Category Archives: Review
Bellator 153: Live Review
Refs tonight will be Todd Anderson, Kevin MacDonald, Bryan Miner, and Big John McCarthy
Refresh the article from 6pm until the last bout.
Rnd 1 wow, that was intense. Benson holds his own for most of the 5 min round. At the end though Koreshkov nails him to the cage with a flying knee. Then Henderson is on auto pilot for the last ten seconds.
Rnd 2 and 3 had the same momentum for Koreshkov. In rounds 4 and 5 I felt that Henderson was advancing and getting better in the exchanges. He hacked Koreshkov’s lead leg to a pulpy mess, but it wasn’t enough to get the judges decision. It goes 5 rounds and the score is 50-45 for Koreshkov.
In the second round Coralles was able to control more of the center of the cage, but in the last minute he was off balance and Pitbull jumped guard and locked on a lethal Guillotine Choke forcing the tap at 4:09.
It is quick. This one lasts 30 amazing and action packed seconds. Cyborg submits Ward with a Heel Hook after having his back taken bybthe younger man in the opening moments. The crowd loves it.
This one is an all out war from start to finish. Both men showed tremendous heart and skill. In the end it goes to the judges and two score it 29-28 for Primus sending him home with the split decision victory.
Round 1 starts with serious intensity. Holloway charges Page and Page lays him out with a right hand Holloway is back up instantly. The two wheel around the cage at breakneck speed. Page is a master of misdirection. He waves a hand and strikes with the other. Holloway initiates the clinch and Page knocks him down. Holloway dives on a heel hook, but Page locks on a counter sub of his own. Page submits Holloway with a toehold at 2:15 of the first round. It looked painful.
Round 1 is action packed. Both men are moving around the cage smoothly. Bessette is mixing up the strikes between his fists and his feet. Richardson is mostly boxed out of the center of the ring. He is moving well.
Round 2 is a bloodbath. Matt is finding his range and rhythm. You can see blood on the corners of both of Richardson’s eyes. Matt throws up kick after kicks and splits the left eye wound open even wider. The blood runs from it and down the left cheek un checked. An inadvertent eye from Bessette has stopped time. John MacCarthy calls the doctor in to check the gaping wound. The doctor signals it’s to big and the fight is called at 3:11 due to TKO and Bessette gets another impressive win.
The crowd is on its feet for this one.
3 rounds with little action from Secor. He spends almost every round on the mat under Honeycutt. The judges give it Honeycutt via Unanimous Decision.
Chan with the Rnd 1 KO at 3:09.
Warrior Nation XFA XII: Play by Play updates
***FIGHT CARD SUBJECT TO CHANGE***
155 lbs Austin Schalla (Dexters MMA) vs. Swagath Pillai (Plus One Defense)
Rd 1: They breifly exchange on the feet and battle for the dominate position. They go to the ground and swag controls most of the round on top position showcasing some decent ground and pound.
R2: They clinch up right away. Swag with a nice takedown. The rouends with Schalla on top in back mount landing some vicious ground and pound. Close round.
Rd3: Swag gets the takedown and right back to their feet. Schalla gets the takedown and takes his back for some ground and pound from back mount. Swag sweeps and ends out on top. They scramble. The round ends with swag on top with a little ground and pound.
winner via split decision goes to Swagath Pillai
160 lbs Ray Johns (Thunder MMA) vs. Sam McCue (Thornton Martial Arts)
Rd 1: They go right to the ground and Sam gets the dominate position. He gets Rays back and lands acouple illegal strikes to the spine. Breif break in the fight as he is stripped of one point. They go back to action. The round ends with a takedown by Ray.
Rd 2: They go right to the ground again. Sam ends up on top for the fight to back position. Sam flattens him out and lands several hard unanswered strikes. He slide his arm under Rays chin for the rear naked choke which is sucessful.
Your winner via submission as a result of Rnc is Sam Mccue
155 lbs Tommy Mashrick (Sitmangpong) vs. Bryan Rossi (Sityodtong)
Rd 1: Rossi gets the takedown He gets to knee on belly and lands significant unanswered strikes for the k.o. victory.
Winner by k.o. in rd number 1 is Bryan Rossi at 1:52
175 lbs Tom Brinks (Xtreme Ambition) vs. Kevin Ferguson Jr. (Plus One Defense)
Rd 1: They exchange on the feet. Kevin is definately the more versatile boxer, the son of Kimbo Slice. Kevin gets the better of the exchanges and lands some hard punches for the ko.
Winner in rd 1 via K.o. is Kevin Ferguson
130 lbs Jimmy Tomlinson (Dexters MMA) vs. Johnny Melo (Sityodtong)
Rd 1: Jimmy lands nice leg kicks. Melo clinches and slams the fight to the ground. Johnny lands nice strikes and drops Jimmy to his back. He then lands hard strikes from the top for the ref stoppage.
Winner by tko victory in rd 1 is Johnny Melo.
