“Bjorn, you know what’s up, man — your dick-ridin’ ass. You know who won the fuckin’ fight, you smilin’ and shit. You know I won that fight. Nah, nah. Rampage, nothin’ against you, but I beat you…I won that fight. And [unintelligible] dick-ridin’ ass, ay…”
Mo was convinced that Bellator was favoring Jackson in this matchup, and was clearly cranky before the fight even started. When all three judges returned scores of 29-28 for Rampage — horseshit, by the way — Mo grabbed the mic and let ‘er rip. Unprofessional? Sure. The perfect end to an insane, absurd, entertaining night? Absolutely.
“Bjorn, you know what’s up, man — your dick-ridin’ ass. You know who won the fuckin’ fight, you smilin’ and shit. You know I won that fight. Nah, nah. Rampage, nothin’ against you, but I beat you…I won that fight. And [unintelligible] dick-ridin’ ass, ay…”
Mo was convinced that Bellator was favoring Jackson in this matchup, and was clearly cranky before the fight even started. When all three judges returned scores of 29-28 for Rampage — horseshit, by the way — Mo grabbed the mic and let ‘er rip. Unprofessional? Sure. The perfect end to an insane, absurd, entertaining night? Absolutely.
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
Quinton Jackson (205.9) vs. Muhammed Lawal (205.6) – light heavyweight tournament final
Will Brooks (154.2) vs. Michael Chandler (154.9) – for interim lightweight title
Tito Ortiz (205.5) vs. Alexander Shlemenko (201.9) – non-title fight
Blagoi Ivanov (249.5) vs. Alexander Volkov (236.1) – heavyweight tournament final
Michael Page (170.5) vs. Ricky Rainey (170.1)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV, 8 p.m. ET)
Cheick Kongo (235) vs. Eric Smith (253.8)
Marcin Held (158) vs. Nate Jolly (158) – 158-pound catchweight
Fabricio Guerreiro (147.9) vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev (145.1) – 148-pound catchweight
Mike Richman (145.5) vs. Goiti Yamauchi (145.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com, 6 p.m. ET)
Austin Lyons (152.4) vs. Zach Underwood (152.3) – 153-pound catchweight
Justin Frazier (264.5) vs. Mike Wessel (257.9)
Ben Brewer (170.2) vs. Andy Uhrich (170.5)
Anthony Lemon (170) vs. Codie Shuffield (170)
Brian Hall (125.6) vs. Cortez Phelia (125.6)
Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.
In case the headline didn’t tip you off, Eddie Alvarez is out of Bellator 120—the promotion’s second attempt to break into the PPV market. His rubber match with Michael Chandler will have to wait.
(Well, in a way, MMA’s “greatest trilogy” did kind of end at Bellator 120…)
Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.
In case the headline didn’t tip you off, Eddie Alvarez is out of Bellator 120—the promotion’s second attempt to break into the PPV market. His rubber match with Michael Chandler will have to wait.
Sherdog’s Greg Savage broke the news on Twitter last night. Initially, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebneydenied the rumor, saying the fight was still on. Less than 24 hours later, Bellator hasn’t officially announced anything but mediaoutlets are accepting Alvarez’s withdrawal as fact.
What’ll they do now? Hopefully they convert it to a free card on Spike, like they did with their last ill-fated PPV. It’s unlikely Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo, Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko, Michael Page vs. Rick Rainey [Editor’s note: They were charging money for that fight?] and Will Brooks vs. Nate Jolly will be worth the price of admission. Regarding the last fight, Brooks vs. Jolly, it’s speculated that Brooks will be bumped into the main event against Chandler but who can say for sure.
In terms of fake heat, Rampage vs. King Mo might even rank above Chael vs. Wandy on the bullshit scale. Then again, this is arguably the biggest fight that Bellator can throw together right now in terms of star power, and booking it for the promotion’s (fingers crossed) first PPV show only seems logical. No other fights for the May 17th card have been announced yet; we’ll keep you posted. Some notable quotes/exaggerations from Bellator’s latest press release are below…
In terms of fake heat, Rampage vs. King Mo might even rank above Chael vs. Wandy on the bullshit scale. Then again, this is arguably the biggest fight that Bellator can throw together right now in terms of star power, and booking it for the promotion’s (fingers crossed) first PPV show only seems logical. No other fights for the May 17th card have been announced yet; we’ll keep you posted. Some notable quotes/exaggerations from Bellator’s latest press release are below…
Quinton Jackson: “I’ve been wanting to come back to Memphis for the last decade, and I’m finally getting that chance to fight in one of the biggest fights of my career for Bellator. After being part of the Bellator family for a while now, I feel like the old Rampage, and that’s not a good thing for Mo. I’m back, I’m a monster, and I’m looking to put on another entertaining fight for all my fans on May 17th.”
Muhammad Lawal: “When it comes down to it, this is a fight I’ve wanted for a long time, and I’m going to be able to beat his ass in his hometown, and everyone is going to respect me. Rampage is just a stepping stone in my way to get that title shot again and get that belt. It’s all I want, and after I beat Rampage, I’m going for that belt, simple as that.”
