Bellator 97 - July 31st

Bellator 97: Chandler vs. Rickels
Date: July 31, 2013
Location: Rio Rancho, New Mexico
Venue: Santa Ana Center
Broadcast: Spike TV, Spike.com
MAIN CARD (Spike TV, 7 p.m. ET)

• Michael Chandler vs. David Rickels - for lightweight title
  
• Ben Askren vs. Andrey Koreshkov - for welterweight title
  
• Muhammed Lawal vs. Jacob Noe - Summer Series light-heavyweight tourney final
  
• Ryan Martinez vs. Vitaly Minakov - Summer Series heavyweight tourney final
  
• Jared Downing vs. Patricio Freire
  

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com, 6 p.m. ET)

• Will Brooks vs. Cris Leyva
  
• Rodrigo Lima vs. Rafael Silva - bantamweight tournament semifinal
  
• Frank Baca vs. Anthony Leone - bantamweight tournament semifinal
  
• Mike Barreras vs. Bubba Jenkins
  
• Keith Berry vs. Jeremy Kimball
  
• Shawn Bunch vs. Russell Wilson
  
• Richard Jacquez vs. Javier Palacios
  
• Felipe Chavez vs. Adrian Cruz
  
• Donald Sanchez vs. Cliff Wright
  

Looking forward to this one.  Stacked BFC card and there a few prelims I really want to see like the Will Brooks fight.

Really hope Koreshkov can KO Askren, he is so much more fun to watch fight and isn't blatantly annoying when he isn't fighting.  Most likely scenario is Askren yo do all wrestling he is able to do, if he can't get down and Lay on him, he is going to get the shit beat out of him.  Koreshkov has a striking mismatch bigger then Askrens wrestling advantage.

Overall about as good as the next UFC PPV.

Michael Chandler vs. David Rickels - for lightweight title
   Ben Askren vs. Andrey Koreshkov FUCK IT - for welterweight title
   Muhammed Lawal vs. Jacob Noe - Summer Series light-heavyweight tourney final
   Ryan Martinez vs. Vitaly Minakov - Summer Series heavyweight tourney final
   Jared Downing vs. Patricio Freire
   Will Brooks vs. Cris Leyva
   Rodrigo Lima vs. Rafael Silva - bantamweight tournament semifinal
   Frank Baca vs. Anthony Leone - bantamweight tournament semifinal
   Mike Barreras vs. Bubba Jenkins
   Keith Berry vs. Jeremy Kimball
No clue
   Shawn Bunch vs. Russell Wilson
   Richard Jacquez vs. Javier Palacios
   Felipe Chavez vs. Adrian Cruz
   Donald Sanchez vs. Cliff Wright

Undercard is pretty interesting with Bunch, Jenkins and Brooks. Favorites should win big, they have their names on this card but I don't see competitive matchups

GDPofDRC wrote:

Really hope Koreshkov can KO Askren, he is so much more fun to watch fight and isn't blatantly annoying when he isn't fighting.  Most likely scenario is Askren yo do all wrestling he is able to do, if he can't get down and Lay on him, he is going to get the shit beat out of him.  Koreshkov has a striking mismatch bigger then Askrens wrestling advantage.

Askren's striking is horrible but the difference in their wrestling is just as big. I don't like Askren but he will grow on him if he beats the shit out of people on top like he did against Amoussou

Yeah it's most likely a gnp fest by Arsken. I think Koreshkov is a much better fighter then Amoussou, but his grappling might not be any better or worse.

Koreshkov is probably smart enough to just use his boxing and not throw stupid stuff that's going to get him taken down

It does have a favorite heavy old Strikeforce feel to the card, but Bellator seems to have more of a reputation of having upsets in these fights with emerging guys against established guys. The odds on Brooks and Jenkins are out of control right now. -1000 and -1500 respectively. Leyva or Barreras are tempting for a couple of bucks at +850 and +1200.

Prelims are on right now:

http://www.spike.com/shows/bellator-mma/live

Will Brooks on right now, looking solid in his slams but not too much damage. Pretty suplex.

Kinda weird, but this is the first of 14 fights to go down tonight.  Must be some production scheduling because I bet they want to find a way to feature Brooks if they are able to on TV.  Going into round three, it doesn't look like that will happen.  Levyea will need a miracle ko at this point.

 update:  lol King Mo got under Noe's skin huge.  Noe thinks King Mo was talking about his wife and kids and went after him at the weigh ins, Mo was like "get yo mind right, I ain't said nothing about your kids" or something like that.  Noe was pissed.   God it's gonna be bad if Mo gets KO'd again lol.

Rampage vs Tito in November

That was some wwe stuff right there...

Was impressed with vitali and martinez in the hw fight. Both got good chins and boxing. Minakov and volkov? Classic Russian bfc headline.

Ben has a chance against everyone at 170 not named GSP and Demian Maia.

Hopefully one day he can expand his game. Askren has great wrestling but he I'd like more

Lol will ferrel got messed up

Ben Askren has a new fan after tonight. That was just big brother, little brother. His grappling is out of this world

Main event was bittersweet. If you aren't bummed that Chandler is in Bellator for another few years, we just aren't on that same vibe

Rick Hawn and David Rickels are not world beaters, but they are elite top 15-20 WWers and Chandler mowed through them like they were amateurs. In my opinion I think Michael Chandler might be the best LW in the world and it's tremendous shame that he is stuck in organization that the next title contender is Dave Jenson...I'm glad that Viacom is shelling out the cash and promoting him as there "it" guy, but to make a legacy you need to be in the UFC. I love Bellator, they put on some amazing, fun fights and they are very good at grooming prospects, but I want them be fail or be dissolved more so than I ever wanted Strikefore or WEC. Curran, Asken, Dantas, Chandler have the potential to all be champions in the UFC.

Go Bellator. You created them, build on them.

Chandler got them hands.

That was an awesome card....except for Askren of course. I realize he is beating solid fighters but he punches like a 8 year old pygmy with broken arms.

I thought that was a great card.  MMA is better when there is more then default UFC to be complacent with.

GDPofDRC wrote:

I thought that was a great card.  MMA is better when there is more then default UFC to be complacent with.

I'm curious who will be on this Bellator PPV. Will they go with names like they are with the main event? Or will they go with Champions? Could we possibly see Eddie Alvarez on the PPV? I could be out of the loop there but I haven't seen an update on EA in forever.

Maybe King Mo vs Newton rematch? I wonder if they would do a Curran vs Chandler "Superfight"? Although it would probably be better for them to take on separate opponents maybe even in what Bellator calls "superfights"(non title fights with a Champion).

Is Miguel Torres still under contract with WSOF? Joe Warren being on the reality show has got his name out there more. Warren vs Torres? I'd watch that.

This

 

Why would anyone care how good his wrestling is, Ben Askren is an ass hat



Pretty Brutal Beatdown considering how long Mo decided to punish him



FotN



And this

Bubba Jenkins sure put a hurtin on his opponent