Bellator General Discussion and Info

Nemesis21 · Post #141 » by **Nemesis21** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 12:30 am

Can't wait for the Bellator fights this weekend.

Bernman · Post #142 » by **Bernman** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 1:17 am

SDM wrote:I'll take Askren by decision as the only no-brainer, I like Marx in the upset but not enough to bet.

Good call. They were both weak sauce, but the Japanese weak sauce as usual is a little tamer. Marx had technical sub d and a little more explosiveness in the stand-up than I gave him credit for, I suppose. I didn't bet that fight either though because I don't like anyone at those odds, especially a Japanese guy. That was the one fight I didn't bet, even though I thought he was the most likely to win. The stock of Japanese fighters making the transition to the States lowers even more in my mind now. There are rule differences, less favorable judging, and mental toughness issues that lead to their demise in general.

Bernman · Post #143 » by **Bernman** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 1:54 am

Man, if not for the hero worship of his boyhood idol and friend by Bezerra, he wins that fight. He has more ability. He was counter-striking for 80% of the fight and pretty much with the same left hook over and over again. That's not his game. His game is aggression and diversity. He remembered that in the third round, had Sandro hurt, but still was somewhat cautious. It was too late to win a decision at that point. He lost 29-28, and that was the deserved score.

Bernman · Post #144 » by **Bernman** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 2:45 am

Man, that was depressing. Askren is great at what he does, but it gets tiresome quick, especially now that most of his fights will be 5 rounders. I thought having 5 rounds would be enough for Lima to land a game-changer, but after the 1st round he missed a high majority of time, got backed into the cage, taken down, and couldn't pull off sweeps after Askren had laid on him for a while. It's ironic that one of the major MMA champs from the Milwaukee area, Pettis, is arguably the most exciting in the sport, while the other, Askren, arguably the most boring. And they both train together.

BTW, I made $136.40 on this event, so I can't be disappointed with how things turned out betting-wise. I've made a profit on 8 straight Bellator events. I selectively bet dogs and do my research on them.

REDDzone · Post #145 » by **REDDzone** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 3:36 am

I like Lima but I have no idea wtf he was doing at certain points. For example, what round (2?) was the fight stood up for the last bit of the round and Ben is just acting a fool with weird feints and Lima doesn't even throw a punch? That's your shot dude, go at him!

REDDzone · Post #146 » by **REDDzone** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 3:40 am

Btw, war Richman. Again, its hard for me to project how well guys will do when not facing the best competition in the world, so I didn't know what to think about this fight. But that dude is talented and tenacious as hell. Really happy for him that he got a big win under his belt. Say what you will about Horodecki, but he was a big step up for Richman.

Weird to think, this dude wasn't even main eventing local shows like a year or two ago, now he may soon have a chance to enter a bellator tourney. Sweet deal.

Bernman · Post #147 » by **Bernman** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 3:41 am

REDDzone wrote:I like Lima but I have no idea wtf he was doing at certain points. For example, what round (2?) was the fight stood up for the last bit of the round and Ben is just acting a fool with weird feints and Lima doesn't even throw a punch? That's your shot dude, go at him!

That happened at least twice. I was wondering the same thing. You don't have to worry about a TD at the end of a round, so you might as well throw the kitchen sink at him before the fight ends up on the ground inevitably in the subsequent round. I think it was a combination of being gassed and not wanting to break from his style of loading up on his strikes. It wouldn't likely have made a difference, but it would have been nice to see him give himself the best possible chance to win. Same thing in the 1st round when he slickly swept Askren, took his back, but then ceded position to go for a weak kimura. Askren was rnr'ed a few times by Shields in training. But I think Lima was way too confident in his BJJ on his back and said as much before the fight. He should learn from this.

REDDzone · Post #148 » by **REDDzone** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 4:13 am

Askren is a pretty amazing grappler with stellar submission defense.

Its funny how he makes no secret of his strategy, and how he literally just walks up to the person, grabs them, and does whatever the hell effective type of wrestling that he does and takes it to the mat. I'd almost like to see him do that for the opening of the first couple of rounds, and then when he "shoots" in the third, pop in an overhand if the opponent drops his hands. Just for the hell of it.

Cammo101 · Post #149 » by **Cammo101** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 5:58 am

Askren is an excellent grappler, but being in Bellator is stunting his growth big time. He is content to lay and pray his way to wins and as long as he is in Bellator, he will never have to do anything else. Because they have no way of finding top tier challenges for him.

Askren needs to find his way into the UFC, where he can fight elite guys who will force him to improve to reach his full potential.

SDM · Post #150 » by **SDM** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 10:50 am

Askren looks incredibly unathletic. He has the build of a washed up pro wrestler. He could fight at 155, no problem.

Agree with him needing to leave Bellator. When your own commentators mention that he has difficulty finishing "at this level" and the guy's your undefeated champion, something's gotta give.

Not a great card, all in all, but it did satisfy my immediate need to watch MMA. And I did manage to put some money on Marx when he hit +375.

Bernman · Post #151 » by **Bernman** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 4:55 pm

SDM wrote:Askren looks incredibly unathletic. He has the build of a washed up pro wrestler. He could fight at 155, no problem.

Agree with him needing to leave Bellator. When your own commentators mention that he has difficulty finishing "at this level" and the guy's your undefeated champion, something's gotta give.

You just explained why the level doesn't matter. He's a mediocre athlete for MMA. Moving to the UFC is not going to magically make him the more explosive, powerful athlete required to become a decent striker and to an extent finish subs. Plus, as if facing more dangerous opponents is going to make him less conservative.

