Tag: Brandon Halsey

Bellator 126 Results and GIFs: Halsey Destroys Shlemenko, Held Dominates Freire

The whistling of Conor McGregor‘s hypetrain heading into UFC 178 made it easy to forget about Bellator 126. However, as always, CagePotato has you covered with a Bellator recap post.

Here’s a rundown of the fight card, with GIFs courtesy @ZProphet_MMA.

In the opener, Mike Richman knocked Ed West OUT COLD. Richman had control of the stand-up throughout the fight. He masterfully cut off the cage, forcing West to literally run from him at points. Late in the first round, West couldn’t run anymore. Richman landed a massive two-punch combo while West was against the cage that sucked the life out of him. See the GIF after the jump.

The whistling of Conor McGregor‘s hypetrain heading into UFC 178 made it easy to forget about Bellator 126. However, as always, CagePotato has you covered with a Bellator recap post.

Here’s a rundown of the fight card, with GIFs courtesy @ZProphet_MMA and Fansided.

In the opener, Mike Richman knocked Ed West OUT COLD. Richman had control of the stand-up throughout the fight. He masterfully cut off the cage, forcing West to literally run from him at points. Late in the first round, West couldn’t run anymore. Richman landed a massive two-punch combo while West was against the cage that sucked the life out of him.

Then came wrestling standout Bubba Jenkins against Thiago Meller. The fight was all Jenkins, who lived up to his grinder reputation and smothered Meller for the full 15 minutes of the fight. But it wasn’t just “lay and pray.” Jenkins punished Meller throughout the fight, making his face look like hamburger meat. Meller, to his credit, almost caught a guillotine a couple times. The Z-man (that’s what we’re calling him now) didn’t post any GIFs of this fight.

In the co-main event famed Polish prospect Marcin Held met Bellator mainstay Patricky “Pitbull” Freire in the next fight. Held put on an incredible performance. Save for a couple minutes in the first round, Held controlled the entire fight. Held’s wrestling always seemed to be deficient in his last few fights, but his improvements in that area were apparent as he took down Freire repeatedly. Once the fight went to the ground, Held maintained dominant positions and controlled the scrambles. He even opened up a nice cut underneath Freire’s eye. He won a unanimous decision win. Check out the GIF of  an insane takedown he landed in the first round:

The main event was a title bout between middleweight champ Alexander Shlemenko and challenger Brandon Halsey. It was the least competitive bout of the night. Halsey dragged Shlemenko to the mat, took his back, and choked him out in under a minute. If MMA were Mortal Kombat, this would be a “Flawless Victory.”

Here are the complete results of the card:

Main Card

Brandon Halsey def. Alexander Shlemenko via submission (rear naked choke), Round 1, 0:35.
Marcin Held def. Patricky Freire via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-26).
Bubba Jenkins def. Thiago Meller via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27).
Mike Richman def. Ed West via KO (punches), Round 1, 2:44.

Preliminary Card

LaRue Burley def. Raymond Pina via submission (guillotine choke), Round 2, 0:22.
Clifford Starks def. Jacob Ortiz via technical submission (guillotine choke), Round 2, 0:52.
Nick Rossborough def. Ryan Martinez via TKO (injury), Round 1, 5:00.
Joe Taimanglo def. Michael Parker via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27).
Dan Charles def. Stuart Austin via knockout (punches), Round 3, 0:18.
Derek Campos def. Estevan Payan via knockout (punch), Round 1, 0:31.
Brandon Girtz def. Benny Madrid via TKO (punches), Round 1, 0:57.

Bellator 122 Results: Koreshkov Batters McDonough, Halsey Submits Cooper, Parisyan Obliterates Baroni

Bellator’s first event under Scott Coker’s reign is over. Andrey Koreshkov blasted Adam McDonough en  route to a unanimous decision victory and Brandon Halsey dominated Brett Cooper with a first round submission win.

The event was one of Bellator’s better ones. We’ve recapped the entire card for you (and threw in some GIFs–which are all courtesy of Zombie Prophet/Fansided):

The Bellator 122 prelims were packed with action. Saad Awad pulled off one of the best TKOs from the bottom in recent memory against Joe Duarte. After getting blasted with a right hand, Awad crumbled to the mat. However, Duarte got over aggressive and Awad snagged him in a triangle. The ref called the fight about a billion elbows to Duarte’s temple later. Check out the GIF.

Other significant prelim happenings: The unheralded Fernando Gonzalez upset Bellator mainstay Karl Amoussou via unanimous decision. Gonzalez was simply quicker and better conditioned. One has to wonder about Amoussou’s future in Bellator.

