Bellator Season 5

How do you see the season playing out this fall?

Bantamweight
Joe Warren vs. Alexis Vila
Ed West vs. Luis Alberto Nogueira
Joe Soto vs. Eduardo Dantas
Marcos Galvao vs. Chase Beebe

Welterweight
Douglas Lima vs. Steve Carl
Dan Hornbuckle vs. Luis Santos
Ben Saunders vs. Chris Cisneros
Brent Weedman vs. Chris Lozano

Middleweight
Alexander Shlemenko vs. Zelg Galesic
Bryan Baker vs. Jared Hess
Brian Rogers vs. Victor O'Donnell
Vitor Vianna vs. Sam Alvey

They still have not announced the HW pairings or participants so... Here are some Bellator HWs to consider.
These guys are listed as participants.
Neil Grove
Ron Sparks
Eric Prindle
These guys are on the Bellator Website or have recently fought for them.
Damian Grabowski
Seth Petruzelli
Shane Howell
Carlos Flores
Blagoi Ivanov
Tony Johnson Jr.
Paul Buentello
Rogent Lloret
Thiago Santos
Liron Wilson
Mark Holata
Mike Hayes
Azunna Anyanwu

Bantamweight
Joe Warren vs. Alexis Vila
Ed West vs. Luis Alberto Nogueira
Joe Soto vs. Eduardo Dantas
Marcos Galvao vs. Chase Beebe

I think Warren is the obvious favorite to lay/cage in pray to the title shot. But really he is impressive. Been in the deep end since day one.

Nog might be a sleeper, will be good to see more from him.

Wouldn't surprise me to see Soto upset by Dantas. He is another young promising, more experienced prospect.

Bebe is probably the next favorite but I doubt he gets to the finals.

This is a pretty sweet mix of experience and potential in this tourney, Makovsky will have his work cut out for him when he faces the fighter that emerges from this field.

Welterweight
Douglas Lima vs. Steve Carl
Dan Hornbuckle vs. Luis Santos
Ben Saunders vs. Chris Cisneros
Brent Weedman vs. Chris Lozano

Lima is my favorite in this field. But the level of competition looks most even here so, who knows. Steve Carl is interesting first round matchup. Could be a mat fight.

Lozano is my sleeper, and Santos with all that experience.

Don't know what to expect from Cisneros, so I expect Saunders to rough him up.

Not expecting a Hornbuckle vs Weedman rematch, probably Saunders vs Lima in the finals. I expect either to be an underdog though against Heiron or Arsken, for now anyways.

Middleweight
Alexander Shlemenko vs. Zelg Galesic
Bryan Baker vs. Jared Hess
Brian Rogers vs. Victor O'Donnell
Vitor Vianna vs. Sam Alvey

I think this will be the most exciting tourney.

Guys I expect and hope to move into the semis are: Shlemenko, Baker and O'Donnell. That would set up something good I think.

Galesic... Don't know much, I hope Shlemenko can finish him with some of the excitement he is capable of.

Baker is violent, he'll beat up Hess and hopefully set up a rematch with Shlemenko.

Rogers sounds exciting, don't think I've ever seen him go. I've seen O'Donnell a few times. His fight with Chris Camozzi was one of my favorite ever on TUF. Either would be good.

No expectations on the Alvey vs Vianna. I'll just pick Vianna I guess.

I think Baker can win this and I think he could set up a tough fight with Lombard.

As far as heavies go. I like the Grove, Sparks and Prindle options. Hey if they are not going to be talented, at least let them be humongous.

Tony Johnson is a guy I'd love to see them pull into the mix. another big guy, wrestling background. Only loss on the record is to Cormier,.

Always liked Afrozilla as well. See that he recently lost to Tyler East, who has a nice record and a wrestling background. So he's another option.

Guys like Grabowski or Tony Lopez are better suited to lhwy imo.

ha, and black brock would be a great fit for the mtv viewing audience.

I'd be surprised if Baker ever beat schlemenko. Unless hess can outwrestle the russian, I see schlemenko taking this tourney.


I might be overlooking the other guys, but I have no idea who any of em are.

I would really have liked to see a big name added to this mix.

For HW, I'd stack them like this.

Seth Petruzelli vs Thiago Santos
Damian Grabowski vs Eric Prindle
Ron Sparks vs Neil Grove
Rogent Lloret vs Mike Hayes

Seth might wanna fight at LHW, but if Bellator wants to pay him here he'll likely take the shot at winning that check, his speed can get him places in this type of tourney and I think it would land him a KO on the big Brazilian.

Prindle is huge, I could see a more talented guy like Grabowski exploiting that and beating him down after he gasses.

Grove vs Sparks, I book it there because that fight has to happen.

I think Grabowski vs Grove would be the finals. Hard to say if either could be effectively offensive against Konrad at this point though. I lean Grove.

captain organic wrote:

Guys like Grabowski or Tony Lopez are better suited to lhwy imo.

Easily, but that can be said for the majority of heavyweights globally I think. Nutrition is a bitch.

All in all, I'm really looking forward to seeing how this seasons tournaments play out. Bellator ftw/

GDPofDRC wrote:

Welterweight
Douglas Lima vs. Steve Carl
Dan Hornbuckle vs. Luis Santos
Ben Saunders vs. Chris Cisneros
Brent Weedman vs. Chris Lozano

Lima is my favorite in this field. But the level of competition looks most even here so, who knows. Steve Carl is interesting first round matchup. Could be a mat fight.

Lozano is my sleeper, and Santos with all that experience.

Don't know what to expect from Cisneros, so I expect Saunders to rough him up.

Not expecting a Hornbuckle vs Weedman rematch, probably Saunders vs Lima in the finals. I expect either to be an underdog though against Heiron or Arsken, for now anyways.

This is my favorite(until HWY is announced at least) collection of this season.

Again Bellator puts togethor a very nice WW tourney, and they did so without bringing back some of their bigger name guys like Good or Hawn.

Agree on Lozano as the sleeper, was really impressed with his performance vs Yoshida, and I'll continue to hang his hat on that.

Cisneros's recent comp has been straight awful. He's been winning, but every opponent is below .500. Bellator wants the UFC name rec to advance. I see no other explanation to this pairing.

GDPofDRC wrote:

captain organic wrote:

Guys like Grabowski or Tony Lopez are better suited to lhwy imo.

Easily, but that can be said for the majority of heavyweights globally I think. Nutrition is a bitch.

Lopez fights hwy by choice, fights lhwy often as well. But just checked him out, he's tailed off recently losing 3 of 4, lost in Bellator in his only go last fall as well. Still busy as heck though, has already fought 6 times in 2011.


Grabowski is one of those eastern euros who don't buy into the american weight cut. But if u want a MMA career in the states, u gotta do what u gotta do.

I think Douglas Lima will finally get to breakthough nationally. Love that guy from MFC and I think he would be extremely competitive in the UFC right now. They need to snatch up him and his brother ASAP. I'm hoping he matches up with Killer B in the 2nd round. That will be a great fight for him to be showcased.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Middleweight
Alexander Shlemenko vs. Zelg Galesic
Bryan Baker vs. Jared Hess
Brian Rogers vs. Victor O'Donnell
Vitor Vianna vs. Sam Alvey

I think this will be the most exciting tourney.

Guys I expect and hope to move into the semis are: Shlemenko, Baker and O'Donnell. That would set up something good I think.

Galesic... Don't know much, I hope Shlemenko can finish him with some of the excitement he is capable of.

Baker is violent, he'll beat up Hess and hopefully set up a rematch with Shlemenko.

Rogers sounds exciting, don't think I've ever seen him go. I've seen O'Donnell a few times. His fight with Chris Camozzi was one of my favorite ever on TUF. Either would be good.

No expectations on the Alvey vs Vianna. I'll just pick Vianna I guess.

I think Baker can win this and I think he could set up a tough fight with Lombard.

I'm hoping Hess get's his rematch with Shlemenko. He was beating the shit out of Shlemenko when he blew his knee out.

Yeah that was nasty, when he tried to stand up, and right back down.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Yeah that was nasty, when he tried to stand up, and right back down.

He was looking really good up until that point, he was really starting to dominate that fight. You can't count this guy out.

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/With-Soto-out-of-Tourney-Reis-Meets-Dantas-at-Bellator-51-35171

Wilson Reis replacing Soto

Ouch, they should of let Yagin replace him since he beat him. I don't know that I would of dropped him out still. Reis is good tough fighter though.

Yagin is now in da UFC brah

Speaking of fights being swept under the rug with the recent UFC news.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/25151/watch-todays-bellator-49-fighter-weigh-ins-live-on-mmajunkie-com-at-5-p-m-et.mma

so im sitting here watching ufc unleashed on spike and after the first round ofhughes vs serra ends it goes to commercial... guess what i see, Bellator 49 LIVE ON MTV2!!!!


wolf, SF is soooo coming to SPIKE... LMAO