Jenna Jameson would rather have seen Tito Ortiz step into the cage with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson than submit a significantly smaller Alexander Shlemenko.
The former adult film actress watched her ex-husband return to his winning ways with …
Jenna Jameson would rather have seen Tito Ortiz step into the cage with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson than submit a significantly smaller Alexander Shlemenko.
The former adult film actress watched her ex-husband return to his winning ways with a submission victory over Shlemenko on Saturday night at Bellator 120. Ortiz, who hadn’t won a fight in nearly three years, was on cloud nine after stopping the Bellator middleweight champ with an arm triangle choke at two minutes and 27 seconds of the first round.
“Guess who’s back? I’m just inspired to inspire others and show you guys what hard work and dedication can achieve,” Ortiz told Bellator commentator Jimmy Smith in his post-fight interview.
After the bout, Jameson called out her estranged husband on Twitter for “cheating.” She even suggested he take a fight against Jackson, if he really wanted to prove he’s “back.” The post has since been deleted from Jameson’s Twitter account, but SB Nation’s MMAFigthting was able to upload the quote to Shaun Al-Shatti’s Twitter reactions piece before the post was taken down.
“Sometimes it’s easiest to win when you’re twice the size… #maybefightrampage #actuallyteachinghissonscheatingisok,” Jameson posted.
The tumultuous relationship between Ortiz and Jameson has played out in front of the public like a bad reality television show. Seriously, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Jersey Shore have nothing on Tito and Jenna.
But perhaps Jameson is right to some degree on Ortiz needing to rein in the celebration after defeating Shlemenko. The size difference between both men on fight night was unreal. Ortiz looked to be two weight classes above Shlemenko, who isn’t even considered a top-10 middleweight by MMA pundits.
With that said, a win is still a win for Ortiz, who finally returned from a two-year layoff and major neck surgery. Despite the size discrepancy, plenty of people were actually banking on Shlemenko sending Ortiz into retirement once and for all. Now that Ortiz accomplished the unexpected, size is once again being looked at as the deciding factor in the fight.
Shlemenko knew exactly what he was getting himself into when he challenged Ortiz to the fight on RusFighters MMA in April. Unfortunately for the middleweight champ, it was simply a case of biting off more than he could chew.
JordyMcElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal’s unfiltered tirade aimed at Bjorn Rebney, following a controversial decision loss to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, may have been the only entertaining part of the Bellator 120 main event.
The Landers…
Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal’s unfiltered tirade aimed at Bjorn Rebney, following a controversial decision loss to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, may have been the only entertaining part of the Bellator 120 main event.
The Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi was ripe with boos on Saturday night as the five-year feud between Jackson and Lawal ended in a forgettable, 15-minute snooze fest. After the fight, Jackson was awarded a 29-28 decision across the board, which prompted a seething Lawal to call out Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney.
“Bjorn, you know what’s up, d–k riding a–. I see you smiling,” Lawal yelled from the microphone in his post-fight interview.
Unfortunately for Bellator, “bumping gums” was the only legitimate entertainment the main event grudge match had to offer.
Lawal seemed more preoccupied with not getting knocked out than actually winning the fight. His entire game plan consisted of backpedaling and clinging on for dear life whenever Jackson closed the distance.
Jackson, on the other hand, was completely outworked in the wrestling department. It’s hard to believe that Jackson was once considered a world class wrestler in MMA. Many of Lawal’s takedowns were telegraphed and had little effort behind them.
After the fight, Jackson asked Rebney for an opportunity to redeem his performance in an immediate rematch with Lawal.
Perhaps the question that should be asked is whether Lawal will even have a job in the coming weeks.
The former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ has lost twice to Emmanuel Newton, and he is coming off a lackluster showing against Jackson. Not to mention, he uttered expletives at his boss on live television.
If anything, Rebney could always trade in the suit and tie for some stage boots and wrestling tights. TNA wrestling would be the perfect place to promote his boss vs. employee feud with Lawal.
