Tag: Douglas Lima

Bellator 90 Recap: ‘King Mo’ Dethroned Via Spinning Backfist, Ben Saunders Adds Head Kick KO to Highlight Reel

(The Emanuel Newton vs. King Mo spinning-backfist falling-tree knockout, via RockOwnsPunk.)

When you’re watching a Bellator event, you can only hope that a memorable finish or two will make up for the general lack of star power compared to those other guys. And oh man, did last night’s Bellator 90 event in West Valley City, Utah, deliver the goods, with all four fights on the Spike TV main card ending within the first two rounds, and three more stoppages featured on the prelims.

But the card’s generous helping of violence was a mixed blessing, since the list of victims included Bellator’s light-heavyweight marquee attraction, and their marketable featherweight inspirational figure. If you didn’t tune in last night, here’s what you missed:

Season 8 Welterweight Semi-Finals: Ben Saunders faced Raul Amaya for the second time in his Bellator stint, and while Killa B completely dominated their first meeting en route to a unanimous decision win, he didn’t even let Amaya out of the first round this time. Amaya was aggressive from the opening bell, but wasn’t able to find his range against the lanky Saunders, who landed counter-punches and body-kicks at will, before putting Amaya’s lights out with a left high kick. (GIF here, via ZombieProphet/BloodyElbow)

The fight on the other side of the 170-bracket was just as quick and one-sided. Douglas Lima didn’t give Bryan Baker a chance to get in the fight, abusing Baker’s legs with low kicks for a couple minutes, then firing a devastating right hand that crumpled “The Beast” to the mat. Lima will now face Saunders in the Season 8 Welterweight Tournament Final at Bellator 93, in a rematch of their Season 5 Welterweight Tournament Final in November 2011, which Lima won by knockout.


(The Emanuel Newton vs. King Mo spinning-backfist falling-tree knockout, via RockOwnsPunk.)

When you’re watching a Bellator event, you can only hope that a memorable finish or two will make up for the general lack of star power compared to those other guys. And oh man, did last night’s Bellator 90 event in West Valley City, Utah, deliver the goods, with all four fights on the Spike TV main card ending within the first two rounds, and three more stoppages featured on the prelims.

But the card’s generous helping of violence was a mixed blessing, since the list of victims included Bellator’s light-heavyweight marquee attraction, and their marketable featherweight inspirational figure. If you didn’t tune in last night, here’s what you missed:

Season 8 Welterweight Semi-Finals: Ben Saunders faced Raul Amaya for the second time in his Bellator stint, and while Killa B completely dominated their first meeting en route to a unanimous decision win, he didn’t even let Amaya out of the first round this time. Amaya was aggressive from the opening bell, but wasn’t able to find his range against the lanky Saunders, who landed counter-punches and body-kicks at will, before putting Amaya’s lights out with a left high kick. (GIF here, via ZombieProphet/BloodyElbow)

The fight on the other side of the 170-bracket was just as quick and one-sided. Douglas Lima didn’t give Bryan Baker a chance to get in the fight, abusing Baker’s legs with low kicks for a couple minutes, then firing a devastating right hand that crumpled “The Beast” to the mat. Lima will now face Saunders in the Season 8 Welterweight Tournament Final at Bellator 93, in a rematch of their Season 5 Welterweight Tournament Final in November 2011, which Lima won by knockout.

Season 8 Light-Heavyweight Semi-Finals: The Spike card led off with a 205-pound match between Mikhail Zayats and Jacob Noe, who you may remember as the guys who beat Renato Sobral and Seth Petruzelli at Bellator 85. Zayats took control from the very beginning, flooring Noe with a right hand and establishing top position on the mat. After some ground-and-pound, Zayats established mount and methodically set up an armbar, cranking it for the tap.

You’d think that Zayats would now be set up for high-profile meeting with Muhammad Lawal in the tournament finals, but Emanuel Newton went and screwed those plans up later in the evening. Unlike Przemyslaw “The Inanimate Object” Mysiala, Newton wasn’t afraid to stand toe-to-toe with Mo; Lawal’s shots might have been cleaner during their striking exchanges, but Newton was getting his licks in and making it a battle. But that battle didn’t last long. Halfway through the opening round, Newton whiffed so hard on an overhand right that he found himself with his back turned to Mo. So he figured, hey, why not throw a completely-blind spinning backfist? And because the MMA Gods have a sadistic sense of humor when it comes to fight promotions putting all their eggs into a single fighter’s basket, that spinning backfist landed across Lawal’s jaw, sending the King into a slow-motion tailspin. And so, it’ll be Newton vs. Zayats for all the marbles. How do you like that.

Season 7 Featherweight Tournament Final: The fight between Rad Martinez and Shahbulat Shamhalaev was originally supposed to go down in December, but Shamhalaev had to bow out at the last minute due to food poisoning. Shamhalaev was in fine form last night, punching Martinez to the mat in the first round, and nailing him with leg kicks. Martinez’s best moment came as he scored a takedown to stifle Shamhalaev’s momentum near the end of the round. Once the fighters were re-started for round two, it was all Shamhalaev, who dinged Martinez with unanswered power punches that staggered the Utah native, then smashed him with an overhand right that effectively ended the match — GIF here, via ZombieProphet/BloodyElbow — punching his ticket to a future title shot against Pat Curran.

Full Bellator 90 results are below.

Main Card
– Shahbulat Shamhalaev def. Rad Martinez via KO, 2:12 of round 2 *
– Emanuel Newton def. Muhammed Lawal via KO (spinning backfist), 2:35 of round 1 **
– Douglas Lima def. Bryan Baker via KO, 2:34 of round 1 ***
– Mikhail Zayats def. Jacob Noe via submission (armbar), 3:38 of round 1 **

Preliminary Card
– Ben Saunders def. Raul Amaya via KO (head kick), 2:56 of round 1 ***
– Travis Marx def. Chase Beebe via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Jesse Juarez def. Jordan Smith via split-decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
– Sean Powers def. David Allred via submission (rear-naked choke), 2:10 of round 3
– Lionel Lanham def. Joe Rodriguez via KO, 0:49 of round 1

* Season 7 Featherweight Tournament Final
** Season 8 Light-Heavyweight Tournament Semi-Final
*** Season 8 Welterweight Tournament Semi-Final

Bellator 86 Recap: Askren Finishes (!) Amoussou, King Mo Squashes Other Dude, Fancy Flips Can’t Save Zaromskis


(Sorry Ben, I don’t think we can count those as “significant strikes.” GIF via ZombieProphet/BloodyElbow)

For the first time since his controversial technical submission of Ryan Thomas during his Bellator debut three years ago, Ben Askren has finished an opponent. Sure, it was one of those sort-of-assisted finishes where the doctor steps in between rounds to wave the fight off, but let’s not take anything anything away from Funky Ben, here: The undefeated Bellator welterweight champion smashed the living dog-poop out of Karl Amoussou for three full rounds last night, and might have permanently injured him had the fight gone on any longer.

It was a prototypical performance from Askren, who spent most of the fight on top of Amoussou, throwing down punches and elbows. Still, there seemed to be a greater sense of urgency from the champ in this fight, a little more intention with his strikes. He slashed open a cut above Amoussou’s eye with an elbow in the first round, and by the end of round three, Amoussou’s left eye was swollen shut and his face was a wet canvas of blood. The fight was mercifully stopped before the fourth round could begin, giving Askren a well-deserved TKO victory.

“I told you guys that it was just a matter of time before my hands got some power in them,” Askren said after the fight. “I dominate positionally, and my hands [have] power too. Welterweights anywhere in the world better watch out, I’m coming.” Askren’s next challenge will likely be the winner of this season’s welterweight tournament, which produced four semifinalists last night…


(Sorry Ben, I don’t think we can count those as “significant strikes.” GIF via ZombieProphet/BloodyElbow)

For the first time since his controversial technical submission of Ryan Thomas during his Bellator debut three years ago, Ben Askren has finished an opponent. Sure, it was one of those sort-of-assisted finishes where the doctor steps in between rounds to wave the fight off, but let’s not take anything anything away from Funky Ben, here: The undefeated Bellator welterweight champion smashed the living dog-poop out of Karl Amoussou for three full rounds last night, and might have permanently injured him had the fight gone on any longer.

