After the jump: Liam McGeary submits Kelly Anundson with an inverted triangle to win the Season Eleven Light Heavyweight tournament, and Ryan Couture chokes out Tom Bagnasco.
After the jump: Liam McGeary submits Kelly Anundson with an inverted triangle to win the Season Eleven Light Heavyweight tournament, and Ryan Couture chokes out Tom Bagnasco.
Bellator 124 is here, and while it’s not quite Bellator 123 in term of star power, it’s still certainly worth watching.
On the main card we’ve got Ryan Couture meeting Tom Bagnasco, a late replacement. Then there’s L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues. The highly touted Liam McGeary faces Kelly Anundson in the co-main event. The main event is a peculiar booking: Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran for the Bellator light heavyweight title.
Please stand by…
Bellator 124 is here, and while it’s not quite Bellator 123 in term of star power, it’s still certainly worth watching.
On the main card we’ve got Ryan Couture meeting Tom Bagnasco, a late replacement. Then there’s L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues. The highly touted Liam McGeary faces Kelly Anundson in the co-main event. The main event is a peculiar booking: Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran for the Bellator light heavyweight title.
Former UFC slugger Joey “The Mexicutioner” Beltran has fallen on some hard times, y’all. While he’s never been what you would call a world-beater, his past five fights have resulted in two decision losses, one knockout loss, a win overturned due to a post-fight failed drug test, and a submission win over a 43-year-old and already retired Vladimir Matyushenko at Bellator 116. A gutsy, take-no-prisoners kind of fighter Beltran may be, but its safe to say that “The Mexicutioner” isn’t exactly next in line for a shot at the title, even in Bellator’s ultra-shallow light heavyweight division.
Oh, MMA, just when I thought I had you figured out!
Former UFC slugger Joey “The Mexicutioner” Beltran has fallen on some hard times, y’all. While he’s never been what you would call a world-beater, his past five fights have resulted in two decision losses, one knockout loss, a win overturned due to a post-fight failed drug test, and a submission win over a 43-year-old and already retired Vladimir Matyushenko at Bellator 116. A gutsy, take-no-prisoners kind of fighter Beltran may be, but its safe to say that “The Mexicutioner” isn’t exactly next in line for a shot at the title, even in Bellator’s ultra-shallow light heavyweight division.
Oh, MMA, just when I thought I had you figured out!
Maybe it’s just me, but this fight seems more like something Bjorn Rebney would pull, not his excellence Scott Coker. It’s about as throwaway a title fight as we’ve seen in recent memory, and could only have been booked as a sacrifice to the MMA Gods. That being said, it looks like this year’s Harvest will be even better than last year’s.
I guess the biggest question to come out of this booking is that of Rampage Jackson, who stopped Beltran, then Christian M’Pumbu, then decisioned Kingo Mo to technically earn the next title shot. Has Jackson already gotten cold feet in regards to his Bellator contract? DETAILS AT 11.
Bellator 124 goes down from Michigan’s Compuware Arena on Friday, September 12.
Much to Bellator’s dismay, their light heavyweight title belongs to someone not named Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal; Emanuel Newton bested Attila Vegh in a lackluster decision at Bellator 113 to unify the light heavyweight strap. The first round of Bellator’s season 10 lightweight tournament took place at Bellator 113 too.
But the first notable event of the night happened on the prelims. A bout between journeymen Daniel Gallemore and Fredrick Brown ended with one of the worst stoppages in MMA history. Gallemore elbowed Brown, putting him out on his feet. After a few punches from Gallemore, Brown faceplanted. At this point, Brown was clearly “done” but referee Chuck Wolfe allowed about a dozen more blows to land before he had seen enough. It was despicable, to say the least. See for yourself (GIF via @ZProphet_MMA)
Other preliminary card events of importance: Derek Anderson kneed Brandon Girtz’s head into the rafters in the night’s first lightweight tournament quarterfinal. Former WEC standout LC Davis was scheduled to fight on the prelims, but his fight was moved to after the main card. At the time of writing, the results of this fight aren’t available. We’ll update the article when they are.
Much to Bellator’s dismay, their light heavyweight title belongs to someone not named Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal; Emanuel Newton bested Attila Vegh in a lackluster decision at Bellator 113 to unify the light heavyweight strap. The first round of Bellator’s season 10 lightweight tournament took place at Bellator 113 too.