As for MMA, we would all do just fine to never have to see Jackson vs. Lawal ever again.
JordyMcElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
When Bellator began, they had to know that theirs would be a tough road; they were basically born out of the ashes of the UFC’s relationship with SpikeTV and that is one large shadow to toil under.
Now, countless televised events later, they are …
When Bellator began, they had to know that theirs would be a tough road; they were basically born out of the ashes of the UFC’s relationship with SpikeTV and that is one large shadow to toil under.
Now, countless televised events later, they are still no closer to locking up a firm grasp on second place and their first ever pay-per-view event proved it.
For starters, they took a big gamble on one of their most legitimate champions, Alexander Shlemenko, letting him step up in weight to face former UFC champion, Tito Ortiz.
The results were damning; Ortiz made Shlemenko look like a novice, submitting him in under three minutes. While the powers that be at Bellator will no doubt try to spin this as a win, the fact is the value of their title belts was greatly diminished.
Had Shlemenko made a serious fight out of it, things could have been different; instead, he was put into a bad position and he honestly looked clueless on how to defend it.
But even then, it was terribly honest; Bellator was willing to put themselves up for public display, fully aware of the risks and in doing so owned the situation, for better or worse.
And it is probably for the worse. Ortiz is not a star of the future—that was supposed to be Shlemenko’s position. Now, he’s a middleweight champion that was essentially stomped, with shocking ease, by a UFC-castoff who hasn’t won a fight of any significance since his upset victory over Ryan Bader.
Now, Shlemenko goes back down to middleweight and although he is still the champion, his loss to Ortiz puts him into a position of starting over. It could be rough going for Shlemenko as he tries to erase that bad first impression with the pay-per-view audience.
But that is the no-frills foundation that Bellator has built itself on. Granted, they have tried to engage in some fluff in the promotional side of things, but their format has seen the fighters who win rewarded more often than not, which is a good thing in many ways.
Then, Bellator tried to take lemons and make lemonade by matching Michael Chandler against Will Brooks for the interim Bellator Lightweight Championship. Brooks was a substitute for Eddie Alvarez, who had to pull out late due to a training injury.
Originally, Chandler was to face Alvarez for the title in a bout that would give us what promised to be a thrilling final chapter in one of the better trilogies in MMA.
And so, Chandler and Brooks went at it hard for five full rounds. It was honestly a great fight and worthy of any PPV; both men did a lot of damage and fought hard, coming back from moments of serious adversity in order to regain advantage.
In the end, Brooks was awarded the split-decision victory, possibly putting an indefinite hold on Chandler-Alvarez 3, which was one of the few fights that Bellator could honestly provide that had true divisional merit.
Brooks will now face Alvarez to unite the titles and even though Chandler falls in the rankings, the fight itself was excellent. These things happen in the combative sports; it isn’t scripted and it doesn’t always follow fortune, but it’s honest and that is what this sport is all about.
Finally, Bellator put their other big price-tag fighter, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, in against “hated rival,” Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal.
They had invested a great deal of time and promotional expense in selling what looked to be a true bad-blood bout. For their efforts, we were rewarded with a lukewarm effort that fell far short of living up to the billing.
Jackson was awarded the victory but it could have gone either way. Lawal then made it known he would like to be released by the promotion and accused them of favoritism, per MMA Junkie; not exactly the ending they would have liked, to be sure.
And so their first ever PPV event ended with their biggest fights unfolding in directions contrary to their best interests.
They can say they’ve gotten their first PPV under their belts and their next effort will be smoother, but given their position, how far will another PPV get them?
At best, a fight between Rampage and Tito would be sellable and perhaps the bout between Alvarez and Brooks, but that is about it for now.
In fact, their only PPV event would have been ideally placed on SpikeTV, where it could be appreciated by a wider audience that has grown fond of the Bellator brand. If they could put names like Rampage, Ortiz, Alvarez and others on a card for network television, they would likely be better served in the long run.
