Bellator came to us from the former home of the CFL's Pirates, Shreveport, Louisiana from its Municipal Auditorium Saturday night and while it might be too entirely too early, We could have seen our first "Bellator Moment" of Season 4.
In the main event, Patricky "Pitbull" Friere went in with a heavy heart due to the sudden death of his manager, Ivan Canello, This week in the days leading up, and he used every bit of emotion in the back and forth battle with opponent "Razor" Rob McCullough. After escaping the Friere's rear naked choke attempt in the end of the 1st, McCullough took control in the 2nd with his superior striking, out boxing Friere and leaving the Brazilian scrambling. The 3rd saw more of the same, with McCullough getting effective leg kicks and forcing the Brazilian to try to reply with punches of his own. At just after the 3 minute point of round 3, The man known as Pitbull landed a leg kick and overhand right. After being on the receiving end, McCullough did his best impression of the Rashad Evans "Stanky Leg" being flashed knocked out and Friere finished up with mop up punches.
Afterward, Pitbull paid tribute to his manager, saying "I was very sad at Canello's death, but I know with my victory, he is very proud," through his translator.
In the 3rd Quarterfinal , Toby Imada advanced to the semis due to a technical submission victory over late replacement Josh Shockley. Imada survived an early storm, and while Shockley was able to score a takedown, He was ultimately left open to an Imada Jiu-Jitsu treat with an armbar, and after attempting to slam Imada to the mat, ultimately screamed from what was thought to be an arm snapping, and the referee had no choice but to stop the contest at just 1:19 of the opening round.
The other 2 fights saw undefeated Lloyd "Cupcake" Woodward show he's no Pillsbury turnover with a 2nd round TKO stoppage against Cary Varnier, and that Marcin Held is not a prodigy on par with BJ Penn as he was stopped by an arm triangle against former NCAA Division I wrestler Michael Chandler at just under 4 minutes of round 1.
Honorable Mention (this one's a tie) : Chandler's victory came only after he survived a serious knee lock attempt by the "Polish Prodigy". Though he says he was fine, and he was going to win, judging from Held's other victims, he better get an X-Ray tomorrow because that ankle was wrapped around more than a towel around a wet head.
Put it this way : Held once fought Chute Boxe mainstay Jean Silva, Silva gave up because when he rolled out of it and stood up, he couldn't put any weight on it.
As well, Bellator showed a fight between Waachim Spiritwolf and Jamie Jara from last week's 35 that had some Griffin-Bonnar or Frye-Takayama overtones as both men were absolutely bloody and left it all in the ring, with Spiritwolf taking a split decision. 2 things that can be concluded from this :
a) I must apologize to MTV2. They didn't water it down, in fact they glorified it by showing it right after that main event. Maybe they're easing up on the whole "combat sport" thing.
b) I feel sorry for whomever had to clean that ring up in time for this week's event.
Questions? comments? want to get back to me? hit me up at mmarmaggeddon@gmail.com
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