But the first notable event of the night happened on the prelims. A bout between journeymen Daniel Gallemore and Fredrick Brown ended with one of the worst stoppages in MMA history. Gallemore elbowed Brown, putting him out on his feet. After a few punches from Gallemore, Brown faceplanted. At this point, Brown was clearly “done” but referee Chuck Wolfe allowed about a dozen more blows to land before he had seen enough. It was despicable, to say the least. See for yourself (GIF via @ZProphet_MMA)
Other preliminary card events of importance: Derek Anderson kneed Brandon Girtz’s head into the rafters in the night’s first lightweight tournament quarterfinal. Former WEC standout LC Davis was scheduled to fight on the prelims, but his fight was moved to after the main card; it wasn’t televised or streamed. Davis won via guillotine with only two seconds left in the first round.
In the first televised fight, Tim Welch fought Derek Campos in another lightweight tournament quarterfinal bout. The first round was evenly matched, but Campos was more aggressive, consistently pushing Welch back with his striking. He also landed more strikes. Campos almost finished Welch in the second, wobbling him with a right hand. He neglected to swarm a battered Welch, however. Instead, he opted for a takedown, which allowed Welch to recover and eventually rise to his feet. The third round didn’t feature much action. Campos took Welch to the ground and held him there. Unsurprisingly, Campos got the nod from the judges.
It didn’t take long for Polish prospect Marcin Held to defeat Rodrigo Cavalheiro. After a very brief striking scuffle, Held took Cavalheiro to the mat and submitted the Brazilian with a toehold.
In the night’s co-main event, David Rickels fought Patricky “Pitbull” Freire. This was also the last lightweight tournament quarterfinal of the night. The first round was, essentially, five minutes of brawling with some grappling interspersed. Rickels got the better of nearly every exchange in the first round, but that changed in the second. Freire hurt Rickels with a right hook, swarmed in, and then dropped him cold with a left hook. After one follow-up strike, it was called off.
The lightweight tournament semifinals will be as follows:
Patricky “Pitbull” Freire vs. Derek Campos.
Marcin Held vs. Derek Anderson
Bellator 113′s main event was to unify Bellator’s light heavyweight title. Interim champ Emanuel Newton faced non-interim champion Attila Vegh. It was a long, boring 25 minutes, that featured ineffective striking and lots of missed “spinning shit.” There really isn’t much to tell other than that both guys threw lots of strikes that amounted to nothing. If you DVR’d the event, watch this on fast forward if you feel the need to watch at all. Twitter pundits scored it every way imaginable, but the only people that mattered (the judges) gave it to Newton.
Complete Results:
Main Card
Emanuel Newton def. Attila Vegh via split decision (48-47, 47-48, 49-46)
Patricky Freire def. David Rickels via KO (punches), 0:54 of round 2
Marcin Held def. Rodrigo Cavalheiro via submission (toe hold), 1:56 of round 1
Derek Campos def. Tim Welch via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Preliminary Card
LC Davis def. Tory Bogguess via submission (guillotine), 4:58 of round 1
Derek Anderson def. Brandon Girtz via KO (knee), 0:23 of round 2
Israel Giron def. Cody Carrillo via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Eric Wisely def. Donnie Bell via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
Daniel Gallemore def. Fredrick Brown via TKO (punches), 3:34 of round 1
Bobby Cooper def. Marcio Navarro via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Bellator’s tenth season hasn’t even started yet and the company is already in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Remember the highly suspicious bait-and-switch Bellator pulled in November 2013? The one where their light heavyweight champ Attila Vegh conveniently got “injured,” allowing Bellator to book a much-anticipated rematch between Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and Emanuel Newton (who really should’ve adopted the nickname “Kingslayer” after defeating Mo the first time) for an interim title?
Fast forward to yesterday, when Ariel Helwani interviewed Vegh in what looks like a dingy auto repair shop. Vegh spoke about the “injury,” but not before some prodding by Helwani.
Bellator’s tenth season hasn’t even started yet and the company is already in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Remember the highly suspicious bait-and-switch Bellator pulled in November 2013? The one where their light heavyweight champ Attila Vegh conveniently got “injured,” allowing Bellator to book a much-anticipated rematch between Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and Emanuel Newton (who really should’ve adopted the nickname “Kingslayer” after defeating Mo the first time) for an interim title?