It was a prototypical performance from Askren, who spent most of the fight on top of Amoussou, throwing down punches and elbows. Still, there seemed to be a greater sense of urgency from the champ in this fight, a little more intention with his strikes. He slashed open a cut above Amoussou’s eye with an elbow in the first round, and by the end of round three, Amoussou’s left eye was swollen shut and his face was a wet canvas of blood. The fight was mercifully stopped before the fourth round could begin, giving Askren a well-deserved TKO victory.

“I told you guys that it was just a matter of time before my hands got some power in them,” Askren said after the fight. “I dominate positionally, and my hands [have] power too. Welterweights anywhere in the world better watch out, I’m coming.” Askren’s next challenge will likely be the winner of this season’s welterweight tournament, which produced four semifinalists last night…

Douglas Lima used a series of savage leg kicks to chop down Michail “The Lonely Wolf” Tsarev, forcing a stoppage in the second round. Though Lima looks like a favorite to win the welterweight bracket — again — he’s already suffered a loss to Ben Askren, during their title fight last year. Also on the main card, Ben Saunders out-grappled, out-struck, and out-classed Bellator newcomer Koffi Adzitso, winning all three rounds on the judges scorecards.

Two other welterweight tournament bouts were relegated to the prelims: Raul Amaya scored a first-round TKO against Jose Gomes, while Marius Zaromskis continues to under-perform in the U.S., losing a unanimous decision to Brett Weedman. Zaromskis was docked a point in round three for a pair of blatantly illegal knees (not cool, bro). On the bright side, he added a couple more completely absurd somersault moves to his highlight reel:

Finally, the Mo’-ment we’d all been waiting for — DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE? DO YOU SEE IT?? — Muhammad Lawal‘s light-heavyweight quarterfinal bout against Przemyslaw “Don’t Bother Learning How to Pronounce This Name” Mysiala was even more lopsided than we thought it would be. Lawal’s training at the Mayweather gym was fully evident, as he lit up Mysiala with jabs thrown from Money May’s loved/loathed “Philly shell” stance. I can’t recall if Mysiala landed a single punch. It honestly looked like Mo was having a sparring session with an inanimate object.

After bloodying up the hapless Pole’s face with his precision striking, Lawal ended the match with a short counter-right that turned Mysiala’s brain off. After the fight, Lawal explained that his gameplan was to knock Mysiala out, and his strategy in the tournament is to knock everybody out. Alright…no need to complicate things, I guess. He’ll now face Emanuel Newton in the light-heavyweight tournament semi-finals.

Complete Bellator 86 Results

MAIN CARD
– Ben Askren def. Karl Amoussou via TKO (doctor stoppage), 5:00 of round 3
– Muhammed Lawal def. Przemyslaw Mysiala via KO, 3:52 of round 1
– Douglas Lima def. Michail Tsarev via TKO (leg kicks), 1:44 of round 2
– Ben Saunders def. Koffi Adzitso via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)

PRELIMINARY CARD
– Hunter Tucker def. Javier Obregon via submission (guillotine choke), 3:17 of round 2
– Jason Sampson def. Chris Pham via submission (armbar), 4:55 of round 3
– Brent Weedman def. Marius Zaromskis via unanimous decision (29-27 x 3)
– Raul Amaya def. Jose Gomes via TKO, 3:12 of round 1
– Damon Jackson def. Zach Church via submission (rear-naked choke), 2:43 of round 2
– Cortez Coleman def. Matt Jones via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)

A bout between Mike Maldonado and Jospeh Salas was cancelled due to time constraints

Booking Roundup: Bellator Welterweight Tournament Set, Story/Edwards Get Next Opponents


(It took forty minutes and 13 Vodka cranberries before War Machine realized that this wasn’t the Jenna Jameson cutout he had ordered.) 

