Bellator 90: King Mo/Newton, Shamhalaev/Martinez, Lima/Baker

Bernman · Post #1 » by **Bernman** » Wed Feb 6, 2013 7:14 pm

Bellator 90, February 21st, Salt Lake City, Utah:

Radley Martinez vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev, Season 7 FW Final
King Mo vs. Emanuel Newton, Season 8 LHW Semi
Douglas Lima vs. Bryan Baker, Season 8 WW Semi
Ben Saunders vs. Raul Amaya II, Season 8 WW Semi
Chase Beebe vs. Travis Marx, BW Qualifier

Bernman · Post #2 » by **Bernman** » Sun Feb 10, 2013 8:20 pm

This is a pretty loaded card.

Supposedly the other LHW Semi Zayats-Noe will be included as well as Jordan Smith-David Gomez.

Deep 5-fight main card, good top of prelims so far.

ShowtimeFan · Post #3 » by **ShowtimeFan** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 2:08 am

I dig watching Ben Saunders, he just fought, odd to see him fight again so soon...!

Bernman · Post #4 » by **Bernman** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 8:18 pm

Official Full Card:

Shahbulat Shamhalaev-Rad Martinez
King Mo-Manny Newton
Douglas Lima-Bryan Baker
Ben Saunders-Raul Amaya
Mikhal Zayats-Jacob Noe

Travis Marx-Chase Beebe
Jordan Smith-Jesse Juarez
Trevor Carlson-Terry Davinney
Shanon Slack-Josh Tyler
Dave Allred-Sean Powers
Lionel Lanham-Joe Rodriguez

Bernman · Post #5 » by **Bernman** » Wed Feb 20, 2013 1:26 am

This is an excellent midweek free card guys. Respect!

I know there are a # of Killa B fans here. F.Y.I. his fight against Amaya will now be on the prelims live, so you'll miss it unless you tune in to Spike.com or they have time to replay it. Beebe-Marx, and Smith-Juarez are a couple other good main card fights so it should be worthwhile to check it out overall. The prelims have been pretty poor this season because they've been heavily reaching on local fighters to sell tickets, but this card looks different.

Who do you like in these match-ups?

Shahbulat Shamhalaev-Rad Martinez
King Mo-Manny Newton
Douglas Lima-Bryan Baker
Ben Saunders-Raul Amaya
Mikhal Zayats-Jacob Noe
Travis Marx-Chase Beebe

Bernman · Post #6 » by **Bernman** » Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:05 am

You guys are going to miss out on a good card:

http://www.bellator.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23600&ATCLID=205394931&KEY=

Bernman · Post #7 » by **Bernman** » Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:25 am

That's what you get for sleeping on this card. I knew Newton had a good shot at winning and bet on him. I got him at +775. I should have stayed on him because he moved almost up to +975. One of the biggest upsets in MMA history from an odds perspective, but you shouldn't be shocked if you watched Newton over the years. He arguably beat everybody in his last 20+ fights but Raphael Davis.

Jasen777 · Post #8 » by **Jasen777** » Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:34 am

I guess that's why they're always yelling to keep you hands up.

REDDzone · Post #9 » by **REDDzone** » Fri Feb 22, 2013 5:27 am

Mo says he got caught. Yea, he got caught showing how rudimentary mma striking can be. His hands are sitting at his waist. I'll never understand this.

SDM · Post #10 » by **SDM** » Fri Feb 22, 2013 5:54 am

He was always overrated and Newton was always underrated, so whatever.

Bernman · Post #11 » by **Bernman** » Fri Feb 22, 2013 7:30 am

REDDzone wrote:Mo says he got caught. Yea, he got caught showing how rudimentary mma striking can be. His hands are sitting at his waist. I'll never understand this.

He was losing up until that point so the excuse he made doesn't fly.

That was a really good card overall. Even some of the prelims were ridiculously fun, namely Jordan Smith-Jesse Juarez and this Danny Downes looking guy who was tough as nails and always going for the finish eventually achieving it.

