Tag: Zelg Galesic

Bellator 71 Recap: Summer Series Kicks off in Devastating Fashion


So close, yet so far away.

If you were at least sort-of interested in last night’s Bellator 71, then you walked away last night satisfied. If you had no interest in the event prior, and just happened to catch the fights that weren’t on FX, you undoubtedly walked away impressed by the action. Not to spoil the recap, but only one fight on the entire card, an undercard bout between Kevin Zalac and Chris Goldbaugh, went the distance. The main card of Bellator 71 more than made up for the anti-climactic finish to Guida vs. Maynard, providing fight fans with quick knockouts and submissions throughout the evening.

If you were expecting Travis Wiuff to steamroll Chris Davis on his way to claiming what is rightfully his, you weren’t surprised – but you also weren’t impressed. Wiuff managed to get the first round knockout, yet he didn’t necessarily excite fans with his performance. The fight was a wall-and-stall heavy performance, with Wiuff overpowering Davis, earning a takedown and then punching out Davis with just under one minute left in the round.

Wiuff’s bullying style isn’t always the most exciting thing to watch, but it’s hard to question its effectiveness. Add on the size advantage that Wiuff has over most opponents – “Diesel” has fought at heavyweight for most of his career – and it’s hard not to imagine him earning a rematch with Christian M’Pumbu by the end of the summer. Wiuff is now 67-14 (1 NC) in his career.


So close, yet so far away.

If you were at least sort-of interested in last night’s Bellator 71, then you walked away last night satisfied. If you had no interest in the event prior, and just happened to catch the fights that weren’t on FX, you undoubtedly walked away impressed by the action. Not to spoil the recap, but only one fight on the entire card, an undercard bout between Kevin Zalac and Chris Goldbaugh, went the distance. The main card of Bellator 71 more than made up for the anti-climactic finish to Guida vs. Maynard, providing fight fans with quick knockouts and submissions throughout the evening.

If you were expecting Travis Wiuff to steamroll Chris Davis on his way to claiming what is rightfully his, you weren’t surprised – but you also weren’t impressed. Wiuff managed to get the first round knockout, yet he didn’t necessarily excite fans with his performance. The fight was a wall-and-stall heavy performance, with Wiuff overpowering Davis, earning a takedown and then punching out Davis with just under one minute left in the round.

Wiuff’s bullying style isn’t always the most exciting thing to watch, but it’s hard to question its effectiveness. Add on the size advantage that Wiuff has over most opponents – ”Diesel” has fought at heavyweight for most of his career – and it’s hard not to imagine him earning a rematch with Christian M’Pumbu by the end of the summer. Wiuff is now 67-14 (1 NC) in his career.

In the co-main event of the evening, Slovakia’s Attila Vegh wasted no time putting away Bellator middleweight tournament veteran Zelg Galesic. Despite earning an early takedown, the Croatian kickboxer wanted to keep this fight standing, aggressively stalking Vegh with hard strikes. However, Vegh dropped Galesic with a brutal counter punch and sunk in a fight ending choke one minute into the opening frame. “Pumukli” improves to 26-4 with the quick, dramatic finish.

Despite being a last-second replacement for Richard Hale, Tim Carpenter managed to defeat Beau Tribolet in convincing fashion. After spending the first round getting the better of Tribolet on the feet, Carpenter locked in an armbar with roughly ten seconds left in the second round. Tim Carpenter looked impressive, as Tribolet rarely seemed comfortable in the cage with him, yet alone in control of the fight. Carpenter improves to 9-1 in his career, with his only loss coming to Christian M’Pumbu.

If you’re looking for a dark horse to win this tournament, “The Hardcore Kid” Emanuel Newton emerged as a legitimate threat. Although he has struggled with consistency, Newton looked great while choking out Cesar Gracie’s own Roy Boughton. Boughton had no answer for Newton’s takedowns, as “The Hardcore Kid” was able to drag Boughton to the canvas seemingly at will. Early in the second round, Newton was able to earn a takedown, take Boughton’s back and sink in the fight ending choke.

One final note, former Strikeforce heavyweight Brett Rogers scored his first victory since 2010 with a doctor’s stoppage over his former teammate Kevin Asplund on the undercard. Yes, the heavyweight who was once considered one of the most dangerous strikers in the division and a measuring stick for Fedor was fighting on the undercard of a Bellator show.

I hate to keep being such a Debbie Downer, but “Da Grim” didn’t exactly look impressive in the victory, either. Kevin Asplund arguably took the first round, save for a powerful uppercut from Rogers that cut him. The second round was also close until the end, where Rogers managed to land a few good punches to a grounded Asplund, which made his eye nearly swell shut, leading to the doctor’s stoppage. Don’t expect Da Grim to dethrone Cole Konrad, is what I’m saying.

Full Results:

Main Card:

Travis Wiuff def. Chris Davis via KO (strikes), 4:12 of Round One
Attila Vegh def. Zelg Galesic via submission (rear-naked choke), 1:00 of Round One
Tim Carpenter def. Beau Tribolet via submission (armbar), 4:51 of Round Two
Emanuel Newton def. Roy Boughton via submission (rear-naked choke), 0:49 of Round Two

Preliminary Card:

Brett Rogers def. Kevin Asplund via TKO (doctor’s stoppage), 5:00 of Round Two
Josh Stansbury def. Dan Spohn via submission (guillotine), 2:30 of Round One
Jason Butcher def. Duane Bastress via submission (triangle), 1:03 of Round One
Neil Johnson def. Brylan Van Artsdalen via submission (rear naked choke), 4:29 of Round Two
Kevin Zalac def Chris Goldbaugh via unanimous decision

Super Fight League 3 Recap: Big Men, A Bigger Ring, And a Pair of Seriously Bruised Testicles

(Thompson vs. Lashley. Come for the nut shots, stay for Phil Baroni’s childlike enthusiasm behind the mic. All praises be to IronForgesIron for the vids.)

You know, maybe it’s due to the fact that our expectations were so low, but other than a few hiccups along the way (one of which involved the most ridiculously over-the-top celebrations you will ever see), Super Fight League’s third event was actually a mildly entertaining affair. Who would’ve thought such a thing would be possible without the graceful presence of Bob Sapp? Although SFL’s production team still needs to get their shit together and stop cutting to random angles from halfway across the stadium, SFL 3 featured more than a fair share of exciting finishes, topped off by an at times groggy but overall solid main event clash between Bobby Lashley and James Thompson.

But before we get to the main event, lets talk about the very first fight of the night: a middleweight throwdown between Dream and Bellator veteran Zelg Galesic and former WEC light heavyweight champion Doug “The Rhino” Marshall, whose mere appearance on the card was enough to bring this “writer” back to the days of yore. Unfortunately for Marshall, the trip down memory lane was cut short by a beautiful flying knee that turned his lights off just 34 seconds into the fight. Nostalgia is a bitch, ain’t it?

That video, along with a video of the most insane post fight celebration in MMA history and more, awaits you after the jump.



(Thompson vs. Lashley. Come for the nut shots, stay for Phil Baroni‘s childlike enthusiasm behind the mic. All praises be to IronForgesIron for the vids.)

You know, maybe it’s due to the fact that our expectations were so low, but other than a few hiccups along the way (one of which involved the most ridiculously over-the-top celebrations you will ever see), Super Fight League’s third event was actually a mildly entertaining affair. Who would’ve thought such a thing would be possible without the graceful presence of Bob Sapp? Although SFL’s production team still needs to get their shit together and stop cutting to random angles from halfway across the stadium, SFL 3 featured more than a fair share of exciting finishes, topped off by an at times groggy but overall solid main event clash between Bobby Lashley and James Thompson.