130 lbs Mike Kimbel (Thunder MMA) vs. Steve Rivera (Thornton Martial Arts)
Rd 1: A quick exchange of punches, Steve lands a hard right to drop him to the mat just to land a few more strikes on the mat for the k.o. A warrior nation mma record time k.o. at 8 seconds in the very first round.
Your winner by k.o. at 8 seconds in rd one is Mike Kimbel
**Co-Main Event**
145 lbs Ali Zebian (Fighting Arts Academy 3-2) vs. Arslan Otchiyev (CT Speed School 2-2-1)
Rd 1: Its a good stand up striking exchange. Both fighters are hungry. Ali appears to be the stronger striker. They exchange punches and kicks. Ali shoots for a takedown and Arslan sinks in a nice standing guillotine choke for the tapout finish.
Winner via submission in round 1 by guillotine Arslan Otchiyev
** Main Event**
125 lb TITLE FIGHT
Jose Lugo (Rivera Athletic Center 2-1) vs. Justin Valentin (Underdog BJJ 3-0)
Rd 1: They clinch up right away, its a battle for position back and forth. the round ends with justin attempting a guillotine choke from his guard.
Rd 2: They clinch again immediately. Justin gets the takedown and ends up on top position. They scramble back to their feet. Brief exchange there. Justin takes him down and the round ends.
Rd 3: They exchange. They go to the ground and Jose controls the pace. Jose take back controls to land some gnp. He looks for the rnc a couple times but Justin defends well. The round ends with Jose dominating the round.
Rd 4: They go right to the ground once again. Jose is landing some good gnp from guard and passes to side control. Its a sick grappling match on the ground folks. Back and forth battle! Justin is on top controlling some now. The round ends.
Rd 5: Justin has a small cut on the nose at the start of the round. They go to the ground and back to the feet several times. what a back and forth battle for the dominate position. They battle for position in the clinch and on the mat. The round ends while Jose is in the dominate position landing a couple strikes in the clinch. This my friends is the FIGHT OF THE NIGHT!
You winner by unanimous decision and 125 lbs Champion Jose Lugo (Rivera athletic center)
Awards:
Fight of the night: Jose Lugo vs. Justin Valentin
K.O. of the night: Kevin Fergusson vs. Tom Brink
Submission of the night: Ali Zebian vs. Arslan Otchiyev
Bellator 81 review
Hey all, it’s The Boss, aka Reep, aka Jeremy. Yesterday, Fri. Nov. 16, myself, and my WMMMA associate, The Artist, aka The Wild Ginger, aka Joe…. jumped in his Jeep and made the trek out to sunny RI, to The Ryan Center at URI, to cover Bellator 81.
We were excited for the great mma action that Bellator is known to deliver, but we were particularly excited to watch some of or favorite local guys get there chance on the “Big Stage”!! Matt The Mangler Bessette, Ruben Rukus Rey, Sloppy Joe Lamoureux, and Brennan The Irish Bad Boy Ward all had match ups on the under card. We left town around 3:35, hoping to make the 6pm start. Unfortunately, we met some pretty thick traffic in a couple areas, and missed the entire under card…Sorry Ruben, we heard you looked really good, and controlled most of the fight with a great reach and jab, big win against a tough Robbie Leroux.
However, thanks to my *Android phone, we were able to watch the entire Matt Bessette vs Paul Barrow fight on Spike.com. We both felt that Matt’s striking looked great throughout the fight. He mixed punch combos, and punch kick combos very well, scoring repeatedly. He controlled allot of the action against the cage, where he mixed some dangerous knees to the body and head doing damage, while trying to secure the take down. Matt bloodied and bruised his opponent, on his way to a unanimous decision victory!! Great fight Mangler!! Way to represent, yourself, your training partners, and your fellow fighters and fans from New England!! Keep doing what you are doing, you look good on the big show!!
Next up was Brennan Ward vs Sam McCoy. The men enter the cage, Sam is in good shape, and well muscled, and Brennan looks like his usual beastly self.. They circle, Sam shoots, Brennan sprawls, and …..my phone freezes, no more 3G ( I can hear CityBoy now,,,) We did find out that that’s mainly what continued to happen, Sam shooting, and getting stuffed by Brennan, only to end up getting KO’d trying yet another time. Brennan looks like a real contender…kid has tons of skill as a wrestler, now he’s proving he’s a real mma fighter as well!! Look out for big things from The Irish Bad Boy!!!!
We also missed the next 3 fights, the third being the Joe Lamoureux fight. Joe is one of our favorite fighters out of SSSF. He’s got a great charachter about him, real funny nice guy, but he likes to get “sloppy” in the cage!! Kid brings the fight every time…This night however, Dan Cramer proved too much, as he KO’d Joe in the first. He hurt Joe with a few big knee’s, then 3 overhand rights, each one harder than the last, to seal the deal. I’m sure Joe will be back to his winning ways real soon, hope you are ok!
At this point, we finally made it to the show, got our great media section seat, and The Artist went to his cage side perch for some sik pictures. Our good friend, and in my opinion the best mma photog around, Zak Lynch from MMAPHOTOGRAPHY.com has shown us some great helpful tips, and I think you will all agree The Artist captured some amazing mma moments tonight!!
