Curran, Sandro, Malegarie and Mann Advance at Bellator 46

Filed under: Bellator, NewsMTV2 viewers were treated to an excellent mixed martial arts event on Saturday night, as Bellator 46 yielded four good fights — and the promise of even better things to come.

The winners — Pat Curran, Marlon Sandro, Nazare…

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MTV2 viewers were treated to an excellent mixed martial arts event on Saturday night, as Bellator 46 yielded four good fights — and the promise of even better things to come.

The winners — Pat Curran, Marlon Sandro, Nazareno Malegarie and Ronnie Mann — all looked very good in victory and advanced to the second round of Bellator’s eight-man featherweight tournament. No matter how the four are paired in the tournament semifinals, they’re virtually guaranteed to be a couple of outstanding fights.

The semifinals will take place at Bellator 47 on July 23, along with a Bellator featherweight title fight between Joe Warren and Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, and that card is shaping up to be a great showcase of Bellator’s solid featherweight division.

Curran earned his victory quickly, forcing Luis Palomino to tap out to a Peruvian necktie at 3:49 of the first round. That submission wasn’t what anyone was expecting from Curran, who previously won a Bellator lightweight tournament, but he said afterward that the fight played out just how he wanted.

“I rocked him with a right hand, he went to the ground, he felt a little weak, he was just getting his mind back together,” Curran said. “I just went for it — I practice it in the gym all the time.”

Sandro took a split decision victory after an entertaining 15 minutes in the cage with Genair da Silva. Sandro appeared poised to finish da Silva in the first round, first by knocking him down with a devastating punch, and then by attempting a guillotine choke. But da Silva managed to pull out of the guillotine, shake off the cobwebs and keep fighting. Sandro never came close to finishing da Silva after the first round, but he did control the fight, and it was surprising that one judge scored it for da Silva, 29-28. The other judges gave the fight to Sandro, 30-27 and 29-28, and he looked solid in his North American debut.

Malegarie displayed some absolutely beautiful Brazilian jiu jitsu in winning a third-round submission against Jacob DeVree. Malegarie had what appeared to be a tight guillotine choke in the opening moments of the first round, but DeVree maintained his poise and broke free. DeVree also broke free of a Malegarie heel hook, and he survived the rest of the first round thanks in part to a questionable stand-up by referee Troy Waugh. But Malegarie was absolutely relentless on the ground, controlling DeVree there for almost the entire second round and then pulling off a textbook-perfect guillotine choke early in the third round, finally forcing DeVree to tap. Malegarie is now 20-1 in his MMA career.

Mann unleashed an explosive assault on Adam Schindler in winning by first-round knockout, knocking Schindler down with a quick right uppercut and a hard left hook and finishing him with a few more unanswered punches to the face on the ground before the referee finally stopped it. It was a brilliant showing by Mann, who improved his professional MMA record to 20-2-1. If Mann, who’s known primarily as a submission specialist, can show off that kind of striking consistently, he’s going to be a force in this tournament.

 

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Featherweight Tourney Matchups Set for Bellator 46 ‘Summer Series’

Filed under: Bellator, News Bellator announced Monday the matchups for all four quarterfinal bouts in the promotion’s featherweight tournament happening on June 25 at Bellator 46 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.

The “S…

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Bellator announced Monday the matchups for all four quarterfinal bouts in the promotion’s featherweight tournament happening on June 25 at Bellator 46 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.

The “Summer Series’ will bridge the gap between last week’s season four finale and the season five premiere slated for Sept. 17.

Check out the featherweight bracket, which includes Bellator lightweight tournament winner Pat Curran and former Sengoku featherweight champion Marlon Sandro.

23-year-old Pat Curran (13-4) is coming off a loss in a Bellator title fight against champion Eddie Alvarez in April. He’s already won a Bellator tournament lightweight division in season two and he’ll be after a featherweight title shot against Luis Palomino. Palomino is 3-2 in Bellator competition and his most notable win was a split decision over Jorge Masvidal in February 2010.

Marlon Sandro (17-2), who trains with UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo, signed with Bellator in February and will be making his debut with Bellator after fighting exclusively in Japan from 2007 through 2010. He joined Sengoku in 2009 and made it all the way to the finals where he lost a close decision in the finals to Michihiro Omigawa. Last June, he earned a shot at the title and knocked out Masanori Kanehara in 38 seconds to become the new Sengoku champion. At the last Sengoku event (to date), Sandro dropped the title to Hatsu Hioki. Sandro will be facing Genair da Silva (10-3), a prospect out of Brazil.

Last September, Ronnie Mann (19-2-1) won the Shark Fights featherweight title against Doug Evans and then signed with Bellator this year. Mann, who was 2-1 with Sengkoku in 2009, outpointed Josh Arocho last month at Bellator 42. His opponent Adam Schindler (9-1) is a one-time Strikeforce competitor and previously fought for Bellator in May 2010. He’s on a six-fight win streak.

Nazareno Malegarie (19-1) joined Bellator in March and suffered his first career loss in a decision to Daniel Straus. Jacob Devree (10-1) of Arizona has been fighting mostly locally and this will be his first taste under the national spotlight.

Bellator 46 Fight Card:

Televised Bouts

Marlon Sandro vs. Genair da Silva
Ronnie Mann vs. Adam Schindler
Pat Curran vs. Luis Palomino
Nazareno Malegarie vs. Jacob Devree

Preliminary Bouts
Josh Samman vs. Mike Bernhard
Tony Johnson Jr. vs. TBA
Jessica Aguilar vs. Carla Esparza

 

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