Bellator HW tourney opening round Oct. 1

http://mmajunkie.com/news/25034/bellator-52-to-feature-heavyweight-tourney-opening-round-on-oct-1.mma
October's Bellator 52 event will feature the opening round of the organization's fifth-season eight-man heavyweight tournament.
The opening-round matchups include Ron Sparks (7-0 MMA, 2-0 BFC) vs. Mark Holata (11-2 MMA, 1-0 BFC), Neil Grove (11-3-1 MMA, 3-1 BFC) vs. Mike Hayes (15-4-1 MMA, 1-1 BFC), Thiago Santos (8-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC) vs. Blagoi Ivanov (4-0 MMA, 1-0 BFC), and Eric Prindle (7-1 MMA, 1-0 BFC) vs. Abe Wagner (10-4 MMA, 0-0 BFC).

MAIN CARD (MTV2)

Mark Holata vs. Ron Sparks (heavyweight-tourney opening round)
Neil Grove vs. Mike Hayes (heavyweight-tourney opening round)
Blagoi Ivanov vs. Thiago Santos (heavyweight-tourney opening round)
Eric Prindle vs. Abe Wagner (heavyweight-tourney opening round)

Ron "GOAT" Sparks....right Wolf?

I hope we get to see Grove vs Sparks.

Wagner is a decent fill for this tourney.

GDPofDRC wrote:

I hope we get to see Grove vs Sparks.

Wagner is a decent fill for this tourney.

Yeah I was looking at an old Sparks thread when he signed with Bellator and the Grove fight was mentioned in that thread. Hope it happens. Yeah Abe could be game.

There is no way Sparks fights. I could only be on the bandwagon of an imaginary fighter for so long.

Well, he's showed up good for Bellator twice so far, no reason to think he doesn't want a crack at the happy gilmore check. Holata will be a big step up though compared to guys like Ivey and Lucero.

jesus really, im out of the loop.

Blagoi Ivanov was the guy that beat Fedor in the 2008 Sambo Championships. His resume is short but he finished 3 of his 5 opponents, the others being a no contest due to broken ringlol, and a split decision over Fujita in a fight which saw him break both of his hands, go figure.

At 5-11, Ivanov appears to be following in the eastern euro tradition of being small-for-the-division. Though he weighs in at 245(so says sherdog) and looks pretty solid.


Bunch of big dudes in this tourney, and a big dude at the end of it, so we will see if it is an issue.


Is holata a wrestler? otherwise there is none, right?

He played college football for Tulsa, but his favorite pro wrestler is The Rock so yes he is a wrestler.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/25525/bellator-52-earns-second-highest-audience-in-series-history-with-269000-viewers.mma
Ratings for this past weekend's Bellator 52 event were up 70 percent
from the week prior, and the Oct. 1 event scored the second-highest
audience in the promotion's history with 269,000 viewers on MTV2.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the ratings with an industry source.


Bellator 52, which took place at Louisiana's L'Auberge du Lac Casino
Resort, featured the promotion's season-five heavyweight quarterfinal
bouts and went head-to-head with UFC on Versus 6. Spike.com streamed the
preliminary card.

The Bellator 52 broadcast peaked between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. ET with
345,000 viewers. Additionally, an immediate replay of the event scored
196,000 viewers, marking a combined audience of 465,000 viewers for the
first two airings of Bellator 52.

Just two weeks prior, Bellator 50 scored an all-time low of 114,000
viewers while facing competition from UFC Fight Night 25 and NCAA
football.

Nice rebound from last weeks poor numbers.

yeah very good numbers

Yep, they got to see a few good bits of action.

Sparks vs Prindle is gonna be a fight between some big boys. Like Brock vs Carwin sized matchup.