Although Bellator’s current bidding war with Eddie Alvarez has snagged all of the headlines, the promotion actually does have a card worth discussing at the end of the month in Bellator 86. Including King Mo’s promotional debut and a headlining welterweight title fight between Ben Askren and…WAIT, WHERE ARE YOU GOING? DON’T YOU DARE LOOK AWAY FROM ME. Askren will be fighting Karl Amoussou, who stands a better chance at ending the most uneventful title reign in MMA history than most of Askren’s challengers so far. I’M SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS.

In news you might define as “exciting,” elsewhere on the card will be the first round of action in Bellator’s next welterweight tournament, which features such former tournament participants as Ben Saunders, Douglas Lima, and Raul Amaya taking on Koffi Adzisto, Michail Tsarev, and Jose Reyes respectively. Also booked for the tourney is cursed in America fighter and recipient of truly the worst beating of 2012, Marius Zaromskis, who will be squaring off against Brent Weedman. Nearly half of these participants have faced one another before (Saunders has fought Amaya and Lima, who has fought Weedman) and six of the eight men have been knocked out of a Bellator welterweight tournament before. I’m not sure what to do with that information, but there it is.

As we know, both War Machine and Paul Daley were pulled from the tourney following a knee injury and a pub brawl, respectively. And in the twisted nightmare this universe has truly become, War Machine was not responsible for the latter. Bellator 86 goes down from the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma on January 23rd.

And in UFC fight booking news…


(It took forty minutes and 13 Vodka cranberries before War Machine realized that this wasn’t the Jenna Jameson cutout he had ordered.) 

Although Bellator’s current bidding war with Eddie Alvarez has snagged all of the headlines, the promotion actually does have a card worth discussing at the end of the month in Bellator 86. Including King Mo’s promotional debut and a headlining welterweight title fight between Ben Askren and…WAIT, WHERE ARE YOU GOING? DON’T YOU DARE LOOK AWAY FROM ME. Askren will be fighting Karl Amoussou, who stands a better chance at ending the most uneventful title reign in MMA history than most of Askren’s challengers so far. I’M SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS.

In news you might define as “exciting,” elsewhere on the card will be the first round of action in Bellator’s next welterweight tournament, which features such former tournament participants as Ben Saunders, Douglas Lima, and Raul Amaya taking on Koffi Adzisto, Michail Tsarev, and Jose Reyes respectively. Also booked for the tourney is cursed in America fighter and recipient of truly the worst beating of 2012, Marius Zaromskis, who will be squaring off against Brent Weedman. Nearly half of these participants have faced one another before (Saunders has fought Amaya and Lima, who has fought Weedman) and six of the eight men have been knocked out of a Bellator welterweight tournament before. I’m not sure what to do with that information, but there it is.

As we know, both War Machine and Paul Daley were pulled from the tourney following a knee injury and a pub brawl, respectively. And in the twisted nightmare this universe has truly become, War Machine was not responsible for the latter. Bellator 86 goes down from the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma on January 23rd.

And in UFC fight booking news…

After having his brains literally squeezed through his nose by Demian Maia at UFC 153, Rick Story has been booked in a likely win or GTFO match against Canadian brawler Sean Pierson at UFC 158. After compiling an incredible 6-1 run to start his UFC career, Story has seemingly fallen apart at the wheels since being upset by Charlie Brenneman at UFC Live 4. He’s now dropped 3 of his last 4, with his lone victory coming against UFC newcomer Brock Jardine last June. Pierson, on the other hand, has had a slight career turnaround as of late, following up a pair of tough losses to Jake Ellenberger and Dong Hyun Kim in 2011 with a two-fight streak of his own in 2012.

UFC 158 transpires at the Bell Centre in Montreal on March 16th.

UFC newcomer Isaac Vallie-Flagg is set for the toughest test of his career at UFC 156, where he will take on 60 fight veteran Yves Edwards. The “Thugjitsu Master” most recently did what no man has been able to do when he knocked out Jeremy Stephens at UFC on FOX 5. While it’s quite a feat considering who Stephens has faced, Edwards will have a hell of a fight on his hands in Vallie-Flagg, a Jackson’s MMA product who has not dropped a fight since October of 2007.