As for the other more notable fights on the card, Lima and Shamhalaev are beasts. Lima is a top 10 talent with ridiculous power. Hopefully he's made some adjustments since his first fight with Askren. And Shamhalaev's setups on the feet are really slick and also has crazy power for a smaller weight guy. He really sits down on his punches. His striking credential list in Russia is a mile long and it shows.

cowboyronnie · Post #12 » by **cowboyronnie** » Fri Feb 22, 2013 8:41 pm

The back-fist aside, Newtown looked fantastic. He was hitting an overhand right and finishing with body kicks. And perfect plan to use a spinning technique against a guy who has been doing boxing sparring with that Mayweather defense. Oh, man. Newton looked great. And Lawal just arrogant and stupid. Mo in his last fight had his hands at his waist teh whole fight. He was facing a nobody then, and got away with it, but should have tightened things up against this dude. Just over-confident. Woah. BOTH hands down is the thing. There's tons of logic in having your lead loose and leaving it down, but Mo was just being sloppy.

ShowtimeFan · Post #13 » by **ShowtimeFan** » Fri Feb 22, 2013 9:09 pm

King Mo needs to add Ron to his name so it is like this: King Mo-Ron!
Being Cocky ONLY works when you can back it up and he acts WAY too cocky for having won so few fights, he needs to get back to the gym with a new trainer and look to change up his style, being a counter-punching-head-hunter is bad style, for someone so talented.

I am glad Saunders won, but he lost to Lima last year and I have no illusions that he can beat him this year, mabey if he can get him to the ground..

That being said, Lima vs Askern is going to be the same as last year, with Ben throwing him on the ground and working him. That is why I am hoping Saunders can somehow beat Lima and we could have the two Bens going at it. Saunders has a decent ground game and is super flexible, so he "might" pose a problem for Askern, but I do not see him beating him...

Watching Shahbulat "Assassin" Shamhalaev, I am not sure that Pat Curran can beat this guy, when Shah-Sham hits you, you go down and Pat does a lot of counter-punching and has so-so defense, he is taller 5'9" vs 5'6" but I would not bet against Shah-Sham... We may have a new champiopn soon...

Post #14 » by **Shaazzam** » Sat Feb 23, 2013 6:50 am

Wow, some dudes got messed up on this card.

REDDzone · Post #15 » by **REDDzone** » Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:00 pm

Finally got to watch this. Crazy event, lots of finishes which is good.

There isn't a fighter in the sport I'd rather watch than Ben Saunders. He catches the plum, opponent escapes and he's already moving forward again. No resetting. Move forward. Lima looked good as usual, opponent just drops. I was pumped for a Lima/Saunders rematch but he already seems beaten based on that interview. Seems like he knows (rightfully) that Lima is better. I'd like to see Saunders win just to see a new Askren opponent though. The first fight wasn't competitive iirc.

Watching Shamhalaev, that dude is powerful as hell, wow. Excited for that title fight.

SDM · Post #16 » by **SDM** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 3:45 pm

Saunders getting cut from UFC was very strange. I don't think he's a contender there, but he could hang with a bunch of the division. I guess they figured he wouldn't improve and would be a fairly one dimensional guy or maybe they confused him with Kendall Grove and kept the crappy one. The way he cut up Wolff was nasty and it made me small fan of his.

cowboyronnie · Post #17 » by **cowboyronnie** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:38 pm

A little dsiappointed Saunders went after the guy even after he'd folded from the headkick. The ref was there, he dodged him to get another huge shot in and then even an elbow. The ref wasn't that definitive, but it was still unnecessary. Killer instinct, I also get. But still...

cowboyronnie · Post #18 » by **cowboyronnie** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:49 pm

I was thinking, 'Bryan Baker is really bad' (why is he moving like that, skipping around?) and he immediately got KOd. This guy won the tourney twice??

Bernman · Post #19 » by **Bernman** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 9:18 pm

cowboyronnie wrote:I was thinking, 'Bryan Baker is really bad' (why is he moving like that, skipping around?) and he immediately got KOd. This guy won the tourney twice??

Na, he never won a tourney. He made 2 finals and lost them both. Much has been made about how he has never been able to get over the hump. I didn't think he deserved to get past his first round opponent in one of the two tourneys where he made the finals. He hasn't really been the same since being afflicted w/ cancer.