The Bellator Featherweight Championship belt changed hands last night at Bellator 27 when Joe Soto faced Joe Warren.
The defending champion Joe Soto dominated the first round and it looked like a mismatch as Joe Warren took blow after blow and couldn’t get the fight to the mat.
Then the fight turned around early in the second round as Warren landed one hard punch that dropped Soto. Warren took full advantage and Soto never recovered until the referee awarded Warren the TKO.
Herbert Goodman’s Bellator 24 fight with Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard lasted just 38 seconds. Lombard came out swinging and Goodman looked intimidated. Lombard would quickly connect on a pair of rights sending the challenger to the mat to score the TKO.
Next up for Hector Lombard is Alexander Schlmenko.
Airing live on Fox Sports Network on August 12, 2010, Hector Lombard shows why he is the Bellator Middleweight Champion, scoring another vicious knockout of Herbert Goodman, dispatching him with a flurry of shots in just 38 seconds. Next up for Lombard is his first title against Season 2 Tournament Champion Alexander Shlemenko.
Bellator 22 decided the Featherweight, Welterweight and Middleweight tournament champions in what would have to be considered a success for the Bellator promotion as all three fights were entertaining.
Ben Askren scored a very convincing victory over Dan Hornbuckle to take the Bellator Welterweight Tournament Championship. He controlled the fight for most of the time. The victory was a bit of an upset, but Askren showed a tremendous improvement in his ground game and showed that he is a fighter to watch going forward.
Joe Warren took the Bellator Featherweight Tournament Championship in a split decision against Patricio Freire. Warren clearly lost the first round, but it looked like Freire figured that the first round would be enough for him to win as he was a lot less aggressive in the last two rounds and lost because of it.
Alexander Shlemenko secured the Bellator Middleweight Tournament Championship with a TKO victory over Bryan Baker. Shlemenko looked clearly in control for most of the fight as the two fighters kept the fight on their feet.
Bellator 23 features two championship matches one at featherweight and one a middleweight with the winner picking up healthy $100,000 bonus.
Patricio Freire and Joe Warren square off with the Bellator featherweight championship on the line and a shot at Joe Soto’s featherweight belt.
Friere comes in to this fight as the -160 Bellator 23 odds favorite while Warren pays +130.
Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (14-0 MMA, 2-0 BFC) has two North American fights with Strikeforce after going undefeated in a number of smaller Brazilian promotions. He practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and also trained in Muay Thai with the Chute Boxe Academy before joining Team Nogueira. As with any Thai Kickboxing practitioner, he is a knockout threat, but most of his wins come by submission and he is most dangerous on the mat.
Joe Warren (4-1 MMA, 2-0 BFC) has a solid foundation in Greco-Roman wrestling and trains with another Greco-Roman wrestling to MMA convert Dan Henderson of Team Quest. Warren’s lone loss came via submission to a BJJ practitioner.
The middleweight championship bout features Bryan Baker taking on Alexander Shlemenko. The winner faces last season’s champion Hector Lombard for the Bellator middleweight belt.
Baker is the heavy favorite in this one listed at -450 while Shlemenko is +300.
Bryan “The Beast” Baker (13-1 MMA, 3-0 BFC) has a background in wrestling and judo and now trains with Team Wildman in Denver. Despite a background that would suggest that he would be a primarily a submission threat, The Beast is a deadly striker with six victories coming by KO. His lone loss came to UFC middleweight title contender Chael Sonnen.
Alexander Shlemenko (29-4 MMA, 2-0 BFC) is primarily a striker with some spectacular knockouts at smaller European events, but he hasn’t shown it in North America winning his first fight with Matt Major by decision and then beating Jared Hess when a knee injury forced him to withdraw.
No prize for guessing who wins top spot in Bellator’s top 10 finishes. Toby Imada‘s inverted triangle choke is a deserving candidate for the greatest moment in all of MMA. Eddie Alvarez’s standing choke out of Josh Neer also places high along with Yahir Reyes’ spinning backfist.
Pat Curran beat Toby Imada in a split decision at Bellator 21 to secure a title shot against Eddie Alvarez.
Toby Imada was able to control much of the fight closing to within grappling range and scoring a number of take downs, but he never really capitalized on his take downs and the two fighters would quickly find themselves back on their feet.
Pat Curran didn’t really control the fight, but he kept the fight from getting out control. He was did the most damage opening a gash under the eye of Imada in the third.
The split decision wasn’t much of a surprise. Curran may have deserved the victory by doing the most damage, but Imada may have deserved the victory by being the fighter that was more in control. Either way, it was an even fight which always helps the entertainment value.
Next up for Bellator is a welterweight matchup between Dan Hornbuckle and Ben Askren at Bellator 22 on June 17. Hornbuckle is the Bellator odds favorite at -145 while Askren pays +115.
The Bellator 21 lightweight final between Toby Imada (25-13 MMA, 5-1 BFC) and Pat Curran (11-3 MMA, 2-0 BFC) goes on Thursday, June 10 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
The winner gets a title shot against Eddie Alvarez who took the belt with a victory over Imada at Bellator 12.
The event will be televised live on Fox Sports Net with highlights the following weekend on NBC and Telemundo.
Imada is the Bellator odds favorite at -155 while Curran pays +125.
Toby Imada, 32, is in his second season with Bellator. He lost the lightweight title fight last season to Alvarez, but he is best known for defeating Jorge Masvidal with a spectacular inverted triangle choke that rendered his opponent unconscious while standing in the semifinals.
Imada is primarily a submission threat. Both of his victories to make it to the semifinal stage of Bellator this season have come by Armbars over James Krause at Bellator 14 and Carey Vanier at Bellator 17. He doesn’t have knockout power, but he has managed a few TKO victories including a recent win over Daisuke Hanazawa at Japan’s King of the Cage on January 30, 2010. His fights rarely go the distance with just one decision in his career.
Pat Curran (11-3 MMA, 2-0 BFC) is Bellator’s rising star. The 22-year-old is an excellent striker and has a Jiu Jitsu base that makes him very effective at ground and pound.
He had a nasty KO victory over Mike Ricci at Bellator 14 and an impressive upset victory by decision over former UFC fighter Roger Huerta at Bellator 17 to qualify.