Now here’s a supercut of “Pre-Mortem One Liners” I stumbled across earlier today, for those of you who cared enough to read all the way to the bottom of this article.

–J. Jones

Bellator Premieres “Vote for the Fight” for Spike Debut Featuring War Machine, Ben Saunders, Douglas Lima, and Paul Daley

Although the UFC has easily secured the top position for “Most Interesting News of the Day,” their rivals over at Bellator have recently revealed a pretty unique feature of their own for their upcoming season on Spike TV. Besides the fact that they are completely exploiting War Machine’s less than positive personal history as a hype tool for his promotional debut*[AWESOME], Bjorn and the boys have debuted an interactive web series dubbed “Vote for the Fight,” which allows you to, wait for it, vote for the very first fight of their 2013 season on Spike TV.

Fans will be given the option to match up any of the following four fighters: Ben Saunders, Paul Daley, Douglas Lima, and our boy War Machine. In addition, Spike TV will be airing a new episode of the web series — which will provide some background and behind-the-scenes info on each of the participants — each Thursday.

Part 1 is above and Part 2 awaits you after the jump.

Although the UFC has easily secured the top position for “Most Interesting News of the Day,” their rivals over at Bellator have recently revealed a pretty unique feature of their own for their upcoming season on Spike TV. Besides the fact that they are completely exploiting War Machine’s less than positive personal history as a hype tool for his promotional debut*[AWESOME], Bjorn and the boys have debuted an interactive web series dubbed “Vote for the Fight,” which allows you to, wait for it, vote for the very first fight of their 2013 season on Spike TV.

Fans will be given the option to match up any of the following four fighters: Ben Saunders, Paul Daley, Douglas Lima, and our boy War Machine. In addition, Spike TV will be airing a new episode of the web series — which will provide some background and behind-the-scenes info on each of the participants — each Thursday.

An interesting side note is that none of these gentlemen will be appearing in Bellator’s next welterweight tournament. In fact, only two of them have ever met inside the cage before — Lima and Saunders — with Lima defeating Saunders by second round knockout at Bellator 57. One would think that Saunders would want a chance to earn some redemption against Lima or possibly face off against his fellow TUF 6 alum in War Machine, but according to his Twitter account, Saunders would much rather test the waters against arguably the most dangerous striker of them all: Paul “Semtex” Daley, who is fresh off a first round stomping of Rudy Bears in his Bellator debut. Lima, on the other hand, recently rebounded from his failed title bid against Ben Azzzzkren with a first round TKO win over Jacob Ortiz at Bellator 79.

But you don’t care about any of that. What you care about is who will War Machine be fighting next and will he actually make it to said fight without incarcerating himself in the mean time. The last time Machine aka Prison Mike was released from the clink, he broke Roger Huerta’s ribs and TKO’d that nail painting ninny in the third round, so you best believe that whoever he faces is going to get torn through like a bologna sandwich. We’d prefer if that someone was Askren, because everyone knows that the only one way to defend his narcolepsy-inducing lay-n-pray is with the savage, prison-based form of fighting known only as ape-n-rape, which War Machine has all but mastered by this point in his career. But we digress.

So what do you think, Potato Nation? Is Bellator’s new interactive feature a good thing for fans, or will they only screw things up worse than when they picked David Cook over David Archuleta? BUT D-ARCH WAS SOOO DREAMY!!

*Because when you think about it, prison is basically a limitless training facility to improve your MMA game if your willing to fork over the sanctity of your butthole every now and again. Reach for the stars, kids!

–J. Jones

Twitter Beef of the Day: Apparently Ben Askren Doesn’t Have any UFC Plans Set for the Near Future


(Always the craftiest of the Cabbage Patch Kids, “Funky” would wait until nap time to pounce upon his enemies.) 