As of now, if this event has proved anything, it is that which does not kill them only makes them stronger. Since the fallout of the Shlemenko-Ortiz and Chandler-Brooks fights have not really settled, we don’t know just how much the worth of their titles has been diminished.
The minds of MMA fans are fair yet unpredictable, knowledgeable yet dismissive; predicting how they are going to react is nearly impossible. Thus, the waiting game begins for both Bellator and the fans.
And if we are going to wait, it should be in front of our television screens, watching on free television.
It may seem like a bitter pill to swallow for now, but the fact is, the UFC succeeded in no small part because they had no real competition. Bellator does not enjoy that position, so they need to make use of what they do have: SpikeTV.
They could do a lot worse; after all, it was considered a major coup to get the UFC on free television, and that was less than 10 years ago.
Perhaps Bellator can re-imagine another television program that put on some of the greatest fights of its time—The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, which showcased some of the greatest boxing matches to be found on television.
It might not seem as grand as PPV, but it’s gotten them this far; what could be more honest than that?
Bellator 120 featured a sloppy main event between two former champions in Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and “King” Mo Lawal. The bout was hyped up as the biggest grudge match in MMA, but when the cage door was locked and the two squared off, the fight fell…
Bellator 120 featured a sloppy main event between two former champions in Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and “King” Mo Lawal. The bout was hyped up as the biggest grudge match in MMA, but when the cage door was locked and the two squared off, the fight fell short like so many other similarly billed fights.
Lawal would attack with his wrestling. Jackson did a good enough job defending. In the end, “Rampage” would get a narrow nod from the judges in front of his hometown crowd.
While the main event was something of a dud, it was still a rare time when Bellator got the sole attention of the MMA universe. Naturally, fans, fighters and the media took to Twitter to discuss the bouts.
From the get-go, many aired their dissatisfaction regarding the fight itself:
While the fight disappointed, Mo might have contributed to MMA folklore with his post-fight eruption. We’ll see how things pan out with both fighters, and with Bellator as a whole.
Bellator 120 is done, and things basically couldn’t have gone much worse for Bellator. While a night full of upsets is normally a welcome thing for fans and promoters alike, Bellator is not like most promotions.
The UFC can shed a star, or two, o…
Bellator 120 is done, and things basically couldn’t have gone much worse for Bellator. While a night full of upsets is normally a welcome thing for fans and promoters alike, Bellator is not like most promotions.
The UFC can shed a star, or two, or three, or all of them, but it can move on with a product that it can sell reasonably well on its name alone. Bellator, though? It relies on a handful of fighters to produce the numbers for its weekly cards.
Most of that lot were on the card Saturday night, and the promotion’s biggest draw, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, sat atop them all, opposite on-again, off-again rival “King” Mo Lawal. The bout was billed as “the biggest grudge match in MMA,” but like pretty much every other grudge match, the goings-on were methodical, measured and in no way driven by the pure vitriol the tagline would suggest.
Lawal, as you would expect from a former world-class wrestler facing off with somebody who has deteriorating takedown defense skills, looked to get things to the ground early. Sometimes he succeeded, leading to measured pitapat ground-and-pound before seeing Jackson work back to his feet. Sometimes he didn’t, leading to a couple of right hands to the noodle.
In the end, Jackson wound up taking a narrow decision win, earning the right to be introduced as the “Bellator Season 10 Light Heavyweight Tournament Winner” and a title shot against champion Emanuel Newton.
On paper, it’s the perfect scenario for Bellator. Once again, he’s the promotion’s biggest draw, perfectly lined up to become a champion. It’s something Bellator has been looking to arrange for a long while, and the one thing that could conceivably let it consistently draw over one million viewers.
In reality, however, it’s a very, very ugly situation.
While Bellator wants to have Jackson as a champion, Jackson is done with that part of his career. Quite simply, he doesn’t want to be champion.
That isn’t a bad thing in the slightest, mind you. Jackson is content as a veteran with a secure legacy as one of the better fighters in his division’s history. At 35 years old, he is hungry to advance his career in Hollywood, not cagefighting.