But before we get to the main event, lets talk about the very first fight of the night: a middleweight throwdown between Dream and Bellator veteran Zelg Galesic and former WEC light heavyweight champion Doug “The Rhino” Marshall, whose mere appearance on the card was enough to bring this “writer” back to the days of yore. Unfortunately for Marshall, the trip down memory lane was cut short by a beautiful flying knee that turned his lights off just 34 seconds into the fight. Nostalgia is a bitch, ain’t it?

Galesic vs. Marshall

If one were to peruse over Trevor Prangley‘s Sherdog profile, they would more than likely file him under the category of “sacrificial lamb” when looking at his past few fights. After being brought in to test the effectiveness of Roger Gracie‘s ground game (as if there was anyone doubting it) at Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg, the South African rounded out his 2011 season with a pair of brutal KO losses to Tatsuya Mizuno (via pants-shitting knee to the body) and Hector Lombard (via Hellstorm of unnecessary punches). Heading into the third round of his fight with Russian armbar specialist Baga Agaev, it looked as if Prangley would coast his way to his first victory since September of 2010. But the AKA product would not be content with a judges decision, and instead opted for a monster right hook that dropped Agaev like a sac of Kholodets. A few unnecessary follow up punches sealed the deal in what must have been a sigh of relief for Prangley, who improves to 24-9 with the victory. We’ve added a video of the third round below.

Now let’s get to the oddest moment of the night, which involved 11-8 Kultar “The Black Mamba” Gill and 1-3 Quinton Arendse. The fight itself, which can be seen here, lasted just under a minute and saw Gill stuff a takedown, secure a trip takedown of his own, and promptly pound his opponent’s head into dust. The fact that these men appeared to be in two entirely different weight classes may have had some determining factor in the fight itself, but it didn’t help that Gill had apparently ingested an entire bottle of Mickey Rooney’s Crazy Pills before stepping into the cage. When interviewed by Phil Baroni in the aftermath of the fight, Gill proceeded to take the mic, deliver a lengthy post-fight call to arms, smash said mic, sprint around the outside of the ring, and smash a camera he managed to pry away from a ringside cameraman. Hopefully the paltry $2,000 Knockout of the Night award he received will be enough to cover the damages, but probably not.

In the night’s main event, muscle-bound freakazoid and former/current(?) WWE superstar Bobby Lashley squared off against an unknown British prospect by the name of James Thompson. Perhaps you’ve heard of him on Twitter, Myspace, or some other form of these “social” networks, no? In either case, the first round started off in rather entertaining fashion, with Lashley unleashing some nice combinations and securing a couple takedowns to boot. A low knee by Thompson would temporarily halt the action with just under a minute to go, and Lashley would take full advantage of the allotted time. Whether or not he was truly recovering from the low blow or simply catching a breather is yet to be determined, but we’ll give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Baroni would not be so kind in the third frame when another low blow by Thompson caused yet another lengthy delay. “Suck it up,” Baroni remarked, which might have been a bit of strategic advice for Lashley’s testicles more than anything else.

The second and third rounds were fought primarily from the clinch, as Lashley’s hands began to drop lower and lower with each passing minute, an unfortunate side effect of combining Popeye’s muscles with Bluto’s gas tank. As Baroni and friends pointed out from ringside, it seemed that Lashley’s tendency to resort back to his wrestling roots, even when he had Thompson rocked, that could have cost him a TKO victory. But despite what we were being told about Thompson and Lashley’s “incredible” cardio, both men were clearly zonked by the third frame, resorting to clinch work and the occasional combination to round things out. Thompson’s octagon (or rather, circle) control and aggression seemed to be enough to warrant a victory in the judges eyes, earning him his first two-fight win streak since December of 2005. Lashley, on the other hand, falls to 7-2 as a professional.

Full results from SFL 3 are below:

James Thompson def. Bobby Lashley by Unanimous Decision (29-28,29-28,29-28)
Joanne Calderwood def. Lena Ovchynnikova by Unanimous Decision (30-26,30-26,30-26)
Anup Kumar def. Chatmongkhon Simma by TKO (punches) at 4:55 of Round 1
Kultar Gill def. Quinton Arendse by KO (punches) at :51 of Round 1
Trevor Prangley defeats Baga Agaev by TKO (punches) at 2:03 of Round 3
Lakwinder Sekhon def. Vladimir Biandov by TKO at 5:00 of Round 2
Gurdarshan Mangat def. Si Cong Liu by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:37 of Round 2
Zelg Galesic def. Doug Marshall by KO (flying knee) at :34 of Round 1

–J. Jones

Bellator 50: With A Name Like “Hollywood”, How Can the Crowd Not Be Jerks?

“Man, I just can’t tell you how much stronger I feel since I got my leukocyte count under control, you know?  I feel like I could do this all day!”  PicProps:  Keith Mills for Sherdog

Since we all know that you didn’t watch Bellator last night, how about a recap?  Come on inside for accounts of the event, plus videos of the middleweight tournament bouts, courtesy of Zee2TehPee and ArnForgesArn.com — massive props to those guys.  Boo boo on the crowd in Hollywood, Florida, which seemed just a little too quick to rain down boos on a good night of fights.  Come on inside and I’ll tell you all about it.

“Man, I just can’t tell you how much stronger I feel since I got my leukocyte count under control, you know?  I feel like I could do this all day!”  PicProps:  Keith Mills for Sherdog

Since we all know that you didn’t watch Bellator last night, how about a recap?  Come on inside for accounts of the event, plus videos of the middleweight tournament bouts, courtesy of Zee2TehPee and ArnForgesArn.com – massive props to those guys.  Boo boo on the crowd in Hollywood, Florida, which seemed just a little too quick to rain down boos on a good night of fights.  Come on inside and I’ll tell you all about it.

Victor O’Donnell vs Brian Rogers

Man, Victor O’Donnell looks like the little brother of Bronan the Barbarian. Ok, there was a bit of a stoppage controversy on this one, kids, but it’s the kind where you kind of feel bad for everyone involved. Brian Rogers has a streak going of putting a quick smashing on his opponents, so when he wobbles O’Donnell with a headkick and a flurry of hooks, then follows him to the canvas with hammerfists, you can’t really blame referee Troy Waugh for diving it to stop it.  Unfortunately, O’Donnell still has plenty of fight left in him, since he was busy establishing guard and wrist control when Waugh waves it off.  Brian “The Predator” Rogers scores another TKO victory (referee stoppage due to strikes) at 1:56 in the first, but the crowd turns on him, booing the stoppage.  Rogers, who comes off as an extremely nice guy, goes full-on heel with them in the interview.  Very strange fight.

Sam Alvey vs Vitor Vianna

Speaking of strange fights, there’s this.  Sam Alvey has his model girlfriend in his corner, gloves on and everything.  Vitor Vianna has BJJ championships like Joe Johnson has shoes, but he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to take Alvey down and introduce us all to the Portuguese Pretzel Choke.  So they stay standing, but neither fighter shows much in the way of killer instinct, and 90% of the action is in the last two minutes of the fight. Alvey moves forward most of the fight, defends takedowns well, and scores some damage on Vianna, but Alvey winds up losing a split decision (29-28 x 2, 28-29).  The crowd turns on Vianna as well, who seems to have learned English from Wanderlei, if nothing else.  Poor fella.  Vianna promises better next time, and I hope so.

Bryan Baker vs Jared Hess

The Battle of Dudes Fresh Off of Expensive Surgeries was going to be a lose-lose for me, because I like both of them. Both Baker and Hess had tune-up fights for the tournament, but this would be their first real competition, and it turned out to be a fantastic fight: a really technical grappling exchange with a good tempo. Hess did not look like his pre-surgery self — the limitless gas tank that helped him grind through opponents started to run out by the end of the first, he made quite a few technical errors on the ground, and he did look wobbly and awkward on his feet through the second and third. True to form, though, Hess never quit. The referee stopped the fight because Baker had him back mounted, hooks in, fully extended and dropping big hooks to his cranium region. (Oh, and Baker’s wife still wails like a banshee in the crowd the entire damn fight, and this time she had back-up.) Bryan Baker defeats Jared Hess by TKO (referee stoppage due to ground and pound) at 2:52 of round 3.

Zelg Galesic vs Alexander Shlemenko

Alexander Shlemenko lied to our faces … and I have new respect for him. The Russian whirlwind has expressed open disdain for submission grappling on the ground pretty much anytime someone comes near him with a camera and a translator, and he chases knockouts . Then he comes out to fight Croatian kickboxer Zelg Galesic and goes for a clinch like he’s a heat seeking judo missile. It took less than two minutes for Shlemenko to secure a nasty standing guillotine/neck crank that was right up there with Dan Miller’s. Props to Shlemenko for actually working to improve and roundout his skill set, plus more props for playing it close to the vest. More props on top of that for that monster submission. The big knock against The Storm has been that he was one-dimensional and anyone with some high school wrestling could take him down. If Shlemenko can bring his wrestling and submission defense up to par, suddenly that crazy striking style of his becomes a whole lot scarier. Alexander Shlemenko defeats Zelg Galesic via Submission (Standing Guillotine/Neck Crank) at 1:55 of round 1.

Spike.com Card

Brett Cooper defeats Valdir Araujo via TKO (punches) at 0:35 of round 3.

Radley Martinez defeats Brian van Hoven via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3).

Ailton Barbosa defeats Ryan Keenan via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:55 of round 1.

Christian Souza defeats John Kelly via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3).

J.P. Reese defeats Martin Brown via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3).

Marcelo Goncalves defeats Dietter Navarro via submission (armbar) at 2:01 of round 1.

Shah Babonis defeats Marcos de Matta via KO (punch) at 2:04 of round 3.

[RX]

Bellator Season 5 Preview: Once More, With Feeling

Remember: *this* is the guy that the middleweights are competing to fight. Hector Lombard knocked Vitale down twice with one punch. VidProps: BellatorMMA/YouTube

So anybody notice that I mentioned Bellator yesterday?  You did?   And you didn’t comment about how splendiferous Bellator is, and how much you like watching the fights, and in general how witty and good looking we are here at CagePotato?
Well that’s just rude.  I’m inclined to not even bother running down the other two tourneys planned for this season.  Really, it’s like you don’t care.

Oh, alright.  Come on in and we’ll have coffee and talk.  But no staying over.

Remember: *this* is the guy that the middleweights are competing to fight. Hector Lombard knocked Vitale down twice with one punch. VidProps: BellatorMMA/YouTube

So anybody notice that I mentioned Bellator yesterday?  You did?   And you didn’t comment about how splendiferous Bellator is, and how much you like watching the fights, and in general how witty and good looking we are here at CagePotato?
Well that’s just rude.  I’m inclined to not even bother running down the other two tourneys planned for this season.  Really, it’s like you don’t care.

Oh, alright.  Come on in and we’ll have coffee and talk.  But no staying over.

We covered the bantamweight and welterweight tournament lineups yesterday, but Bellator’s fifth season will also feature fighters in the middleweight and heavyweight divisions, with some returning contenders and some fresh faces.

 

Middleweight

When Jared Hess ruined his knee fighting Alexander Shlemenko, he had to go through hours of grueling physical therapy.  Not to be outdone, I spent a few hours in therapy myself, because that shit was disturbing.  And when he returned to fighting at Bellator 42 against Chris Bell, I made one of the funniest jokes I’ve ever written (to me, at least):  “Jared Hess is so tough that the production crew played Anita Ward as Chris Bell’s entrance music.”

Hess faces another Bellator favorite, Bryan Baker, who is kinda tough himself: dude was fighting in Bellator tournaments while going through chemotherapy treatments and still almost won the whole damn thing.  He returned at Bellator 43, knocked out Joe Riggs, and then proposed to his girlfriend on television. Basically, whoever wins this fight gets a hole punched in his “Certified Badass” card.

Alexander Shlemenko returns as well after unsuccessfully challenging Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard, and meets DREAM veteran Zelg Galesic in the quarterfinals.  Galesic dropped two submission losses in DREAM (to Kazushi Sakuraba and Ronaldo Souza) before rebounding with a KO win over some poor English chap named Lee Chadwick.

Vitor Vianna makes his Bellator debut against “Smilin’” Sam Alvey, who picked up a split decision win over Karl Amoussou in a tournament qualifier in May.  Vianna, who trains in Vegas with the Wand Fight Team, is 10-1-1, with his only loss due to an injury TKO (broken arm) against Thiago Silva.

Brian “The Predator” Rogers and Victor O’Donnell round out the 185 brackets.  O’Donnell almost made it into the TUF house during the eleventh season (Ortiz vs Liddell), but was outpointed by Chris Camozzi.  You may remember that Camozzi didn’t make it through the season either… because O’Donnell broke his jaw. Rogers enters the tournament on a hot streak, having defeated his last six opponents via KO or TKO in the first round.  So look for these two guys to hit each other a lot.

Bryan Baker vs Jared Hess
Alexander Shlemenko vs Zelg Galesic
Vitor Vianna vs Sam Alvey
Brian Rogers vs Victor O’Donnell

Heavyweight

Looks like Bellator is going to try to find some more big men to challenge Cole Konrad, the man-mountain that I never say nice things about.  I should really stop that.  Here goes:  Cole Konrad does really nice interviews.  He seems like a really decent fella.

Ok, on to the tournament….

Neil “Goliath” Grove and Mike “300″ Hayes both participated in the first heavyweight tourney in season 3: Grove lost in the finals to Konrad, and Hayes dropped a split decision to Alexey Oleinik. Grove is a big dude and has a nasty habit of knocking his opponents out (all eleven of his wins came out of his fists), but Hayes has never been finished.  First time for eveything?  I think Goliath has got this one.

Ron “The Monster” Sparks joins the fray, currently 7-0 and ready for a step up in competition. I am a bit amused that Jonathan Ivey took him to decision, but I guess everyone has a bad night, right? Sparks will face Mark Holata, a regional fighter who is 2-0 under the Bellator banner, including a submission (due to strikes) win over Tracy Willis in April.

Blagoi Ivanov is a Bulgarian Sambo specialist, and you should really be excited about seeing him. While still barely into his MMA career, Ivanov holds a win over Kazuyuki “Ironhead” Fujita — a fight in which Ivanov broke both his hands. (Hey, they don’t call him “Ironhead” for nothin’.) Oh, and he also won the 2008 World Sambo Championships, defeating a Russian guy by the name of Fedor Emelianenko in the semifinals. He’ll face Thiago “Big Monster” Silva, a heavy-handed BJJ black belt who has been out for a year due to unrevealed injuries.

Abe Wagner, another guy that got bounced out of the TUF house (he lost a decision to Jon Madsen), has had mixed results lately. After a quick win over a grossly out of shape Tim Sylvia, Wagner was submitted by Aaron Rosa, then got back in the win column with a submission win of his own. Now 10-4, Wagner meets Eric Prindle in the quarters. Prindle, a US Army vet, has a submission win on his record, but don’t let that fool you: the other guy tapped to strikes. Not that he’s not learning some subs — Prindle is currently training at Team DeathClutch with guys like Rodrigo Medeiros and Erik Paulson.

Neil Grove vs Mike Hayes
Mark Holata vs Ron Sparks
Blagoi Ivanov vs Thiago Santos
Eric Prindle vs Abe Wagner

Now, comment, you bastards.

 

 

Oh, and have a safe and happy weekend.

 

 

[RX]

PS  Don’t forget about ONE.