Bellator General Discussion and Info

REDDzone · Post #21 » by **REDDzone** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:59 pm

When they first started it, the group of fighters were all either black or Brazilian, I guess.

Rashad, Bigfoot, whoever else.

Cammo101 · Post #22 » by **Cammo101** » Wed Feb 1, 2012 1:39 am

cowboyronnie wrote:What does "Blackzilian" mean? Why'd they choose it? It's not racial, with Van Arsedale and some others.

The original group that started it was half black and half Brazilian. So they decided to name themselves the Blackzilians.

High 5 · Post #23 » by **High 5** » Wed Feb 1, 2012 3:00 am

Cammo101 wrote:
cowboyronnie wrote:What does "Blackzilian" mean? Why'd they choose it? It's not racial, with Van Arsedale and some others.

The original group that started it was half black and half Brazilian. So they decided to name themselves the Blackzilians.

Post #24 » by **CPT** » Fri Feb 3, 2012 7:42 am

http://www.5thround.com/105003/war-mach ... to-prison/

Shocking.

CBR must be devastated.

On the bright side, there should be a spot open for another WW. Probably won't be anyone too exciting, but we can hope.

Just going through the rankings of non-Zuffa guys...

Does Hieron go back in the tournament?

Lyman Good? (what's his deal these days?)

Nate Marquardt? (was rumoured for 185, but was supposed to drop to 170)

Marius Zaromskis?

Bernman · Post #25 » by **Bernman** » Fri Feb 3, 2012 4:58 pm

Yeah, that was a dumb gamble by Bellator, for a guy with limited skills. They took the chance for marketability purposes, as War was scheduled to headline their WW tourney card.

This could be the first time a tourney participant's replacement is better. However, I'm learning to temper my expectations a bit more. Hoping for Good or Koreshkov. I'd be fine with Sapo Santos though. Expecting someone lower on the totem pole like Michael Costa, Steve Carl, Valdir Araujo, or Karavackas.

Hieron doesn't want to go through another tourney unless he's changed his mind since developing that stance.

The LW quarterfinals they just announced are alright, but I was expecting better before they started to reel off names:

Freire vs. Woodard
Tirloni vs. Hawn
Michel vs. Nazare
Weedman vs. Ambrose

They couldn't ink Sarnavskiy for this and matched up arguably their best members of the field (Tirloni, Hawn, Freire, Woodard) and arguably the worst (Weedman, Ambrose, Michel, Nazare).

Bernman · Post #26 » by **Bernman** » Wed Feb 8, 2012 5:12 pm

Updates:

Funky Ben Askren will defend his belt for a 2nd time on April 6th at Bellator 64 in Windsor, Ontario where he'll face Douglas "Phenom" Lima the season 5 WW tourney winner and former MFC champ. Lima's final fight in MFC took place in Windsor.

The following week at Bellator 65, Zach "Fun Size" Makovsky will defend his BW belt for the first time since earning it a year and a half earlier. He will face Brazilian teen heartthrob Eduardo Dantas.

Finally, on April 20th at Bellator 66, the much awaited rematch between former Bellator champ Eddie Alvarez and current Dream champ Shinya Aoki will take place.

Also of note, it's been reported that Bellator 64 will contain the featherweight semis, in addition the WW title fight. What's interesting about that is they bypassed a card specifically for the BW tourney. My guess is it will be spread out over the Bellator 62 and 63 main cards, and possibly they'll make a big fight between Ueda-Vila or Ueda-Galvao to headline 63.

Bernman · Post #27 » by **Bernman** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:41 pm

It sounds like Eddie will be transferring to the UFC after his contract expires in one or two more fights. That's not surprising considering he wasn't going to make nearly as much money per tourney fight and that would be his only road back to a championship in Bellator. To wit I think Bellator needs to reconsider having their super-fights supplement tournaments in the title system. It'd be better for keeping top non-champion fighters BFC established, luring in more top talents outside Zuffa like Khalidov, keeping their champions busy defense-wise, etc. As I've suggested before the best, most meritorious alternative would be to have the super-fight winners face tourney winners to earn the title.

Anyways, the cards are filling out for the upcoming season, and they're looking awesome. There's a legit headliner nearly every card unlike past seasons, overlapping tourneys, and more quality fights spilling onto prelims. Here's what's been reported so far:

Bellator 60; Hammond, Indiana

Pat Curran vs. Joe Warren for FW title
FW Quarters----
Marlon Sandro vs. Roberto Vargas
Ronnie Mann vs. Wagnney Fabiano
Daniel Straus vs. Jeremy Spoon
Alexandre Bezerra vs. Genair Da Silva
-----
Damian Grabowski vs. Mike Hayes
Josh Shockley vs. Shamar Bailey
Sean McCorkle vs. Richard White
Mike Corey vs. Bobby Reardanz

Bellator 61; Bossier City, Louisiana

Big Monster Santos vs. Eric Prindle for HW tourney title
MW Quarters-----
Brian Rogers vs. Vitor Vianna
Maiquel Falcao vs. Norman Paraisy
Vyacheslav Vasilevsky vs. Victor O'Donnell
Giva Santana vs. Bruno Santos
------
Trey Houston vs. Jeremiah Riggs (watch out for Houston, he's the 185-lb Michael Chandler)

Bellator 62; Laredo, Texas

Patricky Freire vs. Cupcake Woodard
Rick Hawn vs. Ricardo Tirloni
Brent Weedman vs. JJ Ambrose
Thiago Michel vs. Rene Nazare

Bellator 63; Uncasville, Connecticut

Brian Baker vs. Carlos Indio
Karl Amoussou vs. Chris Lozano
Brian Foster vs. David Rickles
Ben Saunders vs. Raul Amaya
BW quarters? (2?)

