I'm just now catching up on all last week's MMA events recorded to my DVR, including Bellator 23 and Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum. Bellator set the bar high with knockout action in their season 2 finale. Their women's division looks to be every bit as promising with high-caliber estrogen-fueled talent and competitive match-ups as that of Strikeforce (and its predecessor EliteXC). Check out "girly girl" Zoila Frausto taking out well-regarded Rosi Sexton: [yt]aGPZR0n5SDU[/yt] Alexander "Backfister" Shlemenko (I just made that nickname up, but hopefully it sticks :yep) is building up a pretty damn good MMA resume - now 30-4 with a win over Sean Salmon and a string of underdog middleweight tournament victories over the likes of Jared Hess and Bryan "The Beast" Baker. He's only been beaten by three men (and only once sinc 2006) and there's NO shame in losing to the likes of Jacare, Jordan Radev, and "Pele" Jons. Here's his David-and-Goliath triumph over The Beast: http://www.mmavideos.pl/video/alexander-shlemenko-vs-bryan-baker-bellator-23 And then we come to Joe Warren vs. Patricio Pitbull Freite. Who wasn't looking forward to this???? Masterful wrestling - not world-class, masterful - against masterful jiu jitsu. Insane, ant-like strength and resiliency against Aldo-like athleticism and explosiveness. It was one for the purist, not necessarily the MMA fan who just wants to see striking (although Pitbull has some very good boxing). It was bloody, if not blood-curdling. The wrong man won IMO, although I was rooting for him, but such is life with these 3-round MMA bouts - if one round's close you wind up with unsatisfactory split decisions. See and judge for yourself: http://www.mmavideos.pl/video/joe-warren-vs-patricio-freire-bellator-23 Season 2 has certainly whetted my appetite for more. Frausto vs. Fujii, Warren vs. Soto, Shlemenko vs. Lombard, Askren vs. Good, and Curran vs. Alvarez are all something to look forward to, analyze and nitpick over the summer - and we'll see what caliber of roster they can scrounge together for the Heavyweight and Bantamweight tournaments.
