- LobsterMobster
- Oct 29, 2009
-
"I was being quiet and trying to be a good boy but he dialed the right combination to open the throw-down vault and it was on."
"Walter Foxx is ten times brighter than your bulb at the bottom of the tree merry xmas"
|
Hey! It's the weekend. Let's kick things off with some Bellator Action. Prelims start in about 20 minutes here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsdXkTJQlPA
once again, i come in after carl's good breakdown with a bad  b league preview
Bellator 289 - Friday, December 9
Main Card - 9PM ET, ShowTime
Interim Bantamweight Title and Bantamweight Gran Prix (Semi-Final) - Raufeon “Supa” Stots vs Danny “The Italian Gangster” Sabatello
Stots is 18-1 with 4 TKO and 4 submission wins. His lone loss came in 2017, a 15-second knockout via spinning backfist against Merab Dvalishvilil on the regional scene. He’s rattled off 10 straight since then, including going 6-0 in Bellator. He captured the interim title in the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix via third round head kick KO on Juan Archuleta in April.
Sabatello is 13-1, with 3 TKO and 4 submission wins. His lone loss came against Irwin “Please Remember to Get Some Sleep so You Don’t Attempt to Murder Your Family Members” Rivera via fourth round TKO in Titan FC in 2019. He’s won 7 in a row since then, including his 3 Bellator bouts.
Bellator has tried many, many times to find Their Guy. Usually, Their Guy is a flawed imitation of UFC’s Guy, like Michael Page and James Gallagher being Bellator Guys for Conor McGregor (Brash, from across the Atlantic, for MVP - a deadly counter striker, for Gallagher - a dumb chest tattoo). Now it feels like Bellator is trying again with Sabatello as Their Guy. He’s a loudmouth American with ridiculous dyed hair. He’s the Sean O’Malley we have at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. For these crimes, I must wholeheartedly endorse Raufeon Stots for devastating victory.
Flyweight Title - Liz “Girl-Rilla” Carmouche vs Juliana Velasquez
Carmouche is 17-7 with 8 TKO and 3 submission wins. She’s putting the finishing touches on her 12th year of pro MMA competition. She’s got a win over Valentina Shevchenko in both womens’ early days. She went 2-2 in StrikeForce, 2-0 in Invicta, 5-5 in UFC, and is now 4-0 in Bellator. She captured the Flyweight title in April with a crucifix TKO.
Velasquez is 12-1, with 4 TKO and 1 submission wins. She’s 7-1 in Bellator, her lone loss coming to Carmouche in April. As evidenced by her lack of nickname, Velasquez has nothing interesting about her at all.
Look, we can all be honest. Carmouche’s stoppage win was kind of weak. Would 13 more seconds to end the round have been devastating for Velasquez to take? It seems unlikely, but maybe hearing the 10-second clapper would have spurred Liz on to drop more forceful elbows.
Bantamweight Grand Prix (Semi-Final) - Magomed “Tiger” Magomedov vs Patchy “No Love” Mix
Magomedov is 19-2, boasting 4 TKO and 9 submission wins. He split a pair of bouts against Petr Yan on the Russian regional scene in 2016 - 2017. He’s 3-1 in Bellator, having lost to Raufeon Stots in 2021, but rebounding with a win by 4th round guillotine choke over Enrique Barzola in June in the Grand Prix.
Mix is 16-1 with 1 TKO and 11 submission wins. He’s 5-1 in Bellator, losing to Juan Archuleta for the then-vacant Bantamweight title. He’s now on a 3-fight win streak, including a huge upset win over Kyoji Horiguchi in the Grand Prix.
We’ve got two accomplished grapplers going at it. Magomedov, unsurprisingly, is a classic Dagestan Man, who utilizes various brutal means with which to Smesh opponents. Mix does have a wrestling background, but he’s very good at becoming a Jansport made of flesh as he takes backs and strangles his opponents. Normally, I’d say this would be a tepid kickboxing contest. However, a DagMan, especially with two Magomeds in his name, has no fear of another man’s ground game, so expect some wild scrambles in this one.
Middleweight - Dalton “Hercules” Rosta vs Anthony “Sugafoot” Adams
Rosta is 7-0 with 4 TKO wins. All of his pro fights have taken place inside the Bellator Circlegon.
Adams is 9-2 with 1 TKO win. Since 2019, he’s had 3 bouts actually take place, with another 9 scheduled that never happened. He’s on a one fight win streak, having dropped his previous bout to Impa Kasanganay on the Contender Series in 2020.
Rosta is far more active, so assuming Adams makes it to the cage, I think Dalton wins this one.