Bellator 64; Windsor, Ontario

Ben Askren vs. Douglas Lima for WW title
FW semis
BW quarters (2?)
Chris Horodecki vs. TBA
Chad Laprise vs. TBA

Bellator 65; Atlantic City

Zach Makovsky vs. Eduardo Dantas for BW title
MW semis
Lyman Good vs. Levon Maynard
Tim Carpenter vs. Ricardo Romero
Duane Bastress vs. Plinio Cruz

Bellator 66:

Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki
LW quarters

SDM · Post #28 » by **SDM** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:03 pm

I'm excited to see Cupcake fight again, been almost a year since his last action. He's entertaining and has an awesome mustache.

Bernman · Post #29 » by **Bernman** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:33 pm

He's one of my favorites regardless of organization. Hopefully he's fully recovered from the knee and jaw surgeries.

Bernman · Post #30 » by **Bernman** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:12 pm

Bellator signed Zaromskis. He's not a world beater, but decent, and obviously one of the more exciting fighters in the sport.

REDDzone · Post #31 » by **REDDzone** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:16 pm

Please tell me he is going to drop to lw.

WW? Meh. I'd love to see him at 55 in bellator though.

Gold Chain · Post #32 » by **Gold Chain** » Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:06 pm

Bernman wrote:Bellator signed Zaromskis. He's not a world beater, but decent, and obviously one of the more exciting fighters in the sport.

I saw him get beaten at a show here in Toronto by Mein.

Yeah, he's exciting, but that's one hell of a risky style.

Bernman · Post #33 » by **Bernman** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:09 pm

Blagoi Ivanov was jumped by 7 or 8 men outside a bar and got stabbed last night in Bulgaria. The knife entered underneath his armpit and reached his heart. He is in critical condition.

Huge blow to Bellator's HW division. The guy had a great future. Hopefully he can recover from this, more importantly for his life.

REDDzone · Post #34 » by **REDDzone** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:28 pm

HOLY ****.

Unreal.

SDM · Post #35 » by **SDM** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:39 pm

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/2/26/28 ... g-for-life

Crazy stuff.

Bernman · Post #36 » by **Bernman** » Mon Mar 5, 2012 4:24 pm

Great news! Ivanov's condition has stabilized and he's regained consciousness.

Next step now is recovering to the point he can return to MMA.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=137265

That adds to the good news for Bellator/MMA fans that the start of season 6 is just 4 days away.

And they're kicking off the new season in style.

Curran vs. Warren
Sandro vs. Vargas
Straus vs. Spoon
Mann vs. Corey
Bezerra vs. Da Silva
Shockley vs. Bailey
Wiuff vs. Gomez
McCorkle vs. White

Can't wait!

cowboyronnie · Post #37 » by **cowboyronnie** » Mon Mar 5, 2012 7:19 pm

^^ Unfortunately, they've front loaded the events to the point where the second and third have nooobody.

Bernman · Post #38 » by **Bernman** » Mon Mar 5, 2012 9:04 pm

cowboyronnie wrote:^^ Unfortunately, they've front loaded the events to the point where the second and third have nooobody.

The only event which looks somewhat lackluster to me is Bellator 63, but Carlos Indio may be the debut I'm most looking forward to. He's a Wand-esque killer.

61 and 62 don't have any true main events, maybe (although there's Monster-Prindle), but some depth in good match-ups between Hawn-Tirloni, Freire-Woodard, Rogers-Vianna, Santos-Santana, etc. Also people should really check out Trey Houston on the preliminary card at Bellator 61. I think he'll be a Michael Chandler level star in the MW division.

I think it should be noted, they are still filling out cards. They don't usually finalize them until a week or two in advance. 61 still only has 6 fights listed less than a week away.

cowboyronnie · Post #39 » by **cowboyronnie** » Mon Mar 5, 2012 9:26 pm

I'll admit, I don't follow MMA very closely at all anymore. I could well be missing gems. But I do recognize a bunch of names on the first event card and next to none on the other two.

I actually find it awkward watching Prindle. He's the sweetest guy and fighting for an adorable family and never has the slightest negative emotion towards his opponents. I can't watch that. It's much easier watching assh*les and bad blood. The fact he's hugging and well-wishing his opponent after, it's too much.

Bernman · Post #40 » by **Bernman** » Mon Mar 5, 2012 10:13 pm

There are less former UFC and major Japanese organization fighters included on the following cards. But that's what will likely make them better, outside the headliners. They don't have the means sign many established fighters, so they get mostly leftovers. Whereas prospect-wise they're going toe-to-toe with Zuffa. And if they achieve success in Bellator, they are locked into long-term contracts like with Zuffa. You have to follow Bellator and prospect reports to know that their original finds are somebodies.