities where something as tragic as what happened here happened before,” Rebney said. “But this was more about Ben Askren reaching out. He was the guy really pushing it. He called me, I didn’t have an answer, and he just stayed on it.”
Rebney said Askren, who defends his welterweight title later this month at Bellator 56 against Jay Hieron, proved to him he has talents that extend beyond the cage, and that his strength of character is typical of many MMA athletes.
“It gives me a sense of pride that we’re lucky enough to have a guy like Ben on our roster who isn’t thinking of himself, who isn’t doing it for any kind of sponsorship angle,” Rebney said. “He was just calling me, saying, ‘Dude, what can we do? How can we help? Can I do something? Can we do something? Big or small, it doesn’t matter.’ There’s more of that in the MMA industry than people realize. It’s a real good feeling, and I’m proud we have Ben on the roster – he’s an amazing talent, and I think he’s the best wrestler in mixed martial arts. But he’s also a very good dude, and that counts for a lot.”
Filed under: Bellator, NewsIn a battle between MMA promoters that may be headed for the courtroom rather than the cage, Bellator is suing a small Arizona-based promotion called Desert Rage Full Contact Fighting, saying that Desert Rage is interfering w…
In a battle between MMA promoters that may be headed for the courtroom rather than the cage, Bellator is suing a small Arizona-based promotion called Desert Rage Full Contact Fighting, saying that Desert Rage is interfering with Bellator’s contracts and attempting to harm its upcoming show in Arizona.
Bellator says it worked with Desert Rage and its promoter, the former WEC fighter Chance Farrar, on a previous Bellator event in Arizona. But Bellator says Desert Rage is now attempting to hurt the upcoming Bellator 55 event, which is set to take place on October 22 at Cocopah Resort and Casino in Yuma, Arizona.
The lawsuit provides an interesting look inside the MMA world, with details including the fact that the production costs of Bellator 55 exceed $500,000, and an accusation that Desert Rage is spreading lies about Bellator within the local MMA scene.
“Previously, Bellator engaged Farrar to aid in promoting Bellator’s April 16, 2011 show in Yuma, Arizona,” the lawsuit says. “As part of that engagement, Farrar communicated often with Bellator employees based in Chicago and was paid for his services by Bellator using its Chicago-based bank accounts. As part of the services he rendered in connection with Bellator’s April 16 event, Farrar gained intimate familiarity with Bellator’s business, including its method for setting up events, and recruiting talent for its shows. Farrar also had substantial involvement with, and developed an understanding of, Bellator’s process of signing fighters for its events, including, but not limited to, Bellator’s process and rationale for signing certain fighters, its philosophy behind ticket sales, as well as each fighter’s production value. As part of his role in the April 16 event, Farrar saw Bellator’s fighter contracts, which included material payment terms that Bellator negotiates with fighters as part of an oftenlengthy bargaining process. Farrar also was privy to the long-term promotional contract terms of Bellator’s agreements with fighters, including its obligations to fighters under those contracts and its methods and systematic means of meeting those obligations.”
Now, Bellator claims, Desert Rage has decided to put on its own event on October 22, just nine miles away from Bellator’s location. And Bellator says Desert Rage is attempting to interfere with Bellator’s business, by going after fighters who are already negotiating with Bellator and misleading the local MMA community about the upcoming Bellator show. Bellator is seeking a restraining order to prevent Desert Rage from putting on its October 22 show.
“On September 12, 2011, Bellator learned that Defendants had told multiple parties that BELLATOR 55 was cancelled,” the lawsuit says. “Upon information and belief, Defendants knowingly misrepresented the status of BELLATOR 55 to persuade important local fighters with whom Bellator was negotiating, as well as others currently under contract with Bellator, to participate in the Desert Rage X show instead of the BELLATOR 55 event.”
Last year the UFC sued Bellator, accusing the promotion of stealing trade secrets, and then less than two weeks later Bellator turned around and sued the UFC, saying Ultimate Fighter cast member Jonathan Brookins should not have appeared on the UFC’s reality show because he was under an exclusive contract to Bellator. MMAFighting.com was not able to reach either Bellator or Desert Rage for comment on the latest lawsuit.
The next test to Hector Lombard‘s five-year unbeaten streak will come Nov. 19.
The Bellator middleweight champion will meet Trevor Prangley in a non-title 195-pound catchweight fight at Bellator 58. The promotion announced the fight Tuesday morning for the second-to-last event of its fifth season.
Bellator 58 will be the promotion’s ninth event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., which has become its favorite venue. Bellator 50 also took place there last month.
Lombard (30-2-1, 1 NC, 7-0 Bellator) has been arguably the most dominant middleweight in the world aside from UFC 185-pound champion Anderson Silva. Lombard’s last loss came to Gegard Mousasi, a unanimous decision setback at Pride Bushido 13 in November 2006.
In July 2007, he fought to a draw with UFC middleweight Kyle Noke at the first Cage Fighting Championship event in Noke’s native Australia. Lombard would go on to win the CFC middleweight title, and he has defended it seven times in addition to holding the Bellator belt. Lombard, who lives in Australia, also won the Australian Fighting Championship’s middleweight belt last month with a submission of Jesse Taylor.
Since his draw with Noke, it’s been nothing but checks in the win column for Lombard, a former Olympian in judo – 19 straight victories, with 15 coming by stoppage. He won Bellator’s middleweight belt at Bellator 12, rolling through the Season 1 tournament with three stoppage wins. He defended it with a unanimous decision over Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 34 last year.
“I just want November to get here and knock someone out,” Lombard said in a statement from Bellator. “It doesn’t matter who it is. I just want to do what I do, and that’s win. I don’t know much about Trevor, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll be in front of my fans in Florida, and it’s going to be a show.”
Prangley (23-8-1) will be making his Bellator debut and will be looking to turn around a five-fight streak that has seen him notch just one win – a split decision over Keith Jardine at Shark Fights 13 last year.
Prangley had won five straight and 11 of 12 before the recent stretch that has him 1-3-1 with Strikeforce losses to Tim Kennedy and Roger Gracie, and a draw with Karl Amoussou. In July, he was knocked out by Tatsuya Mizuno in the first round at Dream’s Japan GP event.
Prangley toggles between middleweight and light heavyweight, but has spent most of his time at 205 pounds the last several years. Early in his career, he submitted Chael Sonnen, who avenged the loss three years later.
“Both of us are going to get in that cage and throw bombs, no questions asked,” Prangley said. “It’s no secret both of us like to stand and bang, and that’s exactly what everyone is going to get. I know Hector is really tough on his feet, but so am I. So he’s going to have to play my game when the cage door shuts.”
The MMA Hour is back in your life on Monday for our 103rd episode. Here’s who will be stopping by.
No disrespect to UFC lightweight champion Frankie “The Answer” Edgar and his UFC 136 win by TKO, but if this was not the real Knockout of the Night for Saturday, October 8, 2011, then I don’t know what is.
The next test to