Contributor: Nolan Howell
- Alexander Shlemenko is probably one of my favorite fighters to watch. While not really technically sound in any area, he makes up for it with unorthodox offense and true grit. Despite the former, he unleashed an absolute monster of a left hook to the liver of Maiquel Falcao and followed it up with ground and pound that put Falcao to sleep. Impressive victory, considering Falcao is no slouch. Although it is cliche to immediately take any fighter and ponder their UFC potential, Shlemenko is a guy I’d love to see in the UFC’s 185 lbs. class. Him vs. Leben? Munoz? Le? While that is a whole different discussion, there is no doubt that Shlemenko’s stock rose tonight.
- Speaking of making statements, Mike Richman and Alexandre “Popo” Bezerra looked like homegrown talent Bellator could make a few bucks off of. Richman used some crisp boxing to soundly thrash Mitch Jackson, finishing his night with a left high kick that has become a staple of his game and some hammerfists. While the boxer showed some adept feet, Bezerra showed some sharp striking against Genair da Silva. A jab put da Silva on dream street, which lead to da Silva rushing some sloppy punches in the guard of “Popo.” Bezerra immediately snatched an arm and da Silva tapped to the armbar. These two impressed and will be moving on the Bellator Featherweight semifinals. Trust that a few folks will be interested in this matchup after tonight’s showing.
- Marlon Sandro had one of the least inspiring wins I have ever seen, taking home a decision over Akop Stepanyan. Stepanyan was actually the more impressive fighter, shucking off Sandro’s takedowns and landing spinning strikes with ease, most notably a spinning wheel kick in the second round. Stepanyan also managed to rock Sandro with punches, beating Sandro in an area he is famous for. However, Stepanyan was penalized for holding the fence in the second round, having referee George Allen deduct a point. With the first round up in the air and the second most definitely in Stepanyan’s favor, Sandro got on top and laid for dear life to get the nod. This wasn’t a robbery, but there was a case to be made for a draw as well. Additionally, kudos for Allen stepping up after a warning to deduct a point for repeated fence holding. Even so, Sandro will have trouble next week against “Frodo” Khasbulaev if he puts in the sad performance he did this week, especially considering how relentless the man known as “Frodo” looked tonight.
Contributor: Josh Hall
Bellator 88 is now in the books, and it certainly leaves a writer with a few things to talk about if nothing else. The main card was honestly pretty damn good, and the prelims… well they happened too. On that note, here we go.
The Good
Alexander Shlemenko: Always a fun fighter to watch, the Russian brought all the violence you can ever hope for, unleashing a barrage of body shots to hurt Maiquel Falcao before knocking him out cold with a two piece on the ground. The ending combo was as glorious for fans as it was painful to “Big Rig”, and Shlemenko walked out the new Bellator Middleweight Champion.
The Shlemenko Post Fight Interview: Yes, this gets a separate mention from me. As great as the Russian champion looked in the cage, he gained a lot of favor with fans by showing his improved English skills, and “I am face of Bellator now” was just a great line. An honorable mention goes to the Shlemenko victory dance, which just made me smile.
Mike Richman’s Striking: If there was a three knockdown rule in MMA, it would have kicked in quickly with the razor sharp straight punches from Richman. He landed at will, running an absolute clinic on the feet with his boxing, which all proved to be an elaborate setup for a head kick (more on this later) and a series of mind dumbing hammerfists that gave Mitch Jackson an opportunity to catch up on some missed sleep.
Popo Bezerra’s Killer Instinct: Bezerra jumped on Genair da Silva from the opening bell, dropping him with a quick jab and jumping on his back like a spider monkey. Even when da Silva shook him off and started dropping hammerfists, a finish was clearly the only thought in Pop’s head. He locked on a lightning quick armbar, and earned his place in the semis of the FW tourney against Richman.
The Russian Hobbit Terminator: Magomedrasul “Frodo” Khasbulaev single handedly redeemed a fairly terrible prelim card in the first FW tourney quarterfinal against Fabricio “Guerriero” de Assis Costa da Silva. In a little bonus info this matchup was also the clear winner of the “Holy shit, those names are a mouthful” award, (I know you needed to know that). Frodo was taken down and mounted early, but he swept instantly and went on the attack. After gutting out a tight armbar and slamming his way out of a triangle in the first round, Frodo got his own arm triangle in the second round, forcing the tap from da Silva.
The Bad
Akop Stepnayan’s Fight IQ: For the record, I don’t think Akop lost this fight (I scored it 28-28), but he should have won it with ease. He was picking Marlon Sandro apart on the feet, leaving the Brazilian looking gun shy in the stand up. Takedowns were the only hope for Sandro in this fight. In the third round, it became clear he was looking for Akop’s crazy spinning kicks as takedown opportunities. If Stepnayan would have stuck to basic stand up, Sandro was in a world of trouble, but the Russian gave up not one, but two takedowns off unnecessary spinning shit, and it cost him the decision.
Ururahy Rodrigues’ Telegraphed Takedowns: Eventually a day is going to come in MMA where fighters will set up a shot, rather than dropping their head straight into a knee. Unfortunately, this was not that day. Rodrigues constantly attacked with poorly executed takedown attempts, and it eventually cost him the right to stay conscious. He dove head first into a knee, then ate a few hammerfists and slept on his mistake.
