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Christian M’Pumbu, Patricio Pitbull Win at Bellator 45

Filed under: BellatorThe fourth season of Bellator Fighting Championships came to an end on Saturday night, with the promotion’s first light heavyweight champion being crowned and a featherweight title rematch getting booked.

In the main event at Bell…

Filed under: Bellator

The fourth season of Bellator Fighting Championships came to an end on Saturday night, with the promotion’s first light heavyweight champion being crowned and a featherweight title rematch getting booked.

In the main event at Bellator 45, Christian M’Pumbu won the light heavyweight championship by defeating Richard Hale by third-round TKO. M’Pumbu landed a huge right hand to knock Hale down, then landed several more punches on the ground as Hale tried to recover. Although Hale did a nice job of protecting himself at first, eventually M’Pumbu managed to get through Hale’s defense, land more punches, and force the referee to step in to stop the fight.

It was an impressive finish for M’Pumbu, improving his record to 18-3-1 and giving him his third consecutive TKO victory inside the Bellator cage.

Patricio “Pitbull” Freire took a unanimous decision victory over Daniel Straus to win the Season 4 featherweight tournament, effectively controlling the fight and winning 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 on the judges’ scorecards. The victory earns Pitbull a rematch with the only man who has defeated him Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren, in what promises to be a great fight.

“I’m happy to give him a rematch and the second loss on his record,” Warren said immediately after the fight.

In the other televised fight, Sam Alvey came back from a brutal beating in the first round of his bout with Karl Amoussou to win a split decision. Early on Amoussou turned Alvey’s head into a bloody mess with a series of vicious elbows, and it looked like the fight might need to be stopped. But Alvey fought just well enough in the second and third rounds to eke out a victory, with two judges giving it to Alvey 29-28 and one judge giving it to Amoussou 29-28.

The fight card was the last of Bellator’s fourth season, and the promotion will now take a five-week hiatus before returning for its “Summer Series” on June 25. Whether Bellator can build on what it’s done this year and build up some more fan interest over the summer remains to be seen, but Bellator is wrapping up an impressive fourth season.

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Bellator’s 10 Brightest Stars

It’s probably safe to assume that Bellator Fighting Championships will never soar to the heights of the promotional powerhouse known as the UFC. Between a meager advertisement campaign and being locked into a deal with MTV2, Bellator’s chan…

However, don’t let that fool you as to the talent this fledgling promotion totes; there are some insanely talented and marketable fighters on the Bellator roster.

Should we expect overnight stardom for these unheralded warriors? No, we shouldn’t, but given a few more fights, some more exposure and the appropriate time to develop, we may see the birth of some bona fide celebrities.

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Bellator 45 Predictions

Filed under: BellatorBellator Fighting Championships closes out its fourth season on Saturday night in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with Bellator 45, featuring the finals of the promotion’s Season 4 featherweight and light heavyweight tournaments, as well …

Filed under: Bellator

Bellator Fighting Championships closes out its fourth season on Saturday night in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with Bellator 45, featuring the finals of the promotion’s Season 4 featherweight and light heavyweight tournaments, as well as a couple of undercard bouts featuring talented fighters making their Bellator debuts.

What: Bellator 45

Where: L’Auberge du Lac Resort in Lake Charles, Louisiana

When: Saturday, the MTV2 televised card begins at 9 PM ET.

Predictions on the three televised fights below.

Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Daniel Straus
In the featherweight final, Pitbull will try to avoid doing what his brother Patricky “Pitbull” Freire did in last week’s lightweight final: Get overpowered by an American wrestler. Straus is on a 12-fight winning streak and could pull off a surprise, but I like Pitbull to win the featherweight tournament and earn a rematch with Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren, who beat Pitbull by split decision last year.
Pick: Pitbull

Richard Hale vs. Christian M’Pumbu
Hale got a lot of attention for using an inverted triangle choke to win his first tournament fight, while M’Pumbu has produced a couple of impressive TKO victories in his two tournament bouts. The winner of this one becomes Bellator’s first light heavyweight champion, and I’m going with Hale in what should be a close, competitive decision.
Pick: Hale

Karl Amoussou vs. Sam Alvey
After struggling through a rough 2010 in which he went 0-1-1, Amoussou bounced back with a victory at home in France last month, and I’m excited about seeing him back in North America with Bellator. Amoussou is an exciting, aggressive fighter, and although Alvey is a good striker who’s 14-2 in his MMA career, I like Amoussou to win by TKO.
Pick: Amoussou

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Bellator 45 Preview: Light Heavyweight and Featherweight Tourney Finals

Bellator 45 will be taking place Saturday, May 21, 2011 in Lake Charles, LA.This is a very solid card and will feature the featherweight and light geavyweight tournament finals. In the featherweight finals we will see Daniel Straus vs. P…

Bellator 45 will be taking place Saturday, May 21, 2011 in Lake Charles, LA.

This is a very solid card and will feature the featherweight and light geavyweight tournament finals. In the featherweight finals we will see Daniel Straus vs. Patricio Freire, in what will be a very explosive matchup.

In the light heavyweight final we will see Richard Hale vs. Christian M’Pumbu.

