Cosmo Alexandre could pan out to be a very exciting addition to Bellator’s roster
Yesterday, Liverkick.com passed along a report that Bellator has signed accomplished Muay Thai kickboxer Cosmo Alexandre to compete in their lightweight division. Fighting mostly at 160 and 170 pounds, Cosmo has compiled a 40-14-1 kickboxing record over the past seven years, as well as a 2-0 professional boxing record. As for his mixed martial arts experience, the Brazilian currently has none in the form of professional fights. Alexandre trains out of Imperial Athletics, whose notable fighters include Rashad Evans, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Jorge Santiago.
Intriguing signing, to say the least. It is certainly consistent with Bjorn Rebney’s model for developing fighters. Cosmo Alexandre is an unknown name to the American MMA fan that could essentially develop into Bellator’s version of Donald Cerrone: An elite striker who isn’t a fish out of water on the ground. Yet while Cosmo Alexandre may be able to translate his elite striking pedigree and strong camp into a successful MMA career, it is just as likely that he may be Bellator’s version of Ray Sefo: The world class kickboxer who gets caught in submissions that most of the white belts at your gym would feel embarrassed for succumbing to. Bellator’s lightweight division (and welterweight division, if he decides he’s more comfortable at 170) is stacked with good grapplers. While it helps to have Rashad Evans as a training partner, Alexandre is going to find himself getting taken down often due to the lack of fighters willing to stand and trade with him. If he doesn’t have good enough jiu jitsu to mount some offense off of his back, or at least avoid submission attempts, we may be in store for some pretty dissappointing fights. I’ll pause for you to make your own “It’s cool, he’s Brazilian” jokes.
So, are we going to be seeing highlight reel knockouts, or will he be taken down and dry humped to death before we can say “Cole Konrad really isn’t that boring”? Tell us in the comments section.