This is the lightweight tournament final to determine the #1 contender to Eddie Alvarez: Toby Imada and Pat Curran in a pick'em between a slick submission specialist and a heavy-handed rising star from a good pedigree (and coming off a major upset win over Roger Huerta). This is one to watch, for sure. The showdown between the winner and Alvarez (which would be a rematch in Imada's case) will be absolute must-see MMA.
That should be an excellent fight. And it will be nice to see Alvarez in action again soon. However its a very weak card, with that being the only fight of note. I would have expected them to put on some of their 'superfights'.
It didn't turn out all that bad. Of course, my local FSN carrier didn't show the full heavyweight fight, just the reading of the decision and highlights. No tears from me - heavyweights in MMA are hardly ever anything special to watch. The 120 lb catchweight female bout between Sarah Schneider and Megumi Fujii was really pretty stuff to watch, from a technical grappling perspective. Fujii is the truth...it's crazy to think that she's in her late thirties (and started MMA in her late twenties!). She's also adorable - although not in the Gina Carano sense. She's got that same kind of cuteness that all shy and sweet Japanese girls have, even at her age. As for the main event, the commentary seemed to paint a bit of an inaccurate portrait. The reasons given for scoring the first two rounds for Imada made sense, but they weren't both CLEAR indisputable rounds IMO. Curran's striking and TD were both effective, although Imada definitely seemed to control the cage for the first ten minutes. In the third, Curran was perfectly composed and economical with his punches. The announcer just didn't like his style, and was caught up in their certainty that Imada won the first two and that Curran needed to get desperate and go for broke. The SD wasn't all that scandalous. Curran-Alvarez will be exciting. Eddie already proved himself Toby's superior, so it's no crying shame that it didn't swing the other way in terms of us missing out on a great match-up.
Bellator is great, it combines the best aspects of the old KOTC and the old Strikeforce. They know their market like strikeforce did, and don't try to compete head to head with the UFC. They put on tons of shows in smaller locations like the KOTC. It's like a traveling carnival of great fights.
I can't say for myself as I haven't seen the Imada/Curran fight, but a lot of people around the internet are of the opinion that the fight was a blatant robbery. Not that it matters too much because I reckon Alvarez will blow through Curran anyway. As for Megu, she's here to stay I think. I read somewhere that Bellator are doing a woman's tournament next season. Hopefully they get these fights up on Youtube sharpish, cos I would like to see them.