Bjorn Rebney: “We now have two fights on this card that are absolute fireworks. Like I said before, we have Alvarez and Chandler headlining a card that will end the best trilogy ever in MMA, and now we’ve added two more superstars to the mix with Rampage and King Mo. May 17th is going to be an absolutely huge night for Bellator, live on Pay-Per-View.”
Bellator is back, but not necessarily in a big way. Bellator 110 saw the more marketable Rampage Jackson and Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal prevail, but neither man looked stellar.
What about the rest of the card? The event started off rocky. The first two preliminary bouts ended in unsatisfying no contests—the first due to an accidental illegal knee. The second was the result of an accidental eye poke.
Of note: Daniel Weichel defeated Scott Cleve in the quarterfinal round of Bellator’s season 10 featherweight tournament. He won via submission, though the rear-naked choke was set up by a gorgeous straight right. When Cleve was on the mat, his brains were far too scrambled to adequately prevent Weichel from taking his back and working for the choke. In another prelim quarterfinal bout, Will Martinez upset the highly touted, 21-year-old prospect, Goiti Yamauchi via unanimous decision. Martinez was stronger and fought a smarter fight. He bullied and smothered Yamauchi, who was stymied by Martinez’s aggression.
The main card kicked off with the third featherweight tournament quarterfinal.
(Photo via Getty)
Bellator is back, but not necessarily in a big way. Bellator 110 saw the more marketable Rampage Jackson and Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal prevail, but neither man looked stellar.
What about the rest of the card? The event started off rocky. The first two preliminary bouts ended in unsatisfying no contests—the first due to an accidental illegal knee. The second was the result of an accidental eye poke.
Of note: Daniel Weichel defeated Scott Cleve in the quarterfinal round of Bellator’s season 10 featherweight tournament. He won via submission, though the rear-naked choke was set up by a gorgeous straight right. When Cleve was on the mat, his brains were far too scrambled to adequately prevent Weichel from taking his back and working for the choke. In another prelim quarterfinal bout, Will Martinez upset the highly touted, 21-year-old prospect, Goiti Yamauchi via unanimous decision. Martinez was stronger and fought a smarter fight. He bullied and smothered Yamauchi, who was stymied by Martinez’s aggression.
The main card kicked off with the third featherweight tournament quarterfinal. Mike Richman met Des Green. The latter fighter prevailed in a closely contested but ultimately forgettable decision win.
Up next came the fourth and final featherweight tournament quarterfinal bout. Matt Bessette faced off against UFC veteran Diego Nunes . This match was even closer than Richman-Green, and had more entertainment value to boot (head kicks galore, good exchanges, an active guard on display, etc). Bessette walked away with a split decision victory.
The co-main event of the evening featured Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal in a light heavyweight tournament semifinal (yes, you read that right. It’s a semifinal; the Bellator season 10 LHW tourney only has four fights) against Mikhail Zayats. This was by far the worst fight of the night. King Mo was expected to thrash Zayats, but he did no such thing. He gassed early, and never mounted much meaningful offense. Some few-and-far-between strikes and takedown attempts earned King Mo a unanimous decision win. If he shows up like this against Rampage Jackson (yes, even de -motivated 2014 Rampage), he’ll be destroyed—especially since Jackson’s performance was superior to Mo’s.
Jackson fought Christian M’Pumbu in the main event. The fight was awful until Jackson capitalized on M’Pumbu slipping, earning a TKO with ground and pound. How bad was the fight though? Both men literally put their hands down and started shrugging at each other in the first 30 seconds, perplexed at the other’s inactivity. This glorified dance routine continued until the end of the fight (save for one impressive flurry by Jackson).
If the fight was bad, the post-fight hysterics were worse. First, Jackson stood over M’pumbu’s listless body and started shouting at him. After that bit of theater, Jackson interrupted his own post-fight interview to start screaming at King Mo when he was brought into the cage. It got ugly, a bunch of pudgy production guys had to separate the two. It wasn’t quite Strikeforce: Nashville bad but it was close.
Rampage Jackson def. Christian M’Pumbu via KO, 4:34 of round 1
Muhammad Lawal def. Mikhail Zayats via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Matt Bessette def. Diego Nunes via split decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Desmond Green def. Mike Richman via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Preliminary Card
Will Martinez def. Goiti Yamauchi via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Daniel Weichel def. Scott Cleve via submission (rear naked choke), 3:46 of round 1
Saul Almeida def. Andrew Fisher via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Egidijus Valavicius def. Atanas Djambazov via KO, 0:48 of round 1
Ryan Quinn de. Andrew Calandrelli via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Manny Lara vs. Josh Diekman, No Contest, 0:18 of round 1
Marvin Maldonado vs. Rico DiSciullo, No Contest, 1:53 of round 1
Well, we warned you. Bellator ring girl Jade Bryce has returned for another installment of “MMA Impressions” for CagePotato.com, in which she gives her own unique take on these classic victory celebrations:
Well, we warned you. Bellator ring girl Jade Bryce has returned for another installment of “MMA Impressions” for CagePotato.com, in which she gives her own unique take on these classic victory celebrations:
