Bellator 38 recap.

This probably sounds a little too cliche, but another week....and another Bellator moment.

Coming to us from Harrah's in Tunica, Mississippi we got our first look at the participants in the promotions inaugural 205 lb. tournament. In it, we were treated to 4 great fights, 3 finishes and a finish reminiscent of a certain lightweight fight from the promotions first season.

The main event, had Tim Carpenter defeating Daniel Gracie by a 3 round decision. The fight was back and forth, but Carpenters numerous submission attempts and controlling standup gave him the edge, and he was able to get the victory via split decision, with 2 judges giving him the fight by a 29-28 margin.

Other winners included DJ Linderman defeating Raphael Davis by 3rd round TKO, and Christian M'Pumbu winning his fight by 3rd round TKO after being dominated for the first 2 rounds.

That however, was nothing compared to the tilt between Rick Hale and former division 1 wrestler and Xtreme Couture Las Vegas wrestling coach, Nik Fekete. After going for a takedown, the man known as "Rare Breed" certainly earned his nickname by securing triangle position on Fekete. From there, Fekete did his best to scramble, only to stand up and be locked in a inverted triangle choke, reminiscent of Toby Imada vs Jorge Masvidal in Season 1. Fekete could no longer carry the former boxer Hale, and dropped to the mat, forcing referee Josh Herzog to stop the contest at just 1:55 of round 1.

Honorable Mention : Herzog might have been the referee in charge of the majority of the main card fights, but the fight between Linderman and Davis should have been stopped sooner. Davis took 3-5 more shots than he needed too, and he was so gassed after a early 3rd round low blow that Herzog gave him more time. This was right after the first fight of the night, where Herzog pointed out that Chris Davis took a huge shot from the Frenchman M'Pumbu that left him stiff. In one night, he went from being Herb Dean to Steve Mazzagatti in the span of 3 fights.

Numbers from last weeks Bellator came in & they were significantly down from the season's second week : just 174,000 compared to 230,000 the week before.
Note to Bjorn Rebney : UFC is king. Going head to head kills your product. Get with it.

Tune in next week for the first half of the Welterweight semi-finals with Lyman Good, as well as the World Lightweight title fight between kingpin Eddie Alvarez and season 2 tournament winner Pat Curran.

Until next time, fight fans.