It also certainly doesn’t help that he is friends and training partners with Newton and that Jackson doesn’t want to alienate and divide mutual friends by fighting him.
All of Bellator’s carefully laid plans, partially scripted storylines and millions of dollars have run their course. And what is there to show for it?
Bellator‘s list of potential headlining bouts? Incredibly short. Its return on investment from this event? Likely dripping red. Its roster’s overall star power? Lower than ever.
With Jackson, it has a star who caps his own potential. With Lawal, it has a potential soon-to-be-former employee who took every opportunity to take swipes at the promotion Saturday in his post-fight interview.
So what did we learn from this nightmare scenario with Bellator?
That this event, as well as any notion of Jackson’s title contention, was doomed to fail from the start.
Bellator Fighting Championship may have more than 100 shows under its belt, but the promotion took a landmark step on Saturday night at Bellator 120.
The event marked the organization’s first jump into pay-per-view waters, and BFC put together a stacke…
Bellator Fighting Championship may have more than 100 shows under its belt, but the promotion took a landmark step on Saturday night at Bellator 120.
The event marked the organization’s first jump into pay-per-view waters, and BFC put together a stacked lineup that featured talent from every corner of its roster. Nevertheless, the biggest showcase on Saturday night’s card highlighted one of the most intense rivalries in mixed martial arts as Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal stepped into the cage to settle their beef once and for all.
In the lead-up to the fight, the former UFC light heavyweight champion and former Oklahoma State University wrestling standout bumped heads and engaged in various scrapes, but Bellator 120 finally presented the opportunity for the two men to settle things with fisticuffs. In addition to bragging rights being on the line in their main event tilt, the winner of the tussle would earn the chance to face current light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton for the 205-pound strap later in the year.
Both men had plenty to lose and everything to gain on Saturday night, and both men played to their strengths in the fight. Lawal worked his superior wrestling skills early, and Jackson implemented his boxing late. The bout would ultimately go to the judges’ scorecards, where the seasoned veteran took the unanimous decision victory.
While the main event brought the ruckus, another bout on the card also held a fair amount of intrigue leading into Bellator 120.
Former long-reigning UFC light heavyweight champion and MMA legend Tito Ortiz emerged from a 22-month hiatus to make his promotional debut against current middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko at the 205-pound weight limit.
The Russian “Storm” called out the 39-year-old to dance on the organization’s first pay-per-view card, and it was a challenge “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” gladly accepted. Despite going 1-8-1 since 2006, Ortiz was looking for a fresh start under the BFC banner. And that’s exactly what he got.
The MMA pioneer used his massive size advantage to take Shlemenko to the ground, where he locked in a fight-ending head-and-arm choke. The middleweight champion chose to not tap and decided to go out on his shield as Ortiz made a successful Bellator debut and picked up his first win since 2011 in the process.
Let’s take a look at the good, bad and strange from Bellator 120.
The Good
Jackson may have left his previous organization on a bad note, but he has been on a mission to make sure those steps aren’t repeated at his new home in Bellator. Coming into his tilt on Saturday night against Lawal, the Tennessee native had won his first two showings under the Bellator banner and looked impressive doing so.
The main event bout with King Mo was the culmination of a long stretch of trash talk and promotional buildup as Jackson vowed to knock out the former Strikeforce champion in front of the his hometown crowd. While that particular ending wasn’t to be, Jackson did do enough in the eyes of the judges to pick up the victory and claim bragging rights in the grudge match between the two fighters.
In addition to winning the feud and picking up his third consecutive victory, Jackson also earned the opportunity to face Newton later this year for the light heavyweight title. The 35-year-old is easily the biggest draw and name on the Bellator roster and has thus far made the organization’s decision to sign him a positive one.
Big opportunities are few and far between in mixed martial arts, and Will Brooks made the most of his chance on Saturday night. After Eddie Alvarez was forced to withdraw from his bout with Michael Chandler due to injury, Bellator tapped the American Top Team product to step up and face the former champion for the interim lightweight title.
