Bellator 134 (2/27): Lima/Daley + McGeary/Newton

Bernman · Post #1 » by **Bernman** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 5:32 am

It's shaped up to be an excellent card for Bellator, and easily worth starting a thread for.

Here is what we have so far:

Douglas Lima vs. Paul Daley, ww title
Liam McGeary vs. Emanuel Newton, lhw title
King Mo vs. James Thompson
Linton Vassell vs. Rameau Sokoudjou
Michael Page vs. Curtis Millender

Tamdan McRory, Brennan Ward, and Dan Cramer are all rumored to be on the prelims should it should be a stacked card for Bellator overall.

I thoroughly enjoy watching Page, Lima, McGeary, and Barncat fight. It should be a lot of fun with a lot of pageantry again. This is one of their quarterly tentpole events.

Post #2 » by **CPT** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 8:18 am

Might try to watch this one; some guys I'd like to see more of.

But good god, is that "the" James Thompson?

REDDzone · Post #3 » by **REDDzone** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:49 pm

CPT wrote:Might try to watch this one; some guys I'd like to see more of.

But good god, is that "the" James Thompson?

Yea he was supposed to fight Lashley but Lashley just got injured and Mo is rumored as the replacement. I'm assuming its final now. I think he is part of the whole "Europe vs the world" thing or whatever.

I think Lima/Daley is an interesting fight, just stylistically.

What are people's thoughts on the "new" bellator, with the tentpole events and the smaller cards?

NZB2323 · Post #4 » by **NZB2323** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 2:21 pm

What channel is this on?

Bernman · Post #5 » by **Bernman** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 3:59 pm

CPT wrote:Might try to watch this one; some guys I'd like to see more of.

But good god, is that "the" James Thompson?

It's "The" James Thompson. I think it's a pretty interesting match because Mo is in it now. Kind of a poor man's Shlemenko/Tito. Colossus is 260 and Mo was thinking of dropping down to MW. It's a pride-style fun freak fight. It's more cringe-worthy from the standpoint that Colossus has been ko'ed 11 times now. That's got to be a major organization record. I don't particularly want to see Mo land a gnp bomb like against Petruzelli.

NZB2323 wrote:What channel is this on?

Spike, and probably the Armed Services Network. They've advertised that before.

REDDzone wrote:Yea he was supposed to fight Lashley but Lashley just got injured and Mo is rumored as the replacement. I'm assuming its final now. I think he is part of the whole "Europe vs the world" thing or whatever.

I think Lima/Daley is an interesting fight, just stylistically.

What are people's thoughts on the "new" bellator, with the tentpole events and the smaller cards?

It's going to work out for this event swimmingly with guys like Barncat even likely on the prelims (speaking of which, they should televise them somewhere). But it's not a positive for their surrounding cards seemingly. They just seem like their average Bellator card. But part of the reason for that is Coker doesn't know the roster and Viacom has its priorities on names and not prospects or originals much, unless the guy is a muscly black or a bad boy. So it could still be a solid strategy in theory, albeit not so much in practice.

Bernman · Post #6 » by **Bernman** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 4:00 pm

cowboyronnie · Post #7 » by **cowboyronnie** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 4:51 pm

Bernman wrote:It's shaped up to be an excellent card for Bellator, and easily worth starting a thread for.

Here is what we have so far:

Douglas Lima vs. Paul Daley, ww title
Liam McGeary vs. Emanuel Newton, lhw title
King Mo vs. James Thompson
Linton Vassell vs. Rameau Sokoudjou
Michael Page vs. Curtis Millender

Tamdan McRory, Brennan Ward, and Dan Cramer are all rumored to be on the prelims should it should be a stacked card for Bellator overall.

I thoroughly enjoy watching Page, Lima, McGeary, and Barncat fight. It should be a lot of fun with a lot of pageantry again. This is one of their quarterly tentpole events.

I think we should be super excited to see Lima finally get a striker. He's world class, Lima is. 5 rounds? Eff yeah.

McGeary, though...ugh, he's no good. And the way that Newton is bound-up like a Nog brother disturbs me. That's going to be really unpleasant to watch. Two lurchey dudes. 5 rounds? Oh, for the love of God.

Millender is evidently another lukewarm body for Page to showcase his own questionable skills. I won't be able to watch that.

For whatever reason, I think Brennan Ward is legit (and gorgeous).

cowboyronnie · Post #8 » by **cowboyronnie** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 4:53 pm

Does Thomson use his reach well? Straight punches, with his reach, and Mo's lead-hand-down defense...he'd eat him alive. But I don't know if he's got the boxing.

Bernman · Post #9 » by **Bernman** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:42 am

The rumor is Lima is injured and out of the fight. That would suck horribly. He's the main attraction for this card the way I see it, and one of my very favorite fighters. Sadly, most of them don't fight often for one reason or another. Lima in particular seems to have a ton of hand injuries. That's the drawback of hitting like he does. Every shot almost is full impact to finish his opponent.

REDDzone · Post #10 » by **REDDzone** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:22 am

TBH if Lima is out...so am I lol.