Although Ben Askren may be the king of Bellator’s welterweight division for the time being, he certainly isn’t earning any new fans inside or outside of the cage, and in fact is likely losing them in droves. On the heels of yet another tepid, albeit title-retaining performance against Douglas Lima at Bellator 64, Askren returned to his day job as the most successful Serta mattress salesman in the world and decided to start shit-stirring with UFC President Dana White.

It started when DW stated at the UFC on FUEL post-fight press conference that it would be “impossible” to administer random drug tests to the over three hundred members of the UFC’s current roster. The general public’s initial response to the notion was that of skepticism. While it would be incredibly difficult to perform random drug tests on fighters based all over the planet, it would not be impossible, and would help avoid situations like the Alistair Overeem/UFC 146 calamity that the UFC currently finds themselves facing.

Apparently not impressed with White’s view on the matter, Askren took to Twitter and let his feelings be known:

@Benaskren
The USOC random tests Olympic athletes in all sports. Dana saying testing his fighters would be impossible is a bold faced lie.

Who knew that the most significant blow Askren ever threw would be to that of his own career?


(Always the craftiest of the Cabbage Patch Kids, “Funky” would wait until nap time to pounce upon his enemies.) 

Although Ben Askren may be the king of Bellator’s welterweight division for the time being, he certainly isn’t earning any new fans inside or outside of the cage, and in fact is likely losing them in droves. On the heels of yet another tepid, albeit title-retaining performance against Douglas Lima at Bellator 64, Askren returned to his day job as the most successful Serta mattress salesman in the world and decided to start shit-stirring with UFC President Dana White.

It started when DW stated at the UFC on FUEL post-fight press conference that it would be “impossible” to administer random drug tests to the over three hundred members of the UFC’s current roster. The general public’s initial response to the notion was that of skepticism. While it would be incredibly difficult to perform random drug tests on fighters based all over the planet, it would not be impossible, and would help avoid situations like the Alistair Overeem/UFC 146 calamity that the UFC currently finds themselves facing.

Apparently not impressed with White’s view on the matter, Askren took to Twitter and let his feelings be known:

@Benaskren
The USOC random tests Olympic athletes in all sports. Dana saying testing his fighters would be impossible is a bold faced lie.

Who knew that the most significant blow Askren ever threw would be to that of his own career?

When the information was relayed to White himself, the UFC Prez proceeded to lay the smack down on Askren’s monkey ass in a few short sentences:

@danawhite
Dana White@thefightweek @benaskren when ambien can’t sleep it takes Ben Askren. The most boring fighter in MMA history. I would rather watch flys f**k

Having been witness to both a Ben Askren fight and the fornication of flies (where Seth is from they consider that Friday night-worthy entertainment) we can assuredly say that we are with DW on this one. Simply put, Askren has been responsible for more cases of nap-induced trauma than narcolepsy and sleep fighting combined. And we’re not referring to his submission game. The man manages to redefine “lay-n-pray” with every performance, to the point that the “praying” aspect of the phrase has become attributable to the audience members who, upon realizing that there are four rounds left of his “fight,” wish upon a star for death. Sweet, untimely death.

He’s not an exciting fighter is what we’re saying.

And apparently he’s not an astute businessman either.

-J. Jones

Bellator 64 Recap: A Busy Night for Judges

An artist’s rendering of what Askren’s ground and pound might look like (Photo: Sherdog.com)

I’m not going to say that this was the most boring Bellator card in recent memory, but I will tell you that my DVR got tired of recording it and gave up before the Welterweight title fight had even begun. One of the risks of live televised fights is that they’ll go over the allotted time frame, particularly during a decision-laden event like Bellator 64. For those fans who don’t appreciate the nuances of champion Ben Askren’s suffocating ground game, having the evening’s finale blotted from your television may have been a blessing in disguise.

This season’s Bantamweight tournament kicked off with a quarterfinal pairing of undefeated twenty year old Rodrigo Lima and the seasoned Hiroshi Nakamura. Lima found himself on his back throughout the fight, but took no rest on the canvas as he tirelessly worked for every submission in the book. Nakamura—whose 87% win-by-decision record could compete with any of the UFC’s top grinders—kept all four limbs out of serious danger and stifled Lima’s ground game long enough to launch some ground and pound in the third frame. His takedowns and top control, coupled with a point awarded for absorbing a pair of unintentional knees to the nuts, were enough to bring home the unanimous 29-27 decision.

