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Bellator 255 - Pitbull vs. Sanchez II (2nd April 2021)


Egg Shen

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Never heard of Kana Watanabe before but just seen this...

Sadly she broke kayfabe a bit in the second clip there but whatever. Cheap frying pan or not, it’s quite a party trick. I’m definitely not going to be in the kitchen trying that later. 

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On 3/30/2021 at 2:23 PM, Egg Shen said:

not sure how the prelim situation will work out with the iplayer deal over here and Showtime in America, i'll try finding out

It looks like the prelims will be shown on the IPlayer as well - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/mixed-martial-arts/56579632

Coverage starts at 11pm on Friday night. 

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Out of the three remaining in the FW GP, McKee is easily my favourite, but I prefer Sanchez to Pitbull. Yet I want Pitbull to win this evening. It would feel like something had been lost if Pitbull vs McKee didn't meet in the final. Pitbull fully deserved the number 1 spot in Bellator's P4P rankings and is probably the best fighter in the promotion's history. By contrast, McKee is easily the fastest rising American fighter in Bellator and a bloody exciting one at that! It's therefore the best fight Bellator has to offer between two home-grown talents. As good of a fighter as Sanchez is; a McKee vs Sanchez final just wouldn't have the same buzz to it. 

Elsewhere, I am looking forward to seeing Khabib's cousin, Gonzalez, and Magomedov showcase their ability. I also have my fingers crossed that Jackson will beat Gracie. The heavyweight fight on the main card doesn't interest me because Fortune has looked average at best in his last 3 outings, which is a shame because I had high hopes for him at one point. 

Oh, and I can't wait to hear Mauro commentate for 5 hours straight.

Edited by jimufctna24
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Shit I forgot this was tonight. Always get caught out on that with Bellator cards for some reason, even though I’ve known for ages that they put loads of their cards on Fridays. I’ll be all over this tonight. Only usually dip in and out of Bellator for the odd fights that grab me but this card’s got a bunch I’m interested in for one reason or another.

3 hours ago, jimufctna24 said:

Oh, and I can't wait to hear Mauro commentate for 5 hours straight.

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Edited by wandshogun09
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11 hours ago, jimufctna24 said:

Although the less said about his hair the better. 

MAMA MIA!!

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The look on McCarthy’s face there! How he didn’t crack up I’ll never know. Just when I thought Mauro couldn’t annoy me anymore he starts turning into GAD. What was he playing at going on telly like that?

Caught most of this on iPlayer earlier. Well happy with it being on there. It’s convenient plus I like that they’ve included the prelims. I normally wouldn’t be that arsed about missing Bellator prelims but there were a few I wanted to check out this time so it was handy being able to watch them all in the same place.

Patricio Pitbull looked class in the main event. I didn’t really remember the first fight with Sanchez but I know I saw it because I remembered Pitbull’s snazzy shorts. Quite a contrast here though. That one went 5 rounds, this time it was done in one. Dropped him and then choked him out...

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Don’t know what the referee was doing there. I can’t recall the last time I saw such a half soaked approach to stopping a fight. Pitbull even had to tell him “he’s sleeping, he’s sleeping” and he actually looked a bit pissed off when he got up after the ref finally called it. Even the way the ref checked Sanchez’s arm, it was clearly limp and he didn’t seem to have any real urgency about him. It was like he’d never seen a guillotine choke before and didn’t realise what was going on.

The finals are set.

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This gave me the horn. What a final that should be. Usually in tournaments, the ‘ideal’ final rarely ends up happening. So much can go wrong in a tournament setting and it usually does. For once, it’s all worked out perfectly though. I genuinely think Pitbull vs McKee has the potential to be one of the best fights in Featherweight history. Not just in Bellator, in the history of the 145 division as a whole.

I’ve seen all sorts of stuff today about a fantasy cross promotional fight between Pitbull and Max Holloway. Would be fucking amazing. But what about Pitbull vs Volkanovski? That’s the fight. Volk’s still getting overlooked despite being the champ and being 2-0 over Max. Disgusting. But yeah, Pitbull vs Volk or Holloway would be incredible to see. Shame it might never happen.

Jackson vs Gracie was a good ground fight. Wasn’t bell to bell excitement but it was an interesting and gruelling battle with some really nice transitions. Thought Gracie probably should’ve pounced more when he took the back in the first round. Jackson’s face getting cheese grated on the fence was unfortunate but it wasn’t from anything illegal it just happened. Big win for Jackson. All these years later, the Gracie name still carries some weight and looks good on the resume. And Gracie’s only defeat previously was against Rory so Jackson’s put himself in good company here.

Tyrell Fortune just battered Jack May, didn’t he?

