Bellator General Discussion and Info

Cammo101 · Post #481 » by **Cammo101** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 12:16 am

There is a lot of people online calling that Page fight last night a work.

SDM · Post #482 » by **SDM** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 12:35 am

I don't think he was hurt as badly as he played up, but it was a local can being led to slaughter anyway. No sense in prolonging that.

ShowtimeFan · Post #483 » by **ShowtimeFan** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 4:46 pm

The March 20th Fight card was the WORST Bellator I have ever watched, lucking, I DVR'd it and watched the entire program in 30 minutes...!

Bernman · Post #484 » by **Bernman** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 7:58 pm

It was the worst of the season almost for sure. Like I said there were a lot of mismatches and not enough quality fights/fighters. So that was one to ideally DVR to avoid all the gaps and skip over fights of lesser interest.

Next week isn't that great either, although much improved. You got the two solid tourney finals, Mann-Ratinho was added I think which is a fantastic fight, and then Houston-Melo is decent. Plus the prelims are significantly deeper and more well matched.

The one two weeks from now is the one to really look forward too though.

Anybody who says Page's fight was a work is a dimwit. Who set up that work? Certainly Bellator wouldn't jeopardize 4 years of building for one guy. And even if the punch didn't land cleanly, his opponent ran into it. He was bleeding too. He quit from a little pain. Maybe it's not the sport for him. He only had 7 fights, and was 4-3, so he had not proven much.

ShowtimeFan · Post #485 » by **ShowtimeFan** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 3:14 pm

Bernman wrote:Next week isn't that great either, although much improved. You got the two solid tourney finals, Mann-Ratinho was added I think which is a fantastic fight, and then Houston-Melo is decent. Plus the prelims are significantly deeper and more well matched.

The one two weeks from now is the one to really look forward too though.

AGREE 100%

Cammo101 · Post #486 » by **Cammo101** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:49 am

Ballator continues to have the pound for pound best groin shots in all of MMA. Houston got absolutely blasted in the nuts.

Rumor has it Aguilar got an absolute gift of a decision, but I have not watched it yet.

I heart Emanuel Newton.

Jasen777 · Post #487 » by **Jasen777** » Sat Mar 30, 2013 6:07 pm

So I guess taking a rest at the end of the round after getting knocked down is a bad thing to do...

Gibby · Post #488 » by **Gibby** » Mon Apr 1, 2013 5:45 pm

Sick card this week folks. Worth watching for sure. Curran is a freakin beast.

cowboyronnie · Post #489 » by **cowboyronnie** » Tue Apr 2, 2013 3:35 am

Curran is the real deal, beautiful movement. Chandler the best guy in the org, Curran the second?

Bad week this past one for Bellator. Lousy, C-class fighters. Throw Rickels to Chandler before the summer so MC can move on to a superfight worth his time in the fall.

cowboyronnie · Post #490 » by **cowboyronnie** » Tue Apr 2, 2013 3:40 am

Seems there's a ceiling on Russian guys? They're exciting - esp as they rise as prospects - but Volkov and Shlemenko and this FW guy...I think there's a limit on how high they can do. The kickboxing/sambo combo, with the character that EE fighters bring, doesn't it only go so far? The top MMA fighters have something else, an athleticism or specific skill-set that the Russian guys can't match. American wrestlers like Chandler or Brazilian vale tudo guys like the BW guym they're a cut above.

Cammo101 · Post #491 » by **Cammo101** » Tue Apr 2, 2013 4:15 am

cowboyronnie wrote:Curran is the real deal, beautiful movement. Chandler the best guy in the org, Curran the second?

IMO...

1. Askren
2. Chandler
3. Curran
4. Dantas
5. Koreshkov

Bernman · Post #492 » by **Bernman** » Tue Apr 2, 2013 8:16 pm

I think Askren has to be below Chandler, Curran, and Dantas.

Askren's improving, as evidenced by his last fight, but there are still deficiencies like stand-up and offensive BJJ holding him back.

Chandler is the total package.

And Dantas, I know he lost to Nam, but I think that's one of the biggest flukes in MMA history. He threw a double flying knee attack he probably wouldn't be so cocky to try if he were fighting Nam in Bellator for the title (not that he'd ever get close) rather than some charity event in Brazil. Dantas is a sick fighter, and I wish Bellator would have held a BW tourney this season so we wouldn't have to wait until fall to see him again. It sucks.