An artist’s rendering of what Askren’s ground and pound might look like (Photo: Sherdog.com)

I’m not going to say that this was the most boring Bellator card in recent memory, but I will tell you that my DVR got tired of recording it and gave up before the Welterweight title fight had even begun. One of the risks of live televised fights is that they’ll go over the allotted time frame, particularly during a decision-laden event like Bellator 64. For those fans who don’t appreciate the nuances of champion Ben Askren‘s suffocating ground game, having the evening’s finale blotted from your television may have been a blessing in disguise.

This season’s Bantamweight tournament kicked off with a quarterfinal pairing of undefeated twenty year old Rodrigo Lima and the seasoned Hiroshi Nakamura. Lima found himself on his back throughout the fight, but took no rest on the canvas as he tirelessly worked for every submission in the book. Nakamura—whose 87% win-by-decision record could compete with any of the UFC’s top grinders—kept all four limbs out of serious danger and stifled Lima’s ground game long enough to launch some ground and pound in the third frame. His takedowns and top control, coupled with a point awarded for absorbing a pair of unintentional knees to the nuts, were enough to bring home the unanimous 29-27 decision.

In other Bantamweight tourney action, underdog Travis Marx showed little fear in welcoming Masakatsu Ueda to the U-S-of-A. The Japanese fighter was the heavy favorite in his promotional debut, but not heavy enough to deal with the size and strength of his opponent. Marx ragdolled Ueda with a massive slam in the first round, but the former Shooto champ was unfazed by the throw and started working for a kimura on impact. Marx escaped and continued to use his wrestling and strength advantage to win the grappling exchanges and maintain control when jockeying for position on the ground. All three judges scored the fight for Marx 29-28.

Brazilians Marlon Sandro and Alexandre Bezerra squared off to see who would advance to the Featherweight tournament finals. Sandro was able to get off early and often in round one, finding a home for his hands and taking ‘Popo’s’ legs out from under him with kicks while Bezerra looked to counter with a big left that never came. The exchanges played out the same in round two with both men throwing but neither unloading on their opponent. Bezerra took over as the aggressor in the final frame, driving in on Sandro and suplexing him to the mat. After a bizarre standup by referee Yves Lavigne—which came as the two dueled for leglocks—Popo rocked his hero twice with heavy hands, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the two round deficit. Sandro took home the split decision victory and will move on to the finals.

The definition of love is knowing how the Ben Askren-Douglas Lima bout played out and still watching it for you bastards. Askren employed his grappling-heavy attack to take Lima’s stand-up out of the equation, and while the challenger was able to delay some of “Funky’s” takedowns he could not keep off of his back for any significant length of time. Askren’s ground and pound was more active than it was damaging, but he dominated Lima for all five rounds. Lima attempted sweeps and threatened with multiple armbars, but he could never seize control of the fight from from the champ. Both the 50-45 decision and the boos from the audience were unanimous. The win marks six straight victories via scorecard for Askren, a fitting end to the evening’s action.

Full Results: (via FightoftheNight.com)

Main Card:

Ben Askren def. Douglas Lima via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
Marlon Sandro def. Alexandre Bezerra via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Travis Marx def. Masakatsu Ueda via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Hiroshi Nakamura def. Rodigo Lima via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)

Prelims:

Mike Richman def. Chris Horodecki via knockout (punches) at 1:23 of Round 1
Chad Laprise def. Josh Taveirne via submission (triangle choke) at 2:48 of Round 1
Kyle Prepolec def. Lance Snow via submission (arm-bar) at 2:54 of Round 1
Elias Theodorou def. Rich Lictawa via verbal submission (blindness) at 0:33 of Round 3
Nordine Taleb def. Matt Secor via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-24)
Taylor Solomon def. Jason Fischer via via technical submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:59 of Round 3