While the 27-year-old Chicago native took the bout on short notice, he looked in top form throughout the 25-minute affair. Chandler had the edge early. He used his pressure and wrestling to keep Brooks on his back as he took the first two rounds and jumped out to an early lead on the judges’ scorecards.
Nevertheless, Brooks stormed back in the third and dominated the former titleholder as he battered Chandler on the feet and pounded when the action hit the canvas. He did more of the same in the fourth round and had solid momentum going into the final round. Both fighters had their moments in the fifth, and it was anyone’s fight when the final bell sounded and the decision went to the judges at cageside.
When the final decision was announced, it was Brooks who took the split decision and became the interim lightweight title. Now, Brooks will be looking to face Alvarez in a unification bout later in the year and continue his impressive run up the 155-pound ranks.
There are few figures in MMA history more polarizing than Ortiz.
The longtime UFC light heavyweight champion was one of the first true stars in the sport and reigned atop the mountain for quite some time. That said, The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’s luck hasn’t been of the good variety for the better part of the past decade as losses, injuries and corrective surgeries have piled up.
When Ortiz signed with Bellator last year, he vowed to make a fresh start. The pressure to deliver on that promise came front and center on Saturday night against Shlemenko. While Ortiz was going to have a tremendous size advantage in the matchup with the middleweight champion, his nearly two-year layoff created a cloud of doubt that hung over his promotional debut.
While elements of doubt lingered, it didn’t take Ortiz long to silence his critics as he submitted “The Storm” in the opening round with a powerful head-and-arm choke. The victory over Shlemenko ensured Ortiz’s first step under the Bellator banner would be a successful one, and it will be interesting to see what his next stop on the comeback trail will be.
***Since he lost the heavyweight strap last November, Alexander Volkov has been on a mission to regain the title. The rangy Russian put together two impressive showings that included a starching head-kick knockout over Mighty Mo to earn a spot in the tournament finals against BlagoyIvanov at Bellator 120. Despite the Bulgarian having a deeper resume in the ground game, Volkov used a slick transition to set up and secure a rear-naked choke that ended the fight. He will now rematch VitalyMinakov and have the opportunity to once again become the Bellator heavyweight champion.
***Michael Page is hands down the hottest young prospect on the Bellator roster, and he put on another show on Saturday night. The British striker used his time on the big stage to put on an entertaining performance as he clowned, then knocked out Ricky Rainey with a clean right hand in the first round of their tilt on the pay-per-view portion of the card. With the victory, the multitime kickboxing champion picked up his sixth consecutive victory and kept his undefeated record intact.
***There is not an arm, leg or neck that is safe when Marcin Held is inside the cage, and Nate Jolly became the latest victim to be added to the Polish lightweight’s list on Saturday night. While the 22-year-old ate a few big shots during the setup, he latched onto Jolly’s arm and locked in a fight-ending armbar to secure the first-round victory. Held will now go on to fight in the lightweight tournament final and carry the momentum of a four-fight winning streak—all by way of finish—into his next showing.
***While he wasn’t able to win the season nine featherweight tournament, Fabricio Guerreiro got himself back into the win column in a big way at Bellator 120. The Brazilian made short work of ShahbulatShamhalaev as he submitted the Dagestan-born fighter with a rear-naked choke in the first round of their tilt on the preliminary portion of the card. With the victory, Guerreiro has now won three of his last four bouts, with his only loss during that stretch coming to Patricio Freire last October.
***GoitiYamauchi has been one of the most talented young Japanese prospects to emerge in quite some time, and the 21-year-old took a strong step toward legitimacy by defeating Mike Richman on Saturday night. The scrappy featherweight outworked “The Marine” to secure the unanimous decision victory and send a message to the rest of the 145-pound division. With the win, Yamauchi has now found success in 12 of his last 13 showings since 2011.
The Bad
With the UFC owning the lion’s share of attention in the MMA sphere, Bellator has to make sure it takes calculated steps when grooming the stars under its banner. In that regard, middleweight champion Shlemenko is one of the top names on the promotion’s roster and has been building a solid amount of buzz in comparison to the rest of the 185-pound fighters in the world.
