Filed under: Bellator, NewsNewly signed lightweight Rad Martinez — the recent subject of a moving ESPN “Outside the Lines” feature — will make his Bellator debut at the promotion’s upcoming event on Sept.17.
Newly signed lightweight Rad Martinez — the recent subject of a moving ESPN “Outside the Lines” feature — will make his Bellator debut at the promotion’s upcoming event on Sept.17.
Martinez will face Brian Van Hoven, Bellator confirmed on Thursday.
The event will take place at The Seminole Hard Rock & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
Martinez has seen his profile rise after an ESPN feature that showed his dedication in taking care of his father, Richard, who was injured in a 1991 car accident that left him in a near-vegetative state. Since his grandmother’s death a few years ago, Martinez has been his primary caregiver, often at the expense of his own personal dreams.
Still, he managed to build a name for himself in the MMA world with a 9-2 record on the pro scene. A former Clarion University wrestler, Martinez just recently had an eight-fight win streak snapped by UFC and Sengoku veteran Brian Cobb.
His opponent Van Hoven is 7-3 in his pro career. After five straight victories to start his career, he’s alternated losses and wins since then.
Bellator 50’s main card bouts will be dominated by middleweight tournament quarterfinals. Among the fighters scheduled to compete in the eight-man field are Alexander Shlemenko, Bryan Baker, Vitor Vianna, Zelg Galesic, Brian Rogers, Sam Alvey, Jared Hess and Victor O’Donnell.
Apparently not satisfied with one title, Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren is also setting his sights on the bantamweight belt, as well.
Bellator announced Tuesday its pairings for its Season 5 eight-man bantamweight tournament, which will be…
Apparently not satisfied with one title, Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren is also setting his sights on the bantamweight belt, as well.
Bellator announced Tuesday its pairings for its Season 5 eight-man bantamweight tournament, which will begin in September. Right smack in the middle will be Warren, who will drop down a class to go after a second title. And joining him in dropping down from 145 pounds to 135 will be the man he beat to win the featherweight belt, Joe Soto.
The tournament will open on Sept. 24 with all four quarterfinal fights. That event is likely to be Bellator 51; no venue has yet been announced. Bellator’s fifth season will open on Sept. 10 with Bellator 49, and events will again be broadcast on MTV2. Bellator’s current bantamweight champion, Zach Makovsky, will defend his title against the tournament winner, likely in the spring of 2012.
“To say our Season 5 bantamweight tournament is stacked is a gross understatement,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said in a release from the promotion. “Warren-Vila is going to be absolutely explosive for as long as it lasts, and the inclusion of Dantas, Nogueira, Chase, Soto, Ed and Luis makes every single fight in this tournament a pick’em adventure.”
Warren (7-1, 5-0 Bellator) is scheduled to face Patricio Freire next month to defend his featherweight title. The NCAA Division I All-American wrestler also won two state wrestling titles in high school. Warren’s MMA debut was an upset of Beebe in the Dream featherweight grand prix in 2009. Vila (9-0), who trains at American Top Team, won a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics. He will be the oldest competitor in the field at 40. Only one of his nine wins has gone the distance – Vila owns six knockout wins and a pair of submissions.
Soto (9-1, 4-1 Bellator) in September suffered his first career loss, a second-round TKO to Warren, dropping his featherweight title. Soto has been with Bellator since its first event in April 2009 and won the promotion’s first 145-pound title with a submission of Yahir Reyes. He is scheduled to next fight Eddie Yagin at a Tachi Palace Fights event in August. Dantas (10-2) is a product of the Brazliian jiu-jitsu team at Nova Uniao. His Bellator debut also will be his debut in the United States.
Beebe (18-7, 1-0 Bellator) started his MMA career 12-1. His WEC debut was a unanimous decision win over Eddie Wineland to win the bantamweight title in March 2007. He defended it once against Rani Yahya before losing it to Miguel Torres in February 2008. That started a stretch of five straight losses, his loss to Warren at Dream 7. But since 2010, Beebe has gone 6-1, including a win in his Bellator debut in May. He is scheduled to face Ralph Acosta for the World Fighting Championship’s bantamweight title next month in England. Galvao (9-4-1, 0-1 Bellator) is a WEC vet whose last fight was a unanimous decision loss to Warren at Bellator 41 in April. In December, he won Ring of Combat’s featherweight title. He, like, Dantas, is a Nova Uniao Brazilian jiu-jitsu product.
West (16-5, 2-1 Bellator) will be looking to get back to the finals after reaching the championship bout of Bellator’s Season 3 135-pound tourney, which he lost to Makovsky by unanimous decision. The Tucson, Ariz.-based West, who trains frequently with UFC fighter George Roop, is 8-1 over the last four years, including five submission victories. Nogueira (11-1, 1-0 Bellator) has won seven straight, including his Bellator debut against Jerod Spoon in April. His only career loss came against Dantas at a Shooto Brazil event in 2008.