I agree with Cammo that Koreshkov is a Russian in Bellator without much of a ceiling. Minakov too. Fedor was a sambo/kickboxer and look at him. He's arguably the GOAT. I kind of know what Ronnie's saying, but everybody is an individual. Fedor had good awareness, athleticism, and skill. So do Koreshkov and Minakov. They aren't getting by on toughness/a machine attitude, and training, like maybe Frodo, Shlemenko, etc. do. We'll get a glimpse into how high of a ceiling Shamhalaev has this week.

Incidentally, a blogger named MMA Sun is reporting Bellator is close to signing Josh Barnett, Mamed Khalidov, and Bobby Lashley. Take it FWIW. Lashley is mostly hype, but the other two would be major scores. Especially Khalidov when it's being reported in places that Vasilevsky is being forced to return to M-1. Vasilevsky was their biggest threat to Shlemenko.

Cammo101 · Post #493 » by **Cammo101** » Tue Apr 2, 2013 8:21 pm

I've been waiting years to see Khalidov fight some elite talent. I'd prefer him in the UFC, but I'd be happy with Bellator as well. He has long been one of the best fighters in the world not in a major org.

REDDzone · Post #494 » by **REDDzone** » Tue Apr 2, 2013 8:24 pm

cowboyronnie wrote:Seems there's a ceiling on Russian guys? They're exciting - esp as they rise as prospects - but Volkov and Shlemenko and this FW guy...I think there's a limit on how high they can do. The kickboxing/sambo combo, with the character that EE fighters bring, doesn't it only go so far? The top MMA fighters have something else, an athleticism or specific skill-set that the Russian guys can't match. American wrestlers like Chandler or Brazilian vale tudo guys like the BW guym they're a cut above.

I'm not even sure if I 100% agree with this, but if true I wonder when it comes to these Russian sambo guys if its kind of a 'jack of all trades but master of none' syndrome. The top of the litter (mostly brazilian) bjj guys seem to be the best true submission technicians in the world, the American wrestlers seem to have the most explosive takedowns and best top control in the world (and therefore get favorable judging), and I haven't really noted a deficiency in the Russian sambo guys stand-up games relative to other groups, but maybe there is something there that someone with more knowledge than me can speak to as well. The converse of this is that we don't really seem to see these guys with tons of gaping holes in their games like for example some euro guys have with their lack of wrestling.

SDM · Post #495 » by **SDM** » Fri Apr 5, 2013 3:58 pm

RE: the Russians... I wonder if there's something to be gained from where the fighters are from and we should perhaps think of Russia as a continent or maybe even consider former Soviet boundaries. Two of Bellator's guys are from Dagestan, which is surrounded by powerhouse eastern European/central Asian wrestling/judo countries and I imagine those styles of grappling are more ubiquitous than a sambo influence from Siberia several thousand miles away.

Also, Dana needs to offer whatever he can to pry Curran away to have him fight Aldo. Don't care about anyone else at 145 except for this.

cowboyronnie · Post #496 » by **cowboyronnie** » Fri Apr 5, 2013 5:43 pm

Doug Marshall's making a run for biggest douche in MMA.

Reinforces this every time we see him.

Jasen777 · Post #497 » by **Jasen777** » Fri Apr 5, 2013 6:12 pm

cowboyronnie wrote:Reinforces this every time we see him.

Yep total douche move.

SDM · Post #498 » by **SDM** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:16 pm

King Mo and Babalu will be in the 4 man LHW summer tourney. So much for not using retreads.

Bernman · Post #499 » by **Bernman** » Tue Apr 16, 2013 3:06 am

Bellator's summer series will begin on June 19th. That's not a Thursday. That's a Wednesday. I don't know if that's special for this event, or the summer series, but more likely a sign of things to come.

Bellator have gotten the majority of benefit from TNA already. Most of those pro wrestling fans who would become fans of Bellator/MMA, have already. So at this point there would be more negatives about using TNA as a lead-in than positives. The time slot wasn't helping them in a number of ways. People were going to sleep before the end of their broadcast, they were tape delayed out west on cable which doesn't help a live event, and it hurt their flexibility to televise more fights on the main card or prelims on MTV2 or what not. And of note, TNA's ratings tanked without Bellator last week. So they weren't the lead-in they appeared all season anyway.

As far as the Bellator 96 card info:

Location: Oklahoma

Fights (at this early juncture):
Mo vs. M'Pumbu
War Machine vs. TBA
Petruzelli vs. TBA

Bernman · Post #500 » by **Bernman** » Thu Apr 18, 2013 2:07 am

Bellator signed Vlad Matyshenko. He won't be in the tourney. I hope he's not in their long-term plans at 42 and a Zuffa reject, rather to build prospect's names and give them a measuring stick before the tourney. Kind of like they did with Pellegrino.

SDM, where did you hear Babalu got another invite? I have heard nothing about it.