Ronnie Rogers vs Shane Crenshaw: This was one of the worst fights so far this year. I couldn’t tell you who won any of the individual rounds, only that I lost for watching this fight. The only redeeming thing about this fight was the Crenshaw cornerman trying to fire his fighter up. “Stop backing up in this motherfucker” was an amazing line, and kudos to the production team for putting a camera on him during the third round. Note to the fighters- When a cornerman is more interesting than your fight, you are doing it very, very wrong.
The Ugly
The Sound of Mike Richman’s Head Kick: While the kick itself was a thing of beauty, there is nothing quite as ugly as the sound it made on the skull of Mitch Jackson. It sounded like he had been bludgeoned with a wooden baseball bat, making a sickening crack that makes me shudder just thinking about it. That leads me directly into…
Tan Dan and the Ensuing Post Kick Beating: Dan Miragliotta has been at the center of controversy more than he would like as of late, and his failure to step in here was disappointing. By my count, Richman landed 16 strikes to the head of Jackson after the head kick, and Miragliotta did not step in until he had gone completely stiff. Bad form Dan. Fighter safety. That is all.
Maiquel Falcao at the Weigh Ins: Pretending to answer a cell phone and turning your back on your opponent isn’t very entertaining, but it sure is disrespectful. If a fighter is going to do that kind of garbage, they have to back it up. Falcao did the exact opposite. He allowed Shlemenko to destroy his body with knees and punches, visibly breaking only a moment before getting his lights turned out. As a fan, it seemed like a really fitting ending.
Contributor: Chris Groves
Even on Spike in HD, I’ve felt that the overall visual aesthetic of Bellator was a blend of grey and black with no real visual pop. So the ring girls uniforms being switched from black to red was actually an improvement in my opinion despite being a relatively small detail.
There isn’t much to be said about either of the first two main card fights:
Alexandre Bezerra made quick word of Genair da Silva, rocking him early and finishing him with an armbar not long after.
Mike Richman battered Mitch Jackson, hurting him on numerous occasions with strikes. I credit Jackson, he’s very tough and survived some gnarly shots, but he was outmatched tonight.
Marlon Sandro was considered one of the top featherweights in the world for a long time prior to coming stateside. I can’t say he’s lived up to that “hype”. He’s fallen short in both Featherweight tournaments after making it to the finals, and at 35 seems to be having diminishing returns. I personally thought a draw or loss for Sandro would have been the right call tonight, but he was given the win.Even if he wins this tournament, I don’t have much hope of him becoming the Bellator Featherweight champ. Stepanyan gave him a good fight, though. If not for the fairly warranted point deduction and some iffy judging, he probably would have won.
Alexander Shlemenko vs Maiquel Falcao fought for the vacant Bellator Middleweight title and delivered. Both of these men were throwing heavy shots and Shlemenko eventually got the better of it. He had Falcao hurt and ruthlessly seized his opportunity to get the knockout. I don’t know about everyone else, but every now and then I enjoy seeing an extremely confident Brazilian get knocked out.
I still had the prevailing feeling that Bellator was in a no-win scenario with this fight. If Falcao won, their champion would be someone who had a single less-than-great UFC win. With Shlemenko winning they now have a champion who lost to their previous champion, Hector Lombard. Lombard booked for the UFC and promptly lost his debut. So despite a 10 fight win streak, I’m not sure Bellator is convincing anyone that Shlemenko is an elite, top-of-the-line Middleweight.
Contributor: Lucas Bourdon
Those prelims were awful for the most part. Clay Harvison and Joe Elmore got finishes but the lead up to them wasn’t anything to write home about. A lot of terrible striking and terrible double legs without set up. Rogers vs Crenshaw was such a bad fight that the production truck decided put a camera on Crenshaw’s cornerman, who was by far the most entertaining part of the fight “Stop backing up in this motherfucker!”, during the third round.
Things got a lot better in the first featherweight quarterfinal though. « Frodo » Khasbulaev displayed great ground and pound and a complete lack of fucks to give about the submissions of his opponent in the first round, going himself for two of sambo’s trademark leglocks attempt before submitting his opponent in the beginning of the second with an arm triangle choke. Extremely impressive performance by the Russian.
In the second featherweight fight, Alexandre “Popo” Bezerra dropped Genair Da Silva early and finished him with an armbar less than 2 minutes into the fight to advance to the tournaments semi finals.
Mike Richman was extremely impressive in rebounding from his loss to Shahbulat Shamhalaev in last year’s tournament. His very quick hands and tight, economical striking led to 4 knockdowns, and a beautiful headkick finish late in the first round. This guy is a beast and his semi final matchup with Popo and a potential final against Khasbulaev sound awesome to me.
The last quarterfinal between Marlon Sandro and Akop Stepanyan didn’t live up to the rest of the tournament both fighters fought pretty evenly through a pretty uneventful first round, Stepanyan clearly outstruck and hurt Sandro in the second but that was all for nothing, since the ref (rightfully) docked him a point for repeated fence grabs. After spending two rounds of spamming spinning heel kicks with varying amounts of success, Stepanyan started the last round with the baffling decision to throw it again without set up, Sandro promptly took him down and rode out the third round to escape with a majority decision but at 35 the Nova Uniao fighter’s best day seem to be behind him.
After a pretty even first round, Shlemenko turned it up in the second round of the MW championship fight, hurting Falcao with body shots and brutally finishing him, before turning it up another notch in the best post fight interview since… Well since Shlemenko’s famous “Hello India! Hector I kill you.” in Super Fight League.
Overall a pretty good card and a promising start to the FW tournament despite terrible prelims.
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