Filed under: Bellator, NewsBellator has lined up two heavyweight matchups, Cole Konrad vs. Paul Buentello and Ricco Rodriguez vs. Seth Petruzelli, for Bellator 48 on Aug. 20 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
Bellator 48 will be the third and final 2011 Summer Series events and is expected to feature the finals of the featherweight tournament which kicked off this past Saturday.
The Konrad vs. Buentello non-title fight was originally announced for Bellator 42 in April, but Buentello would later withdraw due to a back injury. Konrad, who won all seven of his fights in 2010 en route to becoming the Bellator heavyweight champion, will be fighting for the first time this year.
Rodriguez and Petruzelli will both be making their Bellator debuts. Although Bellator is billing this as a heavyweight bout, the agreed upon catchweight is 230 pounds, according to Petruzelli. Petruzelli was released from the UFC after his loss at UFC 122 last November and scored a TKO this year at WEF 46 in April. Never fighting for the same promotion in a row, Rodriguez has won his last 11 fights.
The latest Bellator Featherweight Tournament began at Bellator 46 with all four quarterfinal matchups. The eventual tournament champion will meet the winner of a July fight between Bellator Featherweight Champion Joe Warren and Patricio Freire.In an ex…
The latest Bellator Featherweight Tournament began at Bellator 46 with all four quarterfinal matchups. The eventual tournament champion will meet the winner of a July fight between Bellator Featherweight Champion Joe Warren and Patricio Freire.
In an exciting night of fights, four competitors moved on to the tournament semifinals. Let’s take some time to look at the four semifinalists.
Filed under: Bellator, NewsMTV2 viewers were treated to an excellent mixed martial arts event on Saturday night, as Bellator 46 yielded four good fights — and the promise of even better things to come.
MTV2 viewers were treated to an excellent mixed martial arts event on Saturday night, as Bellator 46 yielded four good fights — and the promise of even better things to come.
The winners — Pat Curran, Marlon Sandro, Nazareno Malegarie and Ronnie Mann — all looked very good in victory and advanced to the second round of Bellator’s eight-man featherweight tournament. No matter how the four are paired in the tournament semifinals, they’re virtually guaranteed to be a couple of outstanding fights.
The semifinals will take place at Bellator 47 on July 23, along with a Bellator featherweight title fight between Joe Warren and Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, and that card is shaping up to be a great showcase of Bellator’s solid featherweight division.
Curran earned his victory quickly, forcing Luis Palomino to tap out to a Peruvian necktie at 3:49 of the first round. That submission wasn’t what anyone was expecting from Curran, who previously won a Bellator lightweight tournament, but he said afterward that the fight played out just how he wanted.
“I rocked him with a right hand, he went to the ground, he felt a little weak, he was just getting his mind back together,” Curran said. “I just went for it — I practice it in the gym all the time.”
Sandro took a split decision victory after an entertaining 15 minutes in the cage with Genair da Silva. Sandro appeared poised to finish da Silva in the first round, first by knocking him down with a devastating punch, and then by attempting a guillotine choke. But da Silva managed to pull out of the guillotine, shake off the cobwebs and keep fighting. Sandro never came close to finishing da Silva after the first round, but he did control the fight, and it was surprising that one judge scored it for da Silva, 29-28. The other judges gave the fight to Sandro, 30-27 and 29-28, and he looked solid in his North American debut.
Malegarie displayed some absolutely beautiful Brazilian jiu jitsu in winning a third-round submission against Jacob DeVree. Malegarie had what appeared to be a tight guillotine choke in the opening moments of the first round, but DeVree maintained his poise and broke free. DeVree also broke free of a Malegarie heel hook, and he survived the rest of the first round thanks in part to a questionable stand-up by referee Troy Waugh. But Malegarie was absolutely relentless on the ground, controlling DeVree there for almost the entire second round and then pulling off a textbook-perfect guillotine choke early in the third round, finally forcing DeVree to tap. Malegarie is now 20-1 in his MMA career.
Mann unleashed an explosive assault on Adam Schindler in winning by first-round knockout, knocking Schindler down with a quick right uppercut and a hard left hook and finishing him with a few more unanswered punches to the face on the ground before the referee finally stopped it. It was a brilliant showing by Mann, who improved his professional MMA record to 20-2-1. If Mann, who’s known primarily as a submission specialist, can show off that kind of striking consistently, he’s going to be a force in this tournament.
MMA Atheltics‘ latest video features an interview with Bellator Ring Girl, Jade Bryce. We learn the blonde bombshell is not promiscuous, is charitable, and visits villages in Africa. In other words, she’s too good for.
MMA Atheltics‘ latest video features an interview with Bellator Ring Girl, Jade Bryce. We learn the blonde bombshell is not promiscuous, is charitable, and visits villages in Africa. In other words, she’s too good for you. Also, she doesn’t drink so there’s no possibility of getting her drunk. But watch the video to find out her turn ons, even though you have zero chance.
Newly signed lightweight Rad Martinez — the recent subject of a moving ESPN “Outside the Lines” feature — will make his Bellator debut at the promotion’s upcoming event on Sept.17.
Apparently not satisfied with one title, 
MTV2 viewers were treated to an excellent mixed martial arts event on Saturday night, as