Bellator put a light heavyweight tournament semifinal on the prelims. Kelly Anundson took on Luiz Philipe Lins, but the fight didn’t last long. Lins collapsed to the canvas a few minutes into the first round with a knee injury. Anundson was therefore awarded with a TKO victory.

More prelim action: Wrestling standout Bubba Jenkins steamrolled over Poppies Martinez, taking him down and scoring a TKO via ground and pound (GIF) in the first frame.

Get the rundown of the main card–plus the precious GIFs–after the jump.

Bellator’s first event under Scott Coker’s reign is over. Andrey Koreshkov blasted Adam McDonough en  route to a unanimous decision victory and Brandon Halsey dominated Brett Cooper with a first round submission win.

The event was one of Bellator’s better ones. We’ve recapped the entire card for you (and threw in some GIFs–which are all courtesy of Zombie Prophet/Fansided):

The Bellator 122 prelims were packed with action. Saad Awad pulled off one of the best TKOs from the bottom in recent memory against Joe Duarte. After getting blasted with a right hand, Awad crumbled to the mat. However, Duarte got over aggressive and Awad snagged him in a triangle. The ref called the fight about a billion elbows to Duarte’s temple later. Check out the GIF.

Other significant prelim happenings: The unheralded Fernando Gonzalez upset Bellator mainstay Karl Amoussou via unanimous decision. Gonzalez was simply quicker and better conditioned. One has to wonder about Amoussou’s future in Bellator.

Bellator put a light heavyweight tournament semifinal on the prelims. Kelly Anundson took on Luiz Philipe Lins, but the fight didn’t last long. Lins collapsed to the canvas a few minutes into the first round with a knee injury. Anundson was therefore awarded with a TKO victory.

More prelim action: Wrestling standout Bubba Jenkins steamrolled over Poppies Martinez, taking him down and scoring a TKO via ground and pound (GIF) in the first frame.

The main card started with what was the true main event of the night (for us at least): PHIL BARONI VS. KARO PARISYAN. Unfortunately, it didn’t really live up to our expectations. Baroni came out completely flat. As soon as Parisyan turned up the “heat” [Editor’s note: We’re so sorry. The intern who came up with that line has been let go], Baroni became a deer in the headlights…then a dead deer on the hood of a car. The end was particularly brutal as he was finished while sitting in Indian style (GIF), just absorbing punches to the head in a total stupor. We really, REALLY hope he retires at this point.

Next up came highly touted British Prospect Liam McGeary vs. Egidijus Valavicius in the next light heavyweight tournament semifinal. McGeary kicked Valavicius to the curb. After taking a handful of punches, McGeary clinched Valavicius. A minute or two later, a flurry of lethal knees and uppercuts (GIF) from McGeary ended the fight; Valavicius was out on his feet. McGeary will face Kelly Anundson in the finals of the light heavyweight tournament.

In the co-main event, Brett Cooper met Brandon Halsey in the middleweight tournament final. Halsey controlled the bout during the minute or two that it lasted. Halsey clinched Cooper, took him down, and then arm barred him (GIF). It almost resembled a Ronda Rousey fight in that aspect.

The co-main event saw Andrey Koreshkov face Adam McDonough in the welterweight tournament semifinal. It was domination from bell to bell. Koreshkov landed an array of strikes (included a wicked spinning back kick) that kept McDonough puzzled throughout the fight. Koreshkov was too fast, too accurate, and his sprawls were too powerful for McDonough, a wrestler with anemic striking, to mount anything resembling an offense. It was a strong performance for Koreshkov, who earned a title shot with the win. It was a strong performance for Bellator, too. The fight card was energetic, fun, and left us with that “let’s shadow box with our shirts off” feeling.

Here are the complete results:

Main Card:

Andrey Koreshkov def. Adam McDonough via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Brandon Halsey def. Brett Cooper via submission (armbar), Round 1, 2:09
Liam McGeary def. Egidijus Valavicius via TKO (strikes), Round 1, 2:10
Karo Parisyan def. Phil Baroni via knockout (punches), Round 1, 2:06

Preliminary Card:

Augusto Sakai def. Matt Frembling via TKO (strikes), Round 3, 3:32
Bubba Jenkins def. Poppies Martinez via TKO (punches), Round 1, 4:10
Kelly Anundson def. Philipe Lins via TKO (injury), Round 1, 1:40
Fernando Gonzalez def. Karl Amoussou via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Saad Awad def. Joe Duarte via TKO (elbows) – Round 1, 1:18
Sergio Rios def. Stephen Martinez via TKO (head kick, punches), Round 2, 0:20
Linton Vassell def. Virgil Zwicker via submission (rear-naked choke), Round 1, 1:07