If you haven't been tuning in for much (or any) of season 2, you'll want to this time. Main event: Roger Huerta (the well-rounded face of the promotion) vs. Pat Curran (dynamite puncher, cousin of Jeff) in a lightweight tournament semi-final. Carey Vanier vs. Toby Imada makes up the other semi-final match in a meeting of two very fine ground gamers. In a 160lb. catchweight superfight, current lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez (who the tournament participants are all gunning for) faces Josh Neer. I will be there live, but you can watch the national broadcast on Fox Sports Net. Check your local listings. :good
I like Bellator. Despite only having a few big names they always seem to put on good fights, and some nice highlight reel finishes. It will be nice to see Alvarez back in action and this card seems like the best yet this season. Looking forward to Lombard vs Filho next week though.
This was cool! Vanier's suplex of Imada was something else. Brave effort by a strong, slippery eel - but Imada is just such a master submitter. He'll gladly lose 2 1/2 rounds and know that he can make you tap within ten seconds of going for something. Crazy. Curran gutted out a good win over Huerta. The scores were just right and the crowd (at least up in the cheap balcony seats, where most of the fans seemed to be concentrated) appreciated it. Nobody really asserted themselves in the standing clinches - obviously there wasn't anything to speak of on the ground, and as for the striking Curran's front kicks to the face and glancing right hands were better than any of Huerta's spurts of offense. Curran-Imada is going to be very interesting. Imada can get tagged and doesn't always take opponents with superior striking down as early as he should. He could get KTFO. On the other hand, if they do wind up going down, it's probably going to be a short and unpleasant evening for Curran unless he has some really special hidden dimensions. The winner is in for perhaps an even tougher fight straight away. Alvarez is a beast. Neer was only ever in the fight due to his size and physicality, which slowed Eddie down but never made him blink. I'm not sure if they showed it on television but the HW "struggle" between Pat Bennett and Cole Konrad was an abomination. A fat slow wrestler and a gunshy (and not much faster) puncher. A lot of ground with hardly any pound. A lot of cautious circling and jabbing without even taking a slight step forward from both when they were standing up. Terrible. It just goes to show that heavyweights in all combat sports tend to suck. Just like in boxing, the good HWs and the occasional entertaining HW war, are the exceptions - not the rule. There were a couple of local talents featured after the Fox Sports Net broadcast. Nothing noteworthy. The more popular Jason Torrey (from nearby Springfield) subbed the more toned but over-anxious Lance Everson with side control body punches after a round and a half of lukewarm intensity. Then in the walkoff, first episode TUF reject Greg Rebello was able to outwork game but athletically outmatched journeyman opponent John Doyle.
