Bellator 87: Lightweight Tournament (Jan. 31st)

[Bernman]

Main Card:

Lloyd Woodard vs. David Rickels
Thiago Michel vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy
Patricky Freire vs. Guillame De Lorenzi
Will Brooks vs. Ricardo Tirloni
Shamil Zavurov vs. TBA
Jason Fischer vs. Saad Awad
Amir Khillah vs. John Schultz
Karl Etherington vs. TBA
Cody Stamann vs. Justin Houghton
Tony Zelinski vs. TBA

This is their best tourney by far of the ones announced so far this season, and it's arguably their best ever. A lot of depth and exciting match-ups here. Watch out for Will Brooks. He just smashed Kitaoka in Dream.

[LittleOzzy]

Lightweight Patricky Freire vs. Guillaume DeLorenzi
Lightweight Lloyd Woodard vs. David Rickels
Lightweight Thiago Michel vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy
Lightweight Will Brooks vs. Ricardo Tirloni

Preliminary Card (Spike.com)
Lightweight Saad Awad vs. Jason Fischer
Welterweight Sam Quito vs. Ben Lagman
Lightweight James Reese vs. David Shepherd
Featherweight Cody Stamann vs. Justin Houghton
Heavyweight Jason Fish vs. Karl Etherington
Lightweight John Schulz vs. Amir Killah
Bantamweight Nick Kirk vs. Tony Zelinski

[ShowtimeFan]

My Picks:
Lightweight Patricky Freire vs. Guillaume DeLorenzi
Lightweight Lloyd Woodard vs. David Rickels
Lightweight Thiago Michel vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy
Lightweight Will Brooks vs. Ricardo Tirloni



Also if you are into numbers (Like I do), the (8) Fighters have combined for an overall record of 99-15. And out of the (99) wins there were only (15) decisions, meaning a KO or Submission has happened 85% of the time, so these will be competitive matches that may not go the distance...!

[SDM]

Once you take out the Russian and Brazilian cans these dudes have fought, you get a lot more decisions.

[Bernman]

I think all these guys try to finish at every turn, but Michel.

He's definitely a guy who seems to not want to break out of being technical.

Patricky got injured so he's out of his fight w/ De Lorenzi. That takes away another fun fight on the night, but doesn't hurt the tournament as far as contenders went. Patricky was decent, but kind of like Bellator's Guillard. Extremely overrated because of how explosive and offensive talented he is. But is kind of lacking in the other departments, including fight I.Q. I had De Lorenzi beating him too like Showtime.

I've got Woodard, Brooks, and Michel in the other matches. It's too bad Tirloni or Sarnavskiy couldn't be now facing Awad instead. They'd be more interesting semifinalists than De Lorenzi probably. Although he is kind of a darkhorse to win it. He's the least understood of all the participants due to his injury history, drop down in weight class, and dark bout on his last Bellator show.

[LittleOzzy]

Some very bloody fights tonight.

[Bernman]

Good fights, as expected.

My picks were a little off.

Ill Will Brooks or Alexander Sarnavskiy will be a legit opponent for Michael Chandler or Eddie Alvarez (should his contract situation get resolved soon).

Sarnavskiy showed quite a bit of improvement in his striking defense and transferred his slick grappling from Russia finally.

Brooks looked the part beforehand and during, with the quick, beautifully timed shots, effortless sub D, and good footwork, plus solid combos on the feet. Both were coups by Bellator.

[Cammo101]

Did anyone else find it curious that Bellator decided to fill time with a fight Migs butchered? You would think they would want to keep that fight buried.

[cowboyronnie]

Nah, man that was a perfectly legit stoppage. Don't slap your effing leg while you agonize if someone's got you in a leg lock. It's entirely that fighter's fault. It's in his control. Like, hey, if someone's got you in a guillotine, look alive, don't go immobile for 5+ seconds - the misperceptions that will happen are obvious and you're gonna bear the consequences if you don't consider them.

That main event was terriblly sloppy.