Next up was Andrew Callandrlli from Ultimate MMA in CTvs Eric Brown from Ca at 155lbs. Rd1 the fighters circle and engage, Eric looks more relaxed on the feet, and Andrew is a bit boxy and unsettled. He starts to push for the take down, and begins to work his BJJ from the top position. later in the rd, Andrew catches Sam in a deep head and arm choke, but Sam holds out, and escapes before the round end.
In round 2 Andrew gets another take down, into mount. He looks for some ground and pound, as Sam trys to cover, Andrew takes his arm, rips it away, and gets the arm bar submission tap!! Winner Rd 2 Andrew Calandrelli submission, arm bar. I’d like to note, that Calandrelli had The man himself, Notorious Nick Newell in his corner!!
The next fight pitted German fighter Jonas Billstien vs Filthy Perry Filkins out of NH at 185lbs. Rd 1 sees both fighters looking to establish themselves with some boxing. Perry is looking for the big shots, as he’s really loading up! Jonas settles in, and starts to throw some kicks in his combos. Jonas trys for the take down but is stuffed, and Perry is on top to end the round.
Rd 2 both fighters take the center of the cage trading. The crowd is enjoying this one as am I!! They clinch up, and both are looking for take downs. They split, Jonas throws a nice faint, Perry covers up, and Jonas shoots in to score the take down before the round ends.
Rd 3 Once again they take the center of the cage and trade blows. Jonas is showing more damage however, as Perry has landed some good ones. Jonas throws a A. Silva esque front kick that pops Perry in the face. This seems to excite Fillkins as he begins to posture to Jonas as he comes forward eating punches, and delivering some big ones of his own!!Jonas trys for the take down, but Perry reverses, takes mount and rains down some vicious punches and elbows to Jonas’s head and face as the round ends. Winner unanimous decision, Perry Fillkins.
Next up we had Dustin Neace from IN vs Marlon Sandro out of Rio de Janerio Brazil at 145lbs. In his corner, were none other than UFC fighters Glover Texieria and the 145lb Champ Jose’ Aldo!! Rd 1 They engage, and Sandro is throwing HARD!!! Sandro pushes against the cage, gets the take down to top position. Neace spins and trys for a heel hook, but Sandro is patient. He escapes, a scramble ensues, Sandro takes the back, and sinks in the Rear Naked Choke for the victory!! Winner Marlon Sandro rd 1 submission, rear naked choke.
In the light weight tournement semi final we had Ricardo Tirlini from Brazil vs Dave Jansen from OR. Rd 1 starts and both men seem hungry to advance in the tourny! They are exchanging hard, back and forth and again the crowd seems to love it.. 😉 At one point Jansen gets the back of Tirloni he gets position, and gets a suplex. Ricardo rolls and is back to his feet, only to be suplexed again. Back to the feet, and they trade hard as the round ends.
Rd 2 they take the center of the cage and trade with nice combos and each fighter is connecting. The round is close as both fighters mix punches with kicks to score on their opponent. Ricardo looks to do a bit more damage, as Jansen is bleeding from a few cuts on his face.
Rd 3 is more of the same. Both men show great cardio and heart as they press the action. They are very busy and each continue to connect with nice crisp shots. Both fighters are now bleeding from small cuts. Ricardo trys for the take down, but is stuffed. In the scramble Jansen takes his back. He picks him up for another suplex and the round ends the fight. Winner rd 3 by split decision, Dave Jansen.
In the final fight of the evening, we saw the other light weight 155lb tournement semifinal match up between Marcin Held from Poland vs Rich Clementi from LA. Rd 1 They circle and trade punches. Held looks to clinch up quick and drops for a leg lock, which is his specialty!! He grabs Rich’s foot in a deep and painful looking toe hold. Rich defends after a bit of a fight, and they remain on the ground playing the leg lock game. Rich is in Held’s world, but defends very well. They scramble, and Rich grabs Held’s neck for a guillotine attempt. Held defends as the round ends.
Rd 2 Rich comes out swinging, knowing that’s his best shot.They clinch again and Rich gets a nice hip toss into half guard. Held pulls deep half guard, and instantly starts to look for another leg lock. He quickly grabs the foot again for another deep toe hold, and this time Rich has to tap. Winner rd 2 Marcin Held submission, toe hold.
After the submission, Held was elated…he got up and in his excitement, like many other fighters, threw his mouth piece into the crowd. Every time I see that, I think, ” gross…who wants to catch a mouth piece…???” Well, this time, I actually saw where it went. It landed about 10 feet from me in the hands of another guy in the media section. Dude proceeds to hold mouth piece showing it off to his buddies, then proceeds to PUT IT IN HIS MOUTH!!!!!
Even though we missed many of the fights we really wanted to cover, we had a great time. Bellator is a well run show, with allot of great production, and great top talent fighters. They provided a great media section very close to the cage, and The Artist had a sweet cage side perch to get some awesome pics. He was sad that he couldn’t get some of our local guys fighting however… Hope you enjoyed my review, let me know what you think in the comment section below.
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