Bellator 127 was arguably the weakest card on paper of the season so far. Still, it had some decent fights on it and some good action. For a free fight card, it was certainly worth the watch.
Of note on the prelims, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou defeated an overmatched jobber in Malik Merad. Here’s a GIF of the finish (this GIF and others in the post via Zombie Prophet/Fansided):
Bellator 127 was arguably the weakest card on paper of the season so far. Still, it had some decent fights on it and some good action. For a free fight card, it was certainly worth the watch.
Of note on the prelims, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou defeated an overmatched jobber in Malik Merad. Here’s a GIF of the finish (this GIF and others in the post via Zombie Prophet/Fansided):
In the main card opener, Christian M’Pumbu faced Kendall Grove. This was M’Pumbu’s first fight at middleweight and it went poorly. The first round was five minutes of wall-and-stall for the most part. In the second, Grove managed to get M’Pumbu’s back during a quick scramble and sunk in a rear naked choke.
The next match featured Rafael Silva against Rob Emerson. Silva laid and prayed his way to a decision win. There was nothing notable or impressive about this fight save for Emerson’s uncanny resemblance to Doug Marshall.
Karo Parisyan met Fernando Gonzalez in the co-main event. This fight wasn’t competitive. Gonzalez hurt a sluggish Parisyan early with a hook and then landed some brutal follow-up ground and pound over the course of the next minute to put Parisyan away.
Then came the main event. Justin Wilcox fought Daniel Straus. This one didn’t last long. Straus clipped Wilcox early with a left hand, face-planting him. After a few more punches, the fight was called.
Here are the complete results:
Main Card
Daniel Straus def. Justin Wilcox via KO (punches), round 1, 0:50.
Fernando Gonzalez def. Karo Parisyan via TKO (punches), round 1, 1:43.
Rafael Silva def. Rob Emerson via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Kendall Grove def. Christian M’Pumbu via submission (rear naked choke), round 2, 4:14.
Preliminary Card
Ray Sloan def. Nick Moghaddam via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x2)
Saad Awad def. Sergio Rios via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27 x 2)
Thierry Sokoudjou def. Malik Merad via TKO, round 2, 4:04.
Keith Berry def. Joe Pacheco via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Ricky Rainey def. Johnny Cisneros via KO, first round, 3:18.
Justin Baesman def. Johnny Mercurio via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).
(Finally, we can use the terms “hot prospect” and “Bellator” in the same sentence without being sarcastic. / Photo via Sherdog)
At 19-and-a-half years old, Julio Cesar Neves Junior is off to the fastest start in MMA history. In just two years of professional competition, the Brazilian featherweight prodigy has compiled a 28-0 record, with 25 wins by stoppage. “Morceguinho” has already blown past the career-opening win streaks posted by Megumi Fujii (who won her first 22 fights) and Khabib Nurmagomedov (who’s won 21 and counting), and he’s within arm’s reach of the 32-fight win streak that Igor Vovchanchyn earned from 1996-1999 — to date the longest MMA win streak unbroken by draws or no-contests.
We first introduced you to Neves back in August, when he picked up his 26th win by Capoeira cartwheel-kicking the shit out of Dener Dos Santos. “We have a feeling this one will get him noticed by the big leagues,” we wrote…and indeed it has. MMAFighting informs us that Neves has just signed a contract with Bellator, and will make his promotional debut at an event to be named later.
Alright, so maybe Bellator isn’t the biggest of big leagues, but it’s a hell of an opportunity for a teenager from Santa Catarina. According to MMAFighting, Neves is the younger brother of Rafael “Morcego” Silva, who won Bellator’s 2013 Summer Series Bantamweight Tournament this year, and is riding an impressive 13-fight win streak himself. Can the Morcego/guinho brothers become the next Pitbull brothers? And how much longer will Neves’s win streak last now that he’ll be facing a higher level of competition?
(Finally, we can use the terms “hot prospect” and “Bellator” in the same sentence without being sarcastic. / Photo via Sherdog)
At 19-and-a-half years old, Julio Cesar Neves Junior is off to the fastest start in MMA history. In just two years of professional competition, the Brazilian featherweight prodigy has compiled a 28-0 record, with 25 wins by stoppage. “Morceguinho” has already blown past the career-opening win streaks posted by Megumi Fujii (who won her first 22 fights) and Khabib Nurmagomedov (who’s won 21 and counting), and he’s within arm’s reach of the 32-fight win streak that Igor Vovchanchyn earned from 1996-1999 — to date the longest MMA win streak unbroken by draws or no-contests.
We first introduced you to Neves back in August, when he picked up his 26th win by Capoeira cartwheel-kicking the shit out of Dener Dos Santos. “We have a feeling this one will get him noticed by the big leagues,” we wrote…and indeed it has. MMAFighting informs us that Neves has just signed a contract with Bellator, and will make his promotional debut at an event to be named later.
Alright, so maybe Bellator isn’t the biggest of big leagues, but it’s a hell of an opportunity for a teenager from Santa Catarina. According to MMAFighting, Neves is the younger brother of Rafael “Morcego” Silva, who won Bellator’s 2013 Summer Series Bantamweight Tournament this year, and is riding an impressive 13-fight win streak himself. Can the Morcego/guinho brothers become the next Pitbull brothers? And how much longer will Neves’s win streak last now that he’ll be facing a higher level of competition?
(Cheick Kongo relaxing before his fight, presumably listening to high-quality audio of groin shots. / Screen-cap via Chris Nelson)
After nine years in the UFC, Cheick Kongo found himself fighting for another promotion last night. The French heavyweight probably found the experience a little disconcerting, and yet entirely familiar. The cage was there, there was a man inside it, and he was tasked with disposing of him. Yet there is something less about the entire experience for a fighter competing in a lower-tier organization, deprived of the possibility of reaching the glory he once sought. For Kongo and fellow UFC cast-off Lavar Johnson, Friday’s Bellator 102 event in Visalia, California, was the beginning of the end of the road. Both are fighters on the way down, fighting not for what they once strove for, but simply because this is what they know how to do. It’s rarely a road that ends well. All they can hope for is to reclaim the one thing that doesn’t change — the euphoria of victory. Because if you can’t get that, what’s the point anymore?
Kongo was, at least, able to make the best of his opportunity against Mark “The Hand of” Godbeer. His most formidable challenge on the night came from his pre-fight water bottle. Unfortunately, Godbeer wasn’t capable of offering such a test. If there’s one thing Kongo is known for, it’s probably his knee strikes. If there’s another thing he’s known for, it’s probably that those knee strikes tend to find his opponent’s testicles a little too often. Fortunately for almost everyone involved, Kongo managed to keep himself in Cheick tonight. (I’m so sorry.) He battered Godbeer with knees from the clinch throughout the fight, and finished him in the second round with a monster right knee followed by an uppercut against the fence. Able to stave off the reaper for another few months, Kongo advances into the next round of Bellator’s heavyweight tournament.
The same can’t be said for Lavar “Big” Johnson. Cast aside from the UFC for failing a drug test — to say nothing of possessing one of the least imaginative nicknames in a sport rife with them — Johnson was essentially fed his opponent Vinicius “Spartan” Queiroz in his Bellator debut upon returning from his suspension. The expectation was that Johnson, a one-dimensional heavy-hitter, would have no problem dispatching Queiroz in a spectacularly violent fashion. Queiroz, it was reasoned, could offer trouble on the ground, but the fight wouldn’t last long enough to get there. If you’re familiar with ironic foreshadowing, you’ve probably figured out what happens next.
(Cheick Kongo relaxing before his fight, presumably listening to high-quality audio of groin shots. / Screen-cap via Chris Nelson)
After nine years in the UFC, Cheick Kongo found himself fighting for another promotion last night. The French heavyweight probably found the experience a little disconcerting, and yet entirely familiar. The cage was there, there was a man inside it, and he was tasked with disposing of him. Yet there is something less about the entire experience for a fighter competing in a lower-tier organization, deprived of the possibility of reaching the glory he once sought. For Kongo and fellow UFC cast-off Lavar Johnson, Friday’s Bellator 102 event in Visalia, California, was the beginning of the end of the road. Both are fighters on the way down, fighting not for what they once strove for, but simply because this is what they know how to do. It’s rarely a road that ends well. All they can hope for is to reclaim the one thing that doesn’t change — the euphoria of victory. Because if you can’t get that, what’s the point anymore?
Kongo was, at least, able to make the best of his opportunity against Mark “The Hand of” Godbeer. His most formidable challenge on the night came from his pre-fight water bottle. Unfortunately, Godbeer wasn’t capable of offering such a test. If there’s one thing Kongo is known for, it’s probably his knee strikes. If there’s another thing he’s known for, it’s probably that those knee strikes tend to find his opponent’s testicles a little too often. Fortunately for almost everyone involved, Kongo managed to keep himself in Cheick tonight. (I’m so sorry.) He battered Godbeer with knees from the clinch throughout the fight, and finished him in the second round with a monster right knee followed by an uppercut against the fence. Able to stave off the reaper for another few months, Kongo advances into the next round of Bellator’s heavyweight tournament.
The same can’t be said for Lavar “Big” Johnson. Cast aside from the UFC for failing a drug test — to say nothing of possessing one of the least imaginative nicknames in a sport rife with them — Johnson was essentially fed his opponent Vinicius “Spartan” Queiroz in his Bellator debut upon returning from his suspension. The expectation was that Johnson, a one-dimensional heavy-hitter, would have no problem dispatching Queiroz in a spectacularly violent fashion. Queiroz, it was reasoned, could offer trouble on the ground, but the fight wouldn’t last long enough to get there. If you’re familiar with ironic foreshadowing, you’ve probably figured out what happens next.
The fight started and Queiroz fired a counter-right over Johnson’s lazy hook that staggered Johnson, who attempted to recover only to faceplant on the mat. Whatever hope Johnson had of a career recovery was snuffed out in 23 seconds. Meanwhile, Queiroz received the satisfaction of proving his doubters wrong, and can now look forward to a modicum of respect. Though he’ll probably get knocked out when he faces Kongo. Oh well.
If this recap sounds a little depressing or pessimistic, that’s what happens when your primary talent for a card consists of aging fighters who have recently been released by the UFC. Bellator has solid, younger fighters; the fight between Brennan Ward and Joe Pacheco was a good fight while it lasted, as Ward secured the victory with a modified guillotine. Rafael Silva looked impressive as he earned a title shot with a unanimous decision victory over Anthony Leone. Bellator, however, put all of its promotional stock in fighters whose stocks are on the decline. Even Kongo’s victory is but a halt in his inexorable descent. By tying their image to fighters like him, it only serves to reinforce the perception that Bellator is being led down the same road they are. Maybe it will work for now. But inevitably it won’t end well.
Full Bellator 102 Results
MAIN CARD
– Cheick Kongo def. Mark Godbeer via TKO, 2:04 of round 2
– Vinicius Spartan def. Lavar Johnson via KO, 0:23 of round 1
– Rafael Silva def. Anthony Leone via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Mikkel Parlo def. Jason Butcher via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x 2)
– Brennan Ward def. Joe Pacheco via submission (guillotine choke), 2:41 of round 2
PRELIMINARY CARD
– Scott Cleve def. Isaac de Jesus via TKO, 3:14 of round 2
– Javy Ayala def. Thiago Santos via KO, 5:00 of round 1
– Brandon Girtz def. Poppies Martinez via submission (armbar), 1:20 of round 1
– Stephen Martinez def. Bryan Travers via technical submission (guillotine choke), 0:56 of round 1
– Cain Carrizosa def. Juan Quesada via submission (triangle choke), 4:41 of round 2
– Brandon Cash def. William Richey via TKO (exhaustion), 5:00 of round 2