Prelims - 5:25 PM ET, YouTube
Flyweight - Denise “Miss Dynamite” Kielholtz vs Ilara “Arya Stark” Joanne
Kielholtz is 6-4, with 2 TKO and 3 submission wins, and 3 submission losses. She went 4-1 in Bellator Kickboxing (Remember that? Lol), and is 6-3 in Bellator MMA, having lost her two most recent MMA contests.
Joanne is 10-6, with 4 TKO and 3 sub wins. She’s 2-2 in Bellator, beating Bec Rawlings (Remember her? Lol) and Alejandra Lara in between losing to Kana Watanabe and Vanessa Porto.
Both fighters have lost to Kana Watanabe, so they can commiserate over that shared failure after the fight.
Welterweight - Kyle Crutchmer vs Jaleel “The Realest” Willis
Crutchmer is 9-1, with 1 TKO and 3 submission wins. He’s 5-1 in Bellator, his lone loss coming by decision to Kemran Lachinov in 2020. Since then, he has won three in a row.
Willis is 15-4 with 5 TKO wins. He popped up briefly in WSoF and Bellator in 2016, winning single fights in those promotions by decision. He went 3-2 in LFA, and is now back in Bellator, currently 2-2 in his second go, having lost his last two bouts.
Crutchmer is a wrestler who’s giving up 2 inches in height and 6 inches in reach. But, y’know, he’s a highly accomplished wrestler, and thus, is a terrifying cube of meat.
Featherweight - Cody Law vs Cris “Sunshine” Lencioni
Law has fought all of his pro career in Bellator, going 6-1, with 4 TKO and 1 submission wins. He lost his most recent bout, dropping a decision to James Gonzalez in June.
Lencioni is 9-3 with 5 submission wins. He went 4-2 in Bellator from 2017 - 2020, ending his run on a 3-fight win streak. He’s won his two most recent bouts in various regional promotions.
Law is an accomplished wrestler, and on Lencioni’s Tapology page, his Foundation Style is listed as “Shakes that’ll make you quake”. They are not the same.
Featherweight - Kevin “Game Time” Boehm vs Kai “Fighting Hawaiian” Kamaka III
Boehm is 9-5, with 4 TKO and 1 submission win. He’s 0-1 in Bellator, having gotten choked out in his debut in July.
Kamaka is also 9-5, with a lone submission win on his record. He went 2-0 in his first Bellator stint that ended in 2019, went 1-2 in the UFC, and now is back in Bellator with a 1-1 record on this new run.
Kai Kamaka III, finish a fight challenge (Impossible Difficulty)
Welterweight - Mark Lemminger vs Michael “The Don” Lombardo
Lemminger is 12-5 with 5 TKO and 4 submission wins, and 3 TKO losses. He’s 2-4 in Bellator, in a weird, unsustainable “win one, lose two” set up. Luckily, he just lost the final bout of his pair, so he should be in good shape.
Lombardo is 12-3 with 4 TKO and 3 submission wins. He lost to Kyle Daukus on the Contender Series in 2019, then beat Korey Kuppe in 2020, but it was by decision, so clearly he isn’t good enough for a UFC contract that pays a bowl of thistles for the next six years. He won via first round Leg Kick TKO (Who has ever heard of such a thing???) in PFL in 2021, and most recently dropped a decision to Kyle Crutchmer in his Bellator debut back in April.
Lombardo really struggles against the Kyles of the world, huh?
Middleweight - Patrick Downey vs Christian “The Vanilla Gorilla” Echols
Downey is 1-0, winning his debut in Bellator by 36-second arm triangle in August over Keyes Nelson.
Echols is 2-2, with both wins by submission. He hit the skids early, dropping his first two pro fights, but rebounded to win his next two.
Downey is an accomplished wrestler (Feel like I’ve been saying this a lot), but he’s also a turd who, at one point, was facing a potential 35 years in prison for various street fights he got into. He ended up pleading down to 6 days in jail. Echols has “The mix up” as his Foundation Style. We gotta stop letting fighters put in their own information on Tapolgy. They are grossly abusing it with the dumbest poo poo imaginable.
Bantamweight - “The Mean Green Fighting Machine” Cass Bell vs Jared “Psycho” Scoggins
Bell is 5-2 with 1 TKO and 3 submission wins. His entire pro career has taken place under the Bellator banner. He’s lost his last two, getting choked out by Raufeon Stots in 2020, and dropping a decision to Jornel Lugo in 2021.
Scoggins is 10-2, with 4 TKO wins. Since 2020, he’s only had two fights, with 5 additional bouts scheduled that never manifested. He’s 0-1 in Bellator, getting stopped by Josh Hill in December 2021.
Bell is a 35-year old Bantamweight. Scoggins, being a Scoggins, is a bit of a headcase and prone to doing dumb poo poo in fights. Should be weird!
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2022 23:08
