Bellator XXXIV: Not With a Bang, But a Whimper

(Hector Lombard takes Alexander Shlemenko way out of his game, and Zoila Frausto doesn’t look like a woman who just won a fight. Photos courtesy of our own John Sluder. Full gallery coming soon!)
By ReX “Unnecessary Literary Reference” R…

Hector Lombard Alexander Shlemenko Bellator 34
Zoila Frausto Bellator 34
(Hector Lombard takes Alexander Shlemenko way out of his game, and Zoila Frausto doesn’t look like a woman who just won a fight. Photos courtesy of our own John Sluder. Full gallery coming soon!)

By ReX “Unnecessary Literary Reference” Richardson

Bellator Fighting Championships slouched toward Bethlehem last night, returning to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida for the last show of the third season. Anticipation for this last show has been running high, and Bellator held back some exciting fighters for the finale, trying to put some asses in the seats. The women’s featherweight tournament concluded with monster featherweight Zoila Frausto versus undefeated phenom Megumi Fujii, and middleweight champ Hector Lombard putting his title on the line against eternal scrapper Alexander Shlemenko. Also on the broadcast was Serbian next big thing Dragan Tesanovic — who brought an undefeated record from the European circuit for his first fight in the US — as well as King of the Cage moneyweight Tony Lopez arriving in Bellator, presumably hoping they’ll establish a light heavyweight title for him to collect.

I’m not gonna lie to you: I wish the season had ended last week. Only three fights made the broadcast because decisions were the order of the night. Make that controversial decisions, since fans were already debating what kind of drugs the judges were on before the televised event was finished. Come on in past the jump, and I’ll recap the action for you and possibly bitch about judging a bit. I’m not even going to tease you with anything this time, because that’s just the kind of guy I am.

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Listen to The Bum Rush Radio Show Episode 9 With Members of the Potato Nation and UFC Middleweight Contender Nate Marquardt

Our first interactive edition of The Bum Rush Radio Show went really well yesterday thanks to our loyal readers and listeners who really made the episode.
We’re thinking about doing a live segment for every episode moving forward, so let u…

Our first interactive edition of The Bum Rush Radio Show went really well yesterday thanks to our loyal readers and listeners who really made the episode.

We’re thinking about doing a live segment for every episode moving forward, so let us know what you think about the idea and whether or not you’d all be interested in participating in future shows.

If you didn’t catch Episode 9 live yesterday, we spoke a bit about UFC 121 and the UFC-WEC merger as well as a glut of other topics including how CP came to be. Some of our loyal readers got in on the action sharing their favorite Cage Potato moments and how they stumbled across our little site.

Rounding out the show, we spoke to UFC middleweight contender Nate Marquardt about his UFC 122 opponent Yushin Okami, PEDs, the opinion of some that Team Jackson fighters play it safe and taking Internet trolls to task for real.

Have a listen, give us your suggestions for future episodes and tell us what you like and what you hate about the show.

If you don’t have iTunes (which you really should) and you can’t listen to the live player at the top of the page, you can download the show HERE.

Bellator XXXII: Who Wants to Win a Poster-Sized Check?

(I like how they put "Season #3 Tournament Purses" in the memo line, so that Cole doesn’t get confused when he’s going through his stack of $100,000 novelty-checks at home. PicProps: MMAFrenzy)
By ReX “Write Pride” Richardson
B…

Cole Konrad Bellator heavyweight champion 32 XXXII deathclutch
(I like how they put "Season #3 Tournament Purses" in the memo line, so that Cole doesn’t get confused when he’s going through his stack of $100,000 novelty-checks at home. PicProps: MMAFrenzy)

By ReX “Write Pride” Richardson

Bellator’s third season just came out of the seventh inning stretch, visiting the Kansas City Power & Light District with a couple of championship matches on hand and two more events on the calendar. Unfortunately, you probably missed it due to either incompetence or fuckery most foul; the event was broadcast late, if at all, by every Fox affiliate in the multiverse. On top of that, it appears that the Fox-Dish Network pissing match has gone into perpetual death overtime, so essentially I’m saying that sometimes these things happen in MMA, and I was unable to watch and then come tell you guys about it. Sorry, bro. Since I feel bad about missing the last event (Bellator XXXI.V, at Talking Pines Casino, BFE), I’ve included this drawing of a spider, plus some other stuff after the jump.