Fast forward to yesterday, when Ariel Helwani interviewed Vegh in what looks like a dingy auto repair shop. Vegh spoke about the “injury,” but not before some prodding by Helwani.
“I was injured,” Vegh maintained through a translator when first asked about the situation.
“I did have an injury before, but I was ready for the November fight,” he then said. “I wasn’t disappointed, but I was ready to fight.” He claimed to have “internal bleeding” from a kick to the rib cage.
Helwani kept pressing while Vegh and his translator nervously fiddled. He wanted to know why Vegh didn’t ask Bellator to book him in the fight against Newton since, after all, the Slovak was ready for the fight. Vegh channeled his inner Dana White with his response.
“No, I didn’t ask them,” he said. Why not? “Because.”
“I was ready just in case if somebody would be out or injured,” he explained. Then the discussion drifted to other, less interesting topics.
Let’s get this straight. According to Vegh, the CHAMPION (Vegh) was relegated to being an alternate for an INTERIM title fight. Wow. Is that the most Bellator thing that’s ever happened? We’re not definitively saying Bellator screwed Vegh, but the situation sounds fishy to us, especially in light of this interview.
Bellator: Where title shots are earned, not given…unless you’re not quite as marketable or well known as somebody else. Then we’ll give you a title shot.
(Little did Attila know that he’d be wrapping his dead dog in that banner within a year’s time. Photo via Sherdog.)
Like the hopes and dreams of so many financially struggling, relatively unknown fighters before him, Attila Vegh was swept under the rug by Bellator last year, forced to sit out with a phony injury while the promotion attempted to overthrow his regime in favor of King Mo to no avail. Or at least, that’s what he’ll tell you. Bellator has since refuted Vegh’s claims, but given its history of sketchiness when it comes to its fighters (as well as the misdated medical report the promotion released as “evidence”), this doesn’t exactly boil down to “he said, she said.”
In any case, it seems Vegh has been “cleared” by his “doctor” to compete again, as he has been booked to rematch interim champion Emanuel Newton with the belt on the line at Bellator 113 on March 21st.
The pair last collided at in the 2012 Summer Series tournament final at Bellator 72, with Vegh emerging victorious via an ultra-thin split decision. In the time since, Vegh has posted victories over Travis Wiuff and Christian M’Pumbu, whereas Newton has scored wins over Atanas Djambazov (at Bellator 85), Mikhail Zayats (Bellator 94) and a pair of upset W’s over King Mo Lawal.
Who do you like to win this, the latest in Bellator’s rematch-heavy agenda (not that we’re complaining this time), Nation? While you think about it, check out the current lineup of Bellator 113 after the jump.
(Little did Attila know that he’d be wrapping his dead dog in that banner within a year’s time. Photo via Sherdog.)
Like the hopes and dreams of so many financially struggling, relatively unknown fighters before him, Attila Vegh was swept under the rug by Bellator last year, forced to sit out with a phony injury while the promotion attempted to overthrow his regime in favor of King Mo to no avail. Or at least, that’s what he’ll tell you. Bellator has since refuted Vegh’s claims, but given its history of sketchiness when it comes to its fighters (as well as the misdated medical report the promotion released as “evidence”), this doesn’t exactly boil down to “he said, she said.”
In any case, it seems Vegh has been “cleared” by his “doctor” to compete again, as he has been booked to rematch interim champion Emanuel Newton with the belt on the line at Bellator 113 on March 21st.
The pair last collided at in the 2012 Summer Series tournament final at Bellator 72, with Vegh emerging victorious via an ultra-thin split decision. In the time since, Vegh has posted victories over Travis Wiuff and Christian M’Pumbu, whereas Newton has scored wins over Atanas Djambazov (at Bellator 85), Mikhail Zayats (Bellator 94) and a pair of upset W’s over King Mo Lawal.
Who do you like to win this, the latest in Bellator’s rematch-heavy agenda (not that we’re complaining this time), Nation? While you think about it, check out the current lineup of Bellator 113 after the jump.
Attila Vegh vs. Emanuel Newton
David Rickels vs. Patricky Pitbull
Marcin Held vs. Rodrigo Cavalheiro
Terry Etim vs. Derek Anderson
Brandon Girtz vs. Derek Campos
