Bellator Beatdown:Bellator 24

Bellator Beatdown: Bellator 24

Welcome, ladies and gentleman, to the first edition of the Bellator Beatdown to appear on SportsNickel.com.  It is also the first edition of the the third season of Bellator, a season which will feature new tournaments in several new weight classes.  Bellator 24 kicked off the third season with a bang, the total fight time for the three tournament bouts on the card was just 11 minutes and 30 seconds.

The card, which took place at The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood Florida, featured the first two fights of Bellator’s inaugural 115 pound womens tournament, including the tournament debut of undefeated and possible pound for pound best female fighter Megumi “Megu Megu” Fujii.  The card also featured the first bout of Bellator’s inaugural heavyweight tournament, featuring UFC veterans Eddie Sanchez and Neil Grove.  Also in action in non-tournament bouts were 185 pound champion Hector Lombard and 155 pound superstar Yves Edwards.

Tournament Bouts

115 Pound Womens bout: Jessica Aguilar vs Lynn Alvarez

The women of MMA had a good showing last night, and on the winning end of a fairly one sided fight was Jessica Aguilar.  He opponent Lynn Alvarez had made no bones about the fact that she wanted to keep the fight standing and finish with a KO, even go so specifically into detail as to say she would finish Aguilar with a knee.  Well, that did no happen.  Aguilar quickly took control of the fight, managing the distance standing to avoid the knee and real power punches while landing a few shots of her own.  After a brief feeling out process she decided her best and easiest path to victory would be to take the striker Alvarez down and finish from the top position, and after several attempts she did just that.  Timing her takedown wisely she put Alvarez on her back, broke the Lockdown (an advanced form of half guard pioneered by Eddie Bravo) of Alvarez using the “No-Hands” pass and head and arm control to gain side control.  Once there she attempted several side chokes, and twice Alvarez escaped and reclaimed half guard.  The third time, however, Aguilar cinched the position tight and jumped over.  During the transition, Alvarez briefly regained half guard, but eventually Aguilar passed to a perpendicular position and finished the choke.  The end came officially at 4:01 of round number one, with the Jessica Aguilar the winner and advancing further into the tournament.

115 Pound Womens Bout: Megumi Fujii vs Carla Esparza

At 21-0 Megumi Fujii may have kept the longest undefeated streak of any MMA fighter in the history of the sport.  Needless to say, her opponent, former All-American NCAA Wrestler Carla Esparza, had a tall task ahead of her.  Right away, this one had submission written all over it: NCAA wrestler with minimal MMA experience vs two time ADCC bronze medalist, who does her best work transitioning from a sprawl.  The two women were happy to exchange for the majority of the first round, slugging it out with flurries of straights and hooks.  Fujii secured a takedown late in round one, but Esparza escaped and looked to steal the round with a takedown of her own.   It failed however, as just at it seemed she had finished the power double leg, Fujii scrambled and locked on a Kimura and used that to take the back and was looking for a choke when the bell rang to signal the end of round 1.  Round two began and again Esparza shot hard, but this time Megu Megu had the time she needed to work.  She looked for a leglock from bottom and quickly transitioned to top position.  When the wrestler sought the familiar defensive position of the turtle, Fujii quickly isolated an arm and got the leg across the face and locked out the armbar, the eleventh of her career.

Heavyweight Mens Bout: Neil Grove vs Eddie Sanchez

This was another quick and entertaining fight, something Bellator is becoming famous for (outside of Askren and Warren bouts).  The two came out, touched gloves and right after the fireworks started.  The shorter Sanchez moved in to throw punches, but Grove used his reach to tag Sanchez with a powerful but fast jab that dropped Sanchez.  Grove swarmed, but remained patient and, well aware of the durability of Sanchez, was hesitant to gas himself.  The fight returned to standing as a hideous mouse developed under the left eye Sanchez, who’s vision now seemed to be affected.  Another flurry from Grove and Sanchez went down again, and after Grove stood back asking Sanchez to stand Eddie did not.  The referee told Sanchez to stand, and instead Sanchez check his head (I assume to see if he was bleeding) and then went to stand up.  The referee then waved off the fight.  My initial reaction was that I didn’t think that Sanchez could still see out of his right eye (he certainly couldn’t see out of his left one), and I believe that was what prompted the referee to stop the match.  The official reason given was that he failed to immediatly respond to the referee’s command, but either way I believe we were seconds away from the doctor stopping the fight anyways, so I was OK with the stoppage.

Non Tournament Bout:  Hector Lombard vs Whisper Goodman

What is there to say, other than that Hector Lombard continues to amaze.  Last night he followed up his 6 second destruction of UFC vet Jay Silva at Bellator 18 with a 38 second pounding of Whisper Goodman.  Lombard once again used excellent head movement, explosiveness and speed to close the gap on his much larger opponent and land shot after shot with short hooks and straights.  After dropping Goodman once in the fight, Lombard used a powerful combination culminating in two short right hands to put Goodman completely unconscious.  Another impressive victory for Lombard, who now has me wondering how well he would do in the 185 pound division against some of the other top fighters, but first he has to next deal with the unorthodox striking of Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko, a fight that the broadcast said would happen sometime this October.

Another incredibly solid night of fights put on by Bellator, though many of you may have missed it due to local sports on FSN.  At any rate, Bellator continues to exceed my expectations and bring us high quality fights week in and week out, and I can’t wait to see how season three unfolds.