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May had nothing for Fortune’s wrestling and it seemed like just a matter of time from then on.

The debut of Usman Nurmagomedov went well then. Would’ve been cool to see a big finish but this was more impressive in some ways and we got to see more of him which is fine by me. Absolutely loved his kicks. I bet Hamel didn’t though.

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Beautiful. I love how the Nurmagomedovs are all different in their styles. You don’t watch one and think he’s copying his cousin or brother or whoever. They’ve all got their own unique style and ways of doing things.

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A force to be reckoned with. It’s relatively early days for Usman and Umar and they’ve got big shoes to fill, obviously, with the legacy Khabib’s left. But if they keep going how they’re going they might just go down as the most dominant family in MMA history. And they’re doing it at a time when everyone’s aware of and trained in all disciplines so it’s more impressive doing it now than in the Gracie heyday. Going to be fun to follow the next gen Nurmagomedovs. Coach Khabib’s doing alright, isn’t he? Taking over from where his old man left off. It’s mad but he might still have a hand in dominating the Lightweight division for a while yet. Only now it’s from the corner instead of in the cage. He’s got Islam Makhachev in the UFC, now he’s got Usman in Bellator. The goal is clearly to get belts on both of them. Can you imagine that? That’d just be another feather in Khabib’s GOAT cap if he can coach those two to 155 gold in the two biggest MMA orgs in the US. And then there’s Umar at 135. 

Kana Watanabe vs Alejandra Lara was decent. Spells of it were really good but it just never fully caught fire. Not gonna lie I spent most of it distracted by Lara’s skirt/pants combo. Watanabe looks pretty good though. Strong as fuck and her takedowns at crucial points and her control on the ground made all the difference in the end.

Magomed Magomedov then. Another strong Bellator debut. This was one of the fights I was most looking forward to. He’s been talked about as a top prospect for a while and him trading wins and losses with Petr Yan in their couple of fights a few years ago probably meant even more eyes were on him. He didn’t disappoint.

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Dominant performance, chucked Hamilton around like a beach ball and then strangled him. Couldn’t ask for much better. I think I’m going to have to watch them Yan fights. I remember watching one of them a while back when I was first getting into Yan and it was incredible. Need to sit down and watch them both.

Mandel Nallo is added to my imaginary list of must watch fighters from here on in. I don’t recall seeing him before but I’ll be tuning in for his fights going forward. Loved his whole style. Really good striking and he just makes it all look so effortless. I don’t know how good or bad this Siexas bloke is but the way Nallo just took him apart while looking so laid back and nonchalant about it was beautiful. It’s high praise but he reminded me a bit of Max Holloway at times. Guess it’s the combination of him being lanky and so casual about the violence he’s inflicting. He’s got the techniques down as well, popped the jab out nicely, the question mark kicks were ace and then...

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Ends it with a Superman punch and strolls off as if he’s going to make himself a cuppa. I like this guy. And again, Lightweight. Crazy how deep that division. There’s 155lb killers popping up everywhere.

Chris Gonzalez looked really good but it was one of them where I don’t know if it was largely down to Roger Huerta being washed up as well. Gonzalez got it done with ease though and you can’t really ask for much more than that. 6-0. Think this was my first time seeing him, I liked him. He’s with Jessica Rose Clark too apparently.

So his wins in life aren’t just limited to the cage. As for Huerta, it’s sad to see him at this point. He’s looked done for some time and this fight couldn’t have gone much worse for him. Even in his little spells of activity on the feet, I don’t know, he just doesn’t look right to me. Just looks unsure of himself all the time. I was relieved to see him tap to the strikes at the end there. He was taking a beating and it wasn’t getting any better for him. Why take that kind of punishment in a fight you’re not winning, on the Bellator prelims at the very end of your career? Not worth it. Especially when you look at a guy like Spencer Fisher and the struggles he’s going through these days. And he’s from that same era of Lightweights as Huerta but stopped way sooner. It’s scary to think what some of these fighters are going to be faced with when it’s all over. I hope Huerta retires soon. He seems a nice enough guy and he’s only 37. He’s got a lot of life left to live.


Really enjoyable show all in all. 

Edited by wandshogun09
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Can it also be said that the Mauro/Big John combo were a massive upgrade over the Big John/Goldie/Thomson trio? 

Pitbull really impressed me last night. I expected him to win, but not via stoppage in the first round. Sanchez had never been stopped prior to last night and had looked really good against Weichel. I've only followed Bellator properly for 3 years or so. But in that time, McKee vs Pitbull is easily the biggest fight they've hosted. Can't wait for it! 

Elsewhere, my highlights were Magomedov looking like a beast and Jackson getting a gift from the judges against Gracie (I had Gracie winning 29-28).  

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