Patricio Freire is a very explosive fighter. He is 16-1 with his lone loss coming to Joe Warren via split decision. Daniel Straus is 14-3 and has really come from under the radar. He has won 12 fights in a row, and now has the chance to fight for the Bellator featherweight title with a win over the “Pitbull” Saturday night.

The style matchup truly favors Straus coming into this match. He is the type of fighter that is more known for taking you to the distance, while Freire is explosive and can end the fight at any given moment.

Expect both fighters to be pushed to the limit. Freire could pull off the win, and in many eyes should but I am leaning towards Straus to win this fight via Unanimous decision.

In the light heavyweight final, Richard Hale has a 17-3-1 record and won a controversial split decision in his last bout over DJ Linderman. He is very well-rounded and can pull out a victory from every angle.

Christian M’Pumbu is also 17-3-1 it is funny because they both have the same amount of submission, knock out and decision victories.

I expect a fight where neither man holds back. I personally think that M’Pumbu has the slight advantage, but you never know, because it’s MMA and anything is possible.

I say it starts close and end of the second or early third round M’Pumbu catches him and finishes the fight via TKO.

Overall the event will be a solid card that is definitely worth the watch. So check it out on MTV2.

*Fight Card*

Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament Final
Richard Hale vs. Christian M’Pumbu

Bellator Featherweight Tournament Final
Daniel Straus vs. Patricio Freire

Karl Amoussou vs. Sam Alvey
Luis Santos vs. Nicolae Cury
Joseph Abercrombie vs. Ben Parpart
Shawn Jordan vs. John Hill
Tim Ruberg vs. Mike Fleniken
Rene Nazare vs. Kalvin Hackney

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Bellator Exploring Accident Insurance for Fighters

Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, NewsSince launching in 2009, Bellator Fighting Championships has tried to separate itself from the UFC in many ways: tournaments to crown champions, seasons, events held every week are just a few concepts that…

Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, News

Since launching in 2009, Bellator Fighting Championships has tried to separate itself from the UFC in many ways: tournaments to crown champions, seasons, events held every week are just a few concepts that come to mind.

But Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour that he wouldn’t mind copying the UFC in one particular department: accident insurance for fighters.

“I can tell you I’ve been reading all of the articles and all the spokespersons for the UFC have said that it’s been a long and exhaustive process,” Rebney said, “and there were very few carriers that were willing to execute on it, there were very few people that were willing to provide the insurance that they were seeking.

“I can tell you first hand that I know that to be true because we have been looking for alternatives on that front for over a year ourselves. It’s not an easy policy to obtain, it’s not easy to put into motion, but I think it’s great for the sport; I think it’s great for the fighters. It’s something that we are going to continue to look at, and I say kudos for the UFC for pulling it off.”

Providing accident insurance for fighters is an expensive undertaking, and it’s understandable that the UFC, which is 16 years older than Bellator, would be better suited to pull it off today.

But despite the fact that Bellator is just two years old and generating nowhere near the kind of revenue Zuffa is, Rebney recognizes that insurance is needed and is a perk he hopes to offer his fighters in the future.

“I think that the reality is, and I get to see it day in and day out, but very few of the fighters that we or Zuffa have under contract are in a position in their economic life to be able to afford health insurance to protect themselves against injuries that occur inside the cage when they are training. Of course, everyone that fights for Zuffa or Bellator is covered once they step into the cage in competition, but training for mixed martial arts is not like training for golf. You’re in there battling on a day in and day out basis and injuries occur.”

Bellator 45, the final event of Bellator’s fourth season, will air live on MTV2 this Saturday night from Lake Charles, La.

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Bellator Adds Alexis Vila to Bantamweight Division

Filed under: Bellator

As it continues to carve out a niche for itself as the No. 2 promotion in mixed martial arts, Bellator has once again signed a fighter who’s big on talent and capable of bringing a great deal of excitement into the cage in forme…

Filed under: Bellator

Before we get into all the reasons Vila is an exciting addition to Bellator’s bantamweight tournament, let’s get the two big problems out of the way …
1. He’s old: He turned 40 in March.
2. He’s tiny: In the Olympics he wrestled at 105 pounds and most recently fought in MMA at 125 pounds.

When a guy is 40 years old and signing on to fight much bigger competition, there’s a ceiling to how much he can achieve. But Vila, who wrestled for Cuba in the 1996 Olympics, has undeniable talent. He’s 9-0 in his MMA career and is a hard puncher who has finished eight of his nine opponents. As the video above shows, Vila is absolutely vicious with ground and pound.

“I feel like I’m the best bantamweight in the world right now,” Vila said in a statement. “I have everything. I have all the training and all the tools. People don’t even know. Nobody has the stand-up that I have, the wrestling I have, or the strength that I have.”

Vila is signing on for a bantamweight tournament that’s scheduled to start in September and should include an impressive array of talent: Others in the tournament field include Eduardo Dantas, Chase Beebe, Marcos Galvao, Luis Nogueira, Ed West and Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren, who will drop down to bantamweight.

Whether Bellator can take that talent and turn it into a compelling bantamweight tournament that will draw interest beyond the hardest of hard-core MMA fans remains to be seen.

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