They say hindsight is 20/20, I guess that is true for MMA promoting as well. In retrospect, having a show in the same town as the Superbowl champs on their season opener seemed like a bad idea, but just like the fighters on the Bellator 28 card, Bellator went down swinging. Despite the paltry numbers in attendace (around 100), Bellator put on one hell of a show. From the 5 bigscreens showing the fights to the 6 cameras (including an overhead cam) covering the action, it was clear that Bellator was determined to put on a top-notch show regardless. The production value was first rate, easily better than any of the local promotions running throughout the state. The audience was small, but educated. They would have to be to choose MMA over the NFL. Among the faces in attendance were Ricco Rodriguez and Michael Jai White. The crowd followed the action closely, and even gave me shades of Pride as they would collectively gasp at submission attempts. I remember one fellow even shouting advice to a fighter in back mount to, "transition to armbar!" It was clear that they appreciated the finer points of hand to hand combat. The show started promptly at 6, and the only thing resembling an intermission was the delay between preliminary fights and the main card (15 minutes), and this was only due to a sudden finish to the last prelim. What did strike me as odd was that the venue they chose was a theater with the cage set upon the stage area. This was the first time I had ever seen fights where the audience did not encompass the cage. This oddity aside, I doubt the audience objected to the plush theater seat as opposed to metal folding chairs or benches. But enough jibber jabber, let's get to the action.
Bout 1: Scott O'Shaughnessy (1-0) vs Gabe Woods (2-2) (155 lbs)
The first fight of the night was a display of grappling prowess. Gabe was a ground n pounder, while Scott was more of a submission fighter. The fight hit the ground almost immediately, as neither fighter seemed very comfortable on the feet. Scott took back control with relative ease and looked for the rear naked choke, but Gabe defended aptly. The round was spent largely in this manner, with Scott getting close but not there. Round two saw more ground action, but this time it was Gabe on top looking to rain down some shots within the guard. These were defended pretty well, and one it was clear that no significant damage would be delivered this way Gabe passed to a north-south position looking for an inverted arm triangle. The lock was a sloppy cross between a north-south choke and a D'Arce choke, and the round ended in this position. The final round quickly went to the ground again, this time with Scott on top. He advanced to rear mount, and as Gabe was trying to roll over Scott managed to get a leg over Gabe's shoulder while still in rear mount, thus giving him an inverted triangle choke. He further complicated the hold by grabbing the arm, and Gabe was forced to tap to a beautiful triangle-armbar.
Bout 2: Josh Rafferty (9-7) vs Charlie Rader (10-3) (170 lbs)
Round one saw Charlie come out very aggressively, letting his hands go and clinching Josh against the cage. Josh was on the defensive and was mostly covering up. Charlie took the opportunity to get back control and slam Josh down in a type of belly to back suplex. In coming down, Josh broke the cardinal rule of falling and posted on his left arm. What followed could only be described as a loud snap which had all of us cringing, and Josh screaming. It seemed like everyone in the theater knew Josh had just broken his arm...except the referee. I, along with several others cageside, was yelling at the ref to stop the fight, Charlie was pointing to Josh's broken arm, Josh was yelling that his arm was broken, and the ref just stood there wondering why Charlie wasn't hitting him more. I swear this ref was from 1994 UFC, because after all, Josh hadn't tapped out, and he was conscious. Thankfully, it was stopped, and Charlie got the TKO.
Aired Fights
Anthony Leone (8-1) vs Georgi Karakhanyan (13-2-1) (145 lbs)
This fight was another ground war. Leone, being a wrestler taking the fight on short notice to replace Alvin Robinson, was relying on his ground skills to grind out Georgi. Georgi was intent on using his submission skills and wrestling to thwart him. All three rounds of the fight were filled with takedowns by both fighters. In fact, the only real difference between the fighters was that Georgi was actively going after submissions. Leone, being a powerful wrestler, was able to repeatedly take down his opponent, but he was unable to really exploit his advantageous position. Because of the submission attempts the decision was given to Georgi.
Bout 4: Matt Horwich (25-15-1) vs Eric Schambari (12-2) (185 lbs)
Despite the ground fighting pedigree of both fighters, this fight was largely contested on the feet. I am forced to question what Horwich's game plan was, because the only thing he showed an aptitude for was walking into Schambari's jabs. Eric showed a solid gameplan going into the fight. This was to be expected having Joe Stevenson in his corner. This fight was largely uneventful, as Horwich never really mounted an effective offensive, and the majority of the fight was spent in stalemated positions in the clench against the cage. Eric did impress me with his willingness to go to the body with his punches, which was a good strategy seeing that Horwich didn't make any effort to defend against any of them. In the end this fight went the distance with Schambari picking up the split decision. I didn't give Horwich any rounds, let alone three as one judge did.
Bout 5: Carey Vanier (9-3) vs Rich Clementi (36-16-1) (155 lbs)
This fight almost went the way everyone expected. Here you had a cagey veteran going up against a young lion with loads of natural ability. Naturally, Rich would want to take this fight into his element, and that is precisely what he did. At the opening bell Rich used his punching to set up a shot and quickly put Vanier on his back. This was to be the real test for Vanier. Would he panic? Given Clementi's experience and skills, Vanier did quite well in staying composed. He did look intimidated in the early rounds, but he weathered the submission attempts and even survived being rear mounted on more than one occasion. The first two rounds were all Rich in my mind. In the third is where things got weird. Rich seemed to noticeably fade, and as this happened Vanier really turned up the pressure. He wasn't causing much damage, but Clementi seemed really out of his game. If that wasn't bad enough, while they were clinched up against the cage Vanier delivered a nice knee to Clementi's head. Clementi thought better of taking another and quickly put his hand down on the matt. Vanier couldn't see this and landed another knee, this one illegal. Rich immediately yelled to the ref that his hand was down and that the strike was illegal, but the ref (who was standing right next to Rich's face) answered Rich by commanding Vanier to fight. Rich ate another knee. This one busted a huge gash over Rich's eye, and somewhere around this time the ref remembered a rule he had heard about kneeing downed opponents in the head being illegal. Rich was given some time to recover, but the damage had been done. Rich was unable to mount any offense for the duration of the fight, and Vanier walked away with the split decision. At the press conference I asked Rich what happened in that third round. He answered that at the beginning he "tore all the ligaments in his side" trying to escape from the ground. After that there wasn't much he could do. It's always unfortunate when a freak injury combined with poor reffing costs a fighter a match, and in this case it is even more so as Rich was looking quite impressive up until the third round. As for Vanier, he really didn't get to shine much in this fight, so there isn't much I can say about him other than he has a lot of athletic ability and solid wrestling. Will that be enough to win the lightweight tournament? That remains to be seen, but I certainly won't be putting any money on him.
Bout 6: Marcus Andrusia (1-0) vs Eric Larkin (2-0) (155 lbs)
Before this fight I had been told to watch out for Andrusia, but unfortunately Larkin did not give him much chance to show me anything. Right out of the gate Larkin dropped him with a high kick to the head, and it all went downhill from there. I give Andrusia full credit for taking a first rate whooping like a man, as he even went for a kneebar after everyone around me had stated that the fight needed to be stopped. There is no questioning the heart of this kid, but there is a little bit of questioning to be done of