Bellator 45 Video: Christian M’Pumbu Smashes Richard Hale, Becomes New Light-Heavyweight Champion

(Props: YouTube.com/BellatorMMA)

The last event of Bellator’s fourth season went down last night in Lake Charles, Louisiana, featuring the finals of the light-heavyweight and featherweight tournaments. Christian M’Pumbu earned his way to the LHW finals by knocking out Chris Davis and Tim Carpenter, and it was business as usual against co-finalist Richard Hale. M’Pumbu dropped Hale once in the first round, but was unable to finish him with a D’arce choke. The Congolese-French standout didn’t make the same mistake twice; after scoring another knockdown in the third, M’Pumbu threw down leather until the ref was forced to stop the fight, picking up a $100,000 check and the title of Bellator’s first-ever light-heavyweight champion.

In the featherweight final, Patricio Freire edged out Daniel Straus to a unanimous decision, earning a rematch with champion Joe Warren, who he lost a split decision to last June. Full Bellator 45 results are after the jump…


(Props: YouTube.com/BellatorMMA)

The last event of Bellator’s fourth season went down last night in Lake Charles, Louisiana, featuring the finals of the light-heavyweight and featherweight tournaments. Christian M’Pumbu earned his way to the LHW finals by knocking out Chris Davis and Tim Carpenter, and it was business as usual against co-finalist Richard Hale. M’Pumbu dropped Hale once in the first round, but was unable to finish him with a D’arce choke. The Congolese-French standout didn’t make the same mistake twice; after scoring another knockdown in the third, M’Pumbu threw down leather until the ref was forced to stop the fight, picking up a $100,000 check and the title of Bellator’s first-ever light-heavyweight champion.

In the featherweight final, Patricio Freire edged out Daniel Straus to a unanimous decision, earning a rematch with champion Joe Warren, who he lost a split decision to last June. Full Bellator 45 results are after the jump…

MAIN CARD RESULTS
– Christian M’Pumbu def. Richard Hale via TKO, 4:17 of round 3
– Patricio Freire def. Daniel Straus via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27 x 2)
– Sam Alvey def. Karl Amoussou via split decision (29-28 x 2, 28-29)

PRELIMINARY CARD RESULTS
– Shawn Jordan def. John Hill via TKO, 1:56 of round 1
– Luis “Sapo” Santos def. Nicolae Cury via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Tim Ruberg def. Mike Fleniken via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Rene Nazare def. Kelvin Hackney via submission (rear-naked choke), 4:46 of round 1
– Joseph Abercrombie def. Ben Parpart via submission (rear-naked choke), 1:11 of round 1

Bellator 45 Results: M’Pumbu vs. Hale, Freire vs. Straus, More

Filed under: Bellator, ResultsMMA Fighting has Bellator 45 results of Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Daniel Straus, Christian M’Pumbu vs. Richard Hale and the rest of the season finale card from the L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, La.

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MMA Fighting has Bellator 45 results of Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Daniel Straus, Christian M’Pumbu vs. Richard Hale and the rest of the season finale card from the L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, La.

In the main event, M’Pumbu became the new Bellator light heavyweight champion by stopping Rich Hale in the 205-pound tournament final. Meanwhile, Freire won the season four featherweight tournament by defeating Daniel Straus, earning a rematch against current champion Joe Warren.

Complete Bellator 45 results are below.




Main Card
Christian M’Pumbu def. Richard Hale via TKO (punches) – R3, 4:17
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire def. Daniel Straus via unanimous decision
Sam Alvey def. Karl Amoussou via split decision

Preliminary Bouts
Shawn Jordan def. John Hill via TKO (ground and pound) – R1 1:56
Tim Ruberg def. Mike Fleniken via unanimous decision
Luis Santos def. Nicolae Cury via unanimous decision
Rene Nazare def. Kelvin Hackney via submission (rear-naked choke) – R1, 4:44
Joseph Abercrombie def. Ben Parpart via submission (rear-naked choke) – R1, 1:11

 

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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…

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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 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 …

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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 41 Results: Warren, Makovsky And Featherweight Semifinals

Filed under: Bellator, Results, NewsMMA Fighting has Bellator results from the Cocopah Resort and Casino in Yuma, Arizona.

Bellator 41 features two featherweight tournament semifinal bouts, as well as a pair of superfights, one featuring featherweight…

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MMA Fighting has Bellator results from the Cocopah Resort and Casino in Yuma, Arizona.

Bellator 41 features two featherweight tournament semifinal bouts, as well as a pair of superfights, one featuring featherweight champ Joe Warren, and another with bantamweight kingpin Zach Makovsky.

Bellator 41 results are below.

Joe Warren Overcomes Rough Start to Win Controversial Bellator Superfight

Filed under: Bellator, NewsIt is bound to happen eventually, a Bellator champion losing in a non-title superfight while waiting for a challenger to emerge from the seasonal tournament brackets.

Joe Warren escaped becoming the first to join that list,…

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It is bound to happen eventually, a Bellator champion losing in a non-title superfight while waiting for a challenger to emerge from the seasonal tournament brackets.

Joe Warren escaped becoming the first to join that list, emerging with a unanimous decision win over Marcos Galvao, but he certainly had his share of scary moments on the way to what will certainly be viewed as a controversial decision.

Warren (7-1) got off to a horrific start in the 137-pound catch weight bout, ending up on his back after a missed takedown, with Galvao landing huge strikes and then transitioning into an arm bar before Warren pulled free.