Bellator 96, Wed. 6/19, 7/6 EST, Followed by Fight Master

[Bernman]

King Mo vs. Seth Petruzelli, LHW Semi
Vitaly Minakov vs. Ron Sparks, HW Semi
Richard Hale vs. Ryan Martinez, HW Semi
Babalu vs. Jacob Noe, LHW Semi
War Machine vs. Blas Avena
Keith Berry vs. Cortez Coleman, WW Qualifier
Brandon Halsey vs. Joe Yager, LHW Alternate
Chavous Smith vs. Mike Maldanado
Raphael Butler vs. Jer O'Neil
Derek Campos vs. Brandon Girtz
Damon Jackson vs. Keith Miner

[SDM]

HW tourney is updated:

[Bernman]

I'm thoroughly disappointed by the change in size and the selections for both tournaments. Outside of one standout in each (Mo at LHW, Minakov at HW), and Hale being acceptable too, they had far better options their roster if you're knowledgeable about it. We might be starting to see the Viacom fingerprints on the organization. Dana is biased, but maybe he was right about them taking over. It reminds me of the Bucks when they were awesome in the 70's and 80's, then Herb Kohl bought the team, they were still good for a few years, but not quite to the same extent, and eventually he dragged them down by thinking he knew anything about the sport. Viacom thinks they know about the sport too even though they are TV execs. They took credit for UFC's rise, which is delusional. Now they own an MMA promotion. I loved the direction in which Bellator was going without them. All they needed was a platform to give their talent exposure, time to sign and develop more prospects, and to make some logical tweaks to the tourney system and schedule to make it work better. They had a strong foundation. Instead it appears they are blowing up much of that foundation and building a weaker one in place, rather than adding the finishes touches. It's unfortunate. I might be wrong, but that's what it's starting to look like from the outside.

[ShowtimeFan]

some good fights here, I can't wait for it...!

[Bernman]

Reportedly, Jansen has gotten injured in training, but thankfully Rickels is lying in wait. He has about 3 and a half weeks to prepare from when he was informed of the change.

Rickels is the same type of opponent as Jansen, so this news doesn't make much difference to me. His chance to win primarily lies in cardio and durability. It's a minor chance though. They'll both make Chandler look bad though because they won't go away.

This fight, as well as the Minakov debut against a live opponent, are what I'm looking forward to the most.

[REDDzone]

Rickels is a super tough guy. Chandler is just on another level.

[Bernman]

It's tomorrow.

Chandler's next title defense was moved to next month and Jansen replaced w/ Rickels, if you haven't heard.

Also, Ryan Martinez replaced Vinicus Spartan against Rich Hale in the HW tourney. That's an upgrade, actually.

[Cammo101]

Rickels is a super tough guy. Chandler is just on another level.

There is no one on Bellator's roster (excluding Eddie Alvarez) who has anything for Chandler. He is a cut above all those dudes.

[Bernman]

Martinez made quick work of Hale. He had trouble wading inside for a bit, but eventually got there, man-handled Hale to the ground, and then turned his lights out with one or two flips of the switch. He could be one of those very good major org HW's like Roy Nelson if he lost like 20 lbs. As is he's a powerhouse, with good technical striking, who can hurt you if he gets a hold of you.

Minakov's is the fight I'm most looking forward to on the main card. He probably has Sparks out-classed, but needs to watch out for the power early, and shouldn't play with fire for too long. I'm a little concerned about his weight. It's up to 246. I liked him most when he was 235-240 with cat-like quickness.

[Jasen777]

War Machine by crucifix!

[Bernman]

Minakov hits ridiculously hard, and is pretty technical for a guy standing for a guy who comes from sport sambo. He feinted in and out, before coming back in with that straight right, and he ducked his head a little all the while to avoid any strike which may be coming back at him. That's a good strategy in HW where fighters not named JDS and Dave Herman struggle to get their kicks to head height.

All in all, that was a bad night of fights though. The mismatches were out of control. Their wasn't much action like that last UFC Brasil.

Now let me check out this reality show debut.

[Jasen777]

Fight Master debut was ok I guess. Don't know the wisdom of taking 3 weeks (presumably) to get through the entrance fights.

[SDM]

Babalu retired.

Did he shove the ref after the stoppage? I didn't watch.

EDIT: He did! Ever the a-hole, this Babalu.

[Cammo101]

I actually liked the first episode of Fight Master more than I expected to. I think the decision to make it more about the coaches hid the lack of talent (outside of Lozano) on the show and I like the idea of the guys picking their teams. Not sure if they can keep me once the show goes into the house and becomes more about the fighters, but so far so good.

[Bernman]

Can't ever get more than a back-handed compliment about Bellator from Cammo.

The talent is every bit as good as TUF's, maybe better. Barnes and Matthews show promise. It's too bad Curtis didn't win and that other lay and prayer did. Curtis was beating him up at the beginning. They are kind of tipping off who will win some of the matches by the fact they are taking pro bouts elsewhere already.

I kind of liked the episode, but not sure how I feel about showing highlights of fights, and we don't know what the format will be after their isn't so many matches to get thru that round. They could revert to showing shenanigans in the house. I preferred the interviews in between so far.

[Cammo101]

That was a compliment. I didn't expect to like it and I did. I still maintain that outside of Lozano the talent level is significantly lower than the average TUF season (which is not exactly loaded lately either). TUF barely holds my interest anymore either, for the record.

That said, I like that they did not just copy TUF format and that they are bringing some new ideas to the table.

[Jasen777]

We've seen less than a third of the fighters and it's obviously hard to tell how good a group is if they're only fighting each other (not to mention not seeing all of the whole fights). But it was a TUF I'd probably be thinking this could be the worst one ever, talent-wise.

[Cammo101]

We've seen less than a third of the fighters and it's obviously hard to tell how good a group is if they're only fighting each other (not to mention not seeing all of the whole fights). But it was a TUF I'd probably be thinking this could be the worst one ever, talent-wise.

I haven't seen most of these guys fight, but on record and reputation, it ain't a good group. Hopefully some of the guys prove to be solid fighters.

[Bernman]

We've seen less than a third of the fighters and it's obviously hard to tell how good a group is if they're only fighting each other (not to mention not seeing all of the whole fights). But it was a TUF I'd probably be thinking this could be the worst one ever, talent-wise.

The last TUF WW winner, Colton Smith, was 3-1 and KO'ed by a member of this Fight Master cast, Steve Montgomery.

Barnes, Matthews, and Lozano from that first show are far more talented than Colton Smith. I've especially seen enough from Lozano to know he'd wreck Colton Smith.

Secor should have gotten to at least the quarters in that TUF 16 show, and he's terrible.

The semis of that show were Smith, Manley, Ricci (average 155 lber), and Magny. That's a pretty damn low level group for WW's.

This show has easily superior talent to TUF's last WW edition. Granted, that may have been the worst TUF cast ever, but you said FM's group would have represented the worst TUF cast ever, and that far from represents the truth. Even if you're just basing that statement on what you have seen so far, it's not remotely accurate.

[REDDzone]

I'm not too impressed with the cast either, but how are we judging them? Didn't Colton Smith just win a tuf? Doubt that cast could have been too much better than this one.

That said, the best tufs are pretty clearly better imo.

edit: didn't see bern's post.