Cammo101 · Post #152 » by **Cammo101** » Sat Apr 7, 2012 6:38 pm

Bernman wrote:
SDM wrote:Askren looks incredibly unathletic. He has the build of a washed up pro wrestler. He could fight at 155, no problem.

Agree with him needing to leave Bellator. When your own commentators mention that he has difficulty finishing "at this level" and the guy's your undefeated champion, something's gotta give.

You just explained why the level doesn't matter. He's a mediocre athlete for MMA. Moving to the UFC is not going to magically make him the more explosive, powerful athlete required to become a decent striker and to an extent finish subs. Plus, as if facing more dangerous opponents is going to make him less conservative.

Facing more dangerous opponents will force him to have to improve his striking and BJJ, or lose. It is not about becoming less conservative, it is about fighting guys who are at a level that you can't just wet blanket them for 5 rounds.

Bellator has no way of challenging Askren. Which means twice a year we get to look forward to watching Askren lay on someone while the announcers make excuses for him. At least Konrad is noticeably working his striking.

Post #153 » by **CPT** » Sun Apr 8, 2012 3:03 pm

Pretty unsatisfying event. 4 straight decisions, including a 5 round snoozer to cap it off.

The first 3 fights weren't bad, but left me feeling like the better fighter lost each one, even though I agreed with the decisions.

I'd like to see Askren fight a top 10 guy, but there's little chance of that happening in Bellator.

REDDzone · Post #154 » by **REDDzone** » Sun Apr 8, 2012 4:49 pm

Yea, that was the least entertaining bellator card so far imo. That's fine though, as the previous ones have been great.

Bernman · Post #155 » by **Bernman** » Mon Apr 9, 2012 2:01 am

REDDzone wrote:Yea, that was the least entertaining bellator card so far imo. That's fine though, as the previous ones have been great.

It was a good card in terms of relevance and names, but I had the suspicion it wouldn't be entertaining because of the presence of Askren, Iron, and Ueda. Even the one fight which on paper people thought had to be exciting, wasn't, because Sandro and Bezerra respected each other far too much. They need to set up more matches where there's disdain between the two fighters. There wasn't disdain between Askren or Lima either. If there was, maybe Askren would have went for finishes more, making those moments more captivating, while setting him up for sweeps. The one match on the main card I did actually enjoy was Iron-Ratinho. There was always something happening in that fight, mostly because of Ratinho's relentlessness and skill. He was tactically naive, but I'm looking forward to seeing that kid in his bright future, and if there is a replacement required going forward in the tourney, he's the first they should call.

REDDzone · Post #156 » by **REDDzone** » Mon Apr 9, 2012 4:07 am

Yea, I think the Sandro fight was what did it for me. He is usually in exciting fights, as is Bezerra. It was somehwat tactical but as you said, too much respect or something, sort of dull.

Bernman · Post #157 » by **Bernman** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:47 am

Bellator signed #6 BE HW prospect Ruslan Magomedov for their next HW tournament. He's an athletic, strong heavyweight with slick, diverse striking and subs. There's not enough information out there on his wrestling yet. His weakness is probably pain threshold right now (not chin). It's a much needed talent addition for their HW division after their travails with Blagoi, Monster, and Prindle.

Speaking of Blagoi, he's still alive, but it's like one day good news about his outlook and the next day bad. Never has there been an indication he'll fight again though.

Bellator is working on #1 HW prospect Magomed Malikov, and it sounds like the only hold-up is M1 like Sarnavskiy as well. They both want to come to Bellator, but M1 is at odds with them right now and they're a very exploitative organization as most are aware.

Still a deep card this week in spite of another fiasco involving Eric Prindle diminishing the card:

Dudu Dantas vs. Zach Makovsky
Daniel Straus vs. Mike Corey
Ed West vs. Marcos Galvao
Alexis Vila vs. Betao Nogueira
Lyman Good vs. LeVon Maynard
Kris McCray vs. Ailton Barbosa
Tim Carpenter vs. Ricardo Romero
E.J. Brooks vs. Mikhail Malyutin
Duane Bastress vs. Plinio Cruz
Kenny Foster vs. Jay Haas

This is probably the first can free prelims since Bellator 58.

REDDzone · Post #158 » by **REDDzone** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:13 am

Mike Richman was on sherdog radio today. I'm excited to listen to it tomorrow during work.

Bernman · Post #159 » by **Bernman** » Fri Apr 13, 2012 12:07 am

Who do you guys like in the Dudu-Makovsky fight? Could look like Pettis-Guida or Aldo-Mendes. I'm betting on Dantas, but that might be with my heart, which is why I only wagered a modicum.

Also, any other thoughts on the card? IMO E.J. Brooks is one to watch. Trying to keep the Missouri wrestling team (Askren, Chandler, and Woodley) unbeaten in MMA. He'll get a real test in the M-1 vet Mikhail Malyutin. And I think West beats Galvao. West is underrated. He's only lost to the elite at this weight, and against Dantas especially in competitive fashion. I think he beats Galvao on striking technique and sub defense. Galvao needs a high-level wrestler he can use his great TDD against or a suspect BJJ he can sub, to look good.

Cammo101 · Post #160 » by **Cammo101** » Fri Apr 13, 2012 12:27 am

I like Dantas. He is a HUGE step up in class for Makovsky, and I'm not sure Makovsky can keep him on his back.