Bernman · Post #11 » by **Bernman** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:48 am

REDDzone wrote:TBH if Lima is out...so am I lol.

MVP = Must See TV still. Maybe they could spruce it up by switching him into the Daley fight for a real test, and then bumping up Barncat to the main card against Millender. Barncat looked sick in his return too. There are a lot of intriguing fighters on this card, aside from just Lima, although he's the best.

skflives · Post #12 » by **skflives** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 2:08 pm

Bernman wrote:
It's going to work out for this event swimmingly with guys like Barncat even likely on the prelims (speaking of which, they should televise them somewhere). But it's not a positive for their surrounding cards seemingly. They just seem like their average Bellator card. But part of the reason for that is Coker doesn't know the roster and Viacom has its priorities on names and not prospects or originals much, unless the guy is a muscly black or a bad boy. So it could still be a solid strategy in theory, albeit not so much in practice.

I never understood why they wouldn't televise the prelims on MTV2. They had Bellator's main shows running on that crappy network for a while. I don't see how Bellator's prelims wouldn't generate better ratings than reruns of my super sweet 16.

Bernman · Post #13 » by **Bernman** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 3:25 pm

skflives wrote:I never understood why they wouldn't televise the prelims on MTV2. They had Bellator's main shows running on that crappy network for a while. I don't see how Bellator's prelims wouldn't generate better ratings than reruns of my super sweet 16.

Yep, they had a decent excuse when they had their weekly cards and most prelims were weak, but not now with the occasional cards. I'm actually wondering where they're going to fit all their relevant fighters on the roster in.

Bernman · Post #14 » by **Bernman** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 3:34 pm

This is a good sign.....

Douglas LimaVerified account ‏@PhenomLima

#soonagain

Bernman · Post #15 » by **Bernman** » Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:12 pm

Daley is fighting Andre Santos. A passable opponent, but nothing to get excited about. It's kind of disappointing tbh. I think they could have done better.

Barncat's opponent Dan Cramer got replaced too, although I think his replacement is about equivalent in Jason Butcher. That's a good fight, which will probably end up adding to Barncat's highlight. I just have a hunch from that return performance he's going places.

Liam McGeary vs. Manny Newton
King Mo vs. Cheick Kongo
Paul Daley vs. Andre Santos
Michael Page vs. Curtis Millender
Linton Vassell vs. Sokoudjou
Tamdan McRory vs. Jason Butcher
Brennan Ward vs. TBA
Matt Bessette vs. TBA
Neiman Gracie vs. Bobby Flynn

GSP · Post #16 » by **GSP** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:43 pm

**** sucks that Lima got injured. That fight was gonna be fireworks 2 of the best strikers in the division. Still a good card

War Barn Cat and i hope Mcgeary ends Newtons boring ass

Bernman · Post #17 » by **Bernman** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 10:23 pm

Now Page is out. I was really looking forward to seeing him again. Few of the more entertaining guys in the sport can stay active for one reason or another, it seems. It's very frustrating when you're trying to build up your interest in MMA again.

Bernman · Post #18 » by **Bernman** » Fri Feb 27, 2015 9:32 pm

This is tonight. Still plenty of interesting enough fighters and fights to sink your teeth into, in spite of losing the two most intriguing guys on the card. You got the title fight between McGeary and Newton, a fascinating size differential match between two names in Mo and Kongo, Barncat, Vassell, Daley, etc. Going to have to tune in to the prelims on Spike.com to see Barncat unfortunately. That should be a main carder.

The McGeary-Newton fight really could go either way. McGeary in the first few rounds could take out Newton by using his length, size advantage, aggression, and striking power, to light Newton up on the feet, or sweep and then gnp him. Or Newton could use savvy, cardio, and movement to survive, out-point, out-last, maybe get a late finish or decision like vs. Vassell. Very similar to Bendo-Thatch. I gotta trust my first instinct though and go with McGeary. I'm buying the talent I saw from him early in his career. He can win in so many different ways.

Mo/Kongo is a virtual pick 'em. Both guys have chin issues and can wrestle hump their opponent. I guess I'll go Mo cuz he's closer to his prime and showed improved striking in his last couple of matches. Out-striking Jacoby is no joke. He was a Glory regional tourney champ or whatever.

For the rest I got Millender over Ward, Daley over Santos, Barncat over Butcher, Vassell over Sokoudjou, and Diekmann over Butler.

Bernman · Post #19 » by **Bernman** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:37 am

Barncat is really ridiculous right now. Since returning after his long break from MMA, he's had back-to-back quick dominations in different ways of decent opponents. First it was using incredibly fast hands to shut Ward's lights off. Now it was chaining subs and eventually armbarring a bjj black belt in Butcher. I honestly think he'd kick Halsey's and Mo's asses from what I've seen. He's too dynamic and has the experience to utilize his skills. He was just a kid in UFC all those years ago.

Bernman · Post #20 » by **Bernman** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:43 am

Now that was a power guillotine. Butler was picking him up in it and practically jumping him into the fence. That was more the beast we were sold on when he joined Bellator. Maybe there's hope for him yet. Although it's too early to tell. His opponent didn't really swarm him which is what's caused him problems.