That was until he showed up at Bellator 120 and entered the cage with Ortiz.
While MMA is a hectic realm filled with curious happenings, the matchup between these two particular fighters made absolutely zero sense. For starters, Ortiz is big for his weight class at 205 and Shlemenko is a small middleweight, so the physical pairing was staggering from the jump. When the Russian striker’s impressive run in his division is taken into account, pitting him against a 39-year-old veteran hoping to forge a comeback makes even less sense.
The best possible scenario for Bellator would have been for Shlemenko to pick up a dominant victory over a name like Ortiz, but the furthest thing from that happened on Saturday night.
As soon as the cage door closed, the size difference between the two men was jarring, and the moment Ortiz put Shlemenko on his back spelled the beginning of the end. A few moments later, Ortiz locked in the head-and-arm choke, Storm went to sleep and every bit of buzz surrounding him exited with his consciousness.
Staying in the realm of “worst possible scenarios,” the lightweight interim title fight between Chandler and Brooks couldn’t have turned out worse for Bellator.
The former University of Missouri wrestling standout is a walking example of the positives that can come out of the organization’s tournament format. Chandler entered the lightweight tournament as an unknown, stormed through, earned a fight with top-ranked Alvarez, beat the champion and became Bellator‘s poster boy in one fell swoop. The Team Alliance fighter was so impressive in that run that CEO Bjorn Rebney declared him the “best 155 pound fighter on the planet.”
While Alvarez winning the rematch was a setback for Bellator‘s Chandler push, it was flipped into a positive when the promotion set up their highly anticipated trilogy bout at Bellator 120. Things in this lane took a huge hit when Alvarez pulled out with an injury as one of the biggest fights on the card fell by the wayside.
Bellator could have pulled Chandler off the card and saved him for when Alvarez was healthy, but the event being its first pay-per-view led it to keep the former strap holder in the lineup and pitted him against American Top Team product Brooks. That decision proved to be the wrong one, as the talented young upstart battled back from a rough first round to take the split-decision victory on the judges’ scorecards and become the lightweight interim champion.
While there is certainly no knock on Brooks taking the title, Bellator couldn’t afford to lose a fighter recognized as one of the elite in the world.
After getting off to a smoking hot start where he won his first 12 showings, Chandler has now been handed defeats in back-to-back outings. Those losses were no doubt controversial, but losses nonetheless. And furthermore to the point, Chandler losing to Brooks puts the proverbial knife in the Chandler vs. Alvarez trilogy fight.
While it typically takes a loss to end up in this category, there was nothing good about Cheick Kongo’s fight at Bellator 120. For starters, the promotion’s heavyweight collective is notorious for its lack of depth, and when the Frenchman came over from the UFC he was figured to make an easy run to the title in the heavyweight fold.
This is a fighter who had solid success against Cain Velasquez, fought Travis Browne to a draw and picked up solid wins during his seven years under the UFC banner. That said, after picking up two easy wins inside the Bellator cage, he was defeated by Minakov back in April and pulled up short of becoming the heavyweight champion and looked to be a shell of the dangerous fighter he was for a very long time.
On Saturday night, he faced an unknown in Eric Smith and was figured to roll over his bulky opponent in the final bout on the preliminary portion of the card.
Yet, Smith dotted the seasoned veteran with a right hand that made Kongo’s legs wobble before putting the 39-year-old on his back. Kongo would eventually get to his feet, finish the round strong, then put Smith away in the second round, but there is little to celebrate about where the Wolfslair-trained fighter is concerned.
The Strange
In the lead-up to Bellator‘s first pay-per-view event there was a lot of talk about the venture being a case of the organization getting in over its head. The UFC’s PPV numbers have been on a down trend over the past two years, and Bellator putting such a large amount of focus on one single card was going to draw a large amount of scrutiny.
The realm of MMA is a ravenous environment and social media was lively in the lead-up to Bellator 120 with talk of how likely the event was to be a failure. That chorus jumped up a few dozen notches last weekend when Sherdog MMA broke the news that Alvarez—one half of the most anticipated bout on the card—was forced to withdraw from his trilogy bout with Chandler due to an injury suffered in training.
Following news of Alvarez dropping out, talk of Bellator pulling the PPV status began to circulate. The promotion was forced to make that exact move when Ortiz was forced out of his fight with Jackson in the organization’s first attempt last year, but Rebney held a phone conference the day after the Alvarez news hit the wire and assured the masses the show would go on as planned.
In addition to low numbers being projected, there was also talk of poor ticket sales in the week leading up to the event. Nevertheless, there appeared to be a solid turnout on fight night, and the media on hand confirmed there was a much stronger fan presence than previously figured.
Live events have the potential to be a minefield with snags waiting around every corner. On Saturday night, Bellator took a bit of egg on its face during a pre-fight interview between Jimmy Smith and headliner Lawal. These interviews are typically stale by nature and are used as a last effort to hitch a few extra pay-per-view buys, but Lawal turned the spot into something else entirely.
The first question Smith volleyed across the wire to the light heavyweight contender was returned with some snap as Lawal accused Rebney of jumping on the bandwagon of his opponent, Jackson, in the lead-up to the fight.
Immediately following Lawal‘s comments, there were technical issues that brought the interview and the discomfort to an end. After a commercial break they would take another crack at the interview, and Lawal reiterated the sentiment that Rebney and Bellator want Jackson to win the fight.
When the former UFC light heavyweight champion eventually did win a unanimous decision, Lawal continued to go at Rebney with ferocity.
While the Lawal interview and post-fight incident were the most notable stumbles during the broadcast, Bellator‘s inaugural journey into the PPV format seemed to affect play-by-play man Smith the most. The veteran commentator is certainly one of the best in the game in the booth, but he had some trouble Saturday night keeping his typically smooth delivery.
Where Smith is usually solid and composed, he stuttered, stumbled and misspoke on several occasions during Bellator 120. That said, not having commercial breaks between rounds and fights to chop up the microphone time can present some interesting challenges, and Smith had a few issues on Saturday.
Smith even attempted to launch a few ill-fated jokes and comparisons that went over like a lead balloon on social media. The Twitter crowd is certainly a tough room, but Smith’s comedic offerings were painful.
Staying in the realm of filling up down time, Bellator pulling in bantamweight champion Joe Warren for an interview proved to be an interesting choice. The self-proclaimed “Baddest Man on the Planet” is as outspoken as they come in the fight game and he used the platform to launch some barbed shots at fellow champion Eduardo Dantas.
The Olympian and the Brazilian were supposed to collide at Bellator 118, but Dantas suffered a head injury and was forced out of the fight. Warren used some choice words to suggest Dantas is running from him and vowed to take it out on him when they do finally meet down the road.
One element that needs to be noted in this category was Bellator putting an interim title into play in the lightweight tilt between Chandler and Brooks. The lightweight title was originally slated to be on the line when the Team Alliance fighter met champion Alvarez, but a injury suffered by the Philadelphia native put that matchup on the burn pile. Bellator tapped Brooks to step in on short notice and a new fight was made.
While there is nothing curious about that turn of events, there was no reason to put an interim title in play other than to have a “title fight” on the pay-per-view. In most situations where an interim strap is introduced, the divisional champion has been out of action for more than a year and the promotion is looking to move things along.
That was hardly the case heading into Bellator 120, and it seemed a suspect move for the organization to throw in that detail at the last moment.
Another detail worth pointing out in this category is the location of the event itself. While it was billed as taking place in Jackson’s hometown of Memphis, the event was actually held at Landers Center, which is located in Southaven, Mississippi. If that isn’t a qualifier for strange, then I just don’t know what is.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report.
Jenna Jameson would rather have seen Tito Ortiz step into the cage with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson than submit a significantly smaller Alexander Shlemenko.