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Bellator XXX: Guy on Guy Action!…Wait, What?

By ReX “Charles Bukkake” Richardson

(Bryan Baker putting the stomp on Jeremy Horn and cancer. Photo props Fight!Mag)
Bellator came back around to Louisville, Kentucky last night with a passel of pint sized contestants in the first bantamwe…

By ReX “Charles Bukkake” Richardson

(Bryan Baker putting the stomp on Jeremy Horn and cancer. Photo props Fight!Mag)

Bellator came back around to Louisville, Kentucky last night with a passel of pint sized contestants in the first bantamweight championship field, a middleweight fight featuring Bellator regular Bryan Baker and a man who has somewhere over 9000(!) fights at Moneyweight, and the standard assortment of young up and comers looking to have a breakout performance. Come on in and we’ll find out who’s going to the bantamweight tourney finals, who is bouncing back from serious illness, and who has a juvenile sense of humor.

You know who has the juvenile sense of humor? You do. But we dig that about you. Check it out: through pure coincidence (or epic matchmaking radness), Bellator’s thirtieth show features a card full of fighters with somewhat suggestive nicknames.

Just try to skim the names and not picture them working for Vivid Entertainment. (PS: You just lost the game.) (PPS: I’m sorry Mom, I was raised better than this.)

Ok, then: Fights!

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Bellator Heavyweights and Wisconsin: Not So Boring If You’re Drunk

(Above: ‘Ayyyyyy’ — An expression of combat known worldwide. / Below: Matt Major shows off the design that got him eliminated on last night’s episode of Project Runway.)
By ReX “I H8 FSN” Richardson
Last night, Bellator XXIX went …

Fonzie Milwaukee Bellator statue Fonz Happy Days
(Above:Ayyyyyy‘ — An expression of combat known worldwide. / Below: Matt Major shows off the design that got him eliminated on last night’s episode of Project Runway.)
Matt Major Bellator

By ReX “I H8 FSN” Richardson

Last night, Bellator XXIX went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin (which I believe is a Native American word meaning “Dude, I Think We’re Lost”) and put on the first nationally-televised MMA event ever in the state. Bellator seems to thrive by signing fighters hungry for wins, and has kept the energy up by focusing on the lighter weight classes, so it was a bit of a curveball when a heavyweight tournament was announced. Many questioned if Bellator could pull enough quality heavyweights with the conditioning necessary to put on entertaining fights. Heavyweight fights in the Bellator promotion to this point have been a mixed bag, but we’re starting to see the cream rise so I’m optimistic that some fun stuff happens. A couple of loser-leaves-town matches round out the televised card, featuring some guys who’ve been bounced out of tournaments previously (and want back in), plus they snagged the tubby Guida brother to test the light heavyweight waters.

Come on in and I’ll fill you in on the latest Bellator results and news. I promise I’ll lay off the fat jokes this time.

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Bellator XXVIII: Are You Ready To Ignore Some Football?

By ReX “Go Panthers” Richardson
Well, Bellator rolled up into New Orleans on Thursday night, and there was incoherent speech, attractive women in small outfits, and some dudes got into a few fights. Bjorn Rebney made some interesting d…

Bellator 28 XXVIII Rich Clementi Carey Vanier

By ReX “Go Panthers” Richardson

Well, Bellator rolled up into New Orleans on Thursday night, and there was incoherent speech, attractive women in small outfits, and some dudes got into a few fights. Bjorn Rebney made some interesting decisions for this one, since the show went off simultaneously with the first game of the NFL season, featuring last year’s SuperBowl Champion New Orleans Saints. At home. In New Orleans. This town is firmly behind their football team when they’re losing, and after a few winning seasons, it’s kinda impressive that more than a handful of people showed up at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre. (My guess is they’re either die-hard MMA fans or they hate America.) It’s pretty ballsy to put a card here this week, but Rebney’s father is the goddamn Winnebago Man, so if you don’t agree with him you can just fuck off. Also noteworthy is that there are no tournament bouts on the card, for the first time in 28 shows, but winners here will presumably show up next season in a bracket.

If you don’t mind listening to a play by play to something that went down two days ago, come on in and I’ll tell you about Bellator XXVIII. Special inside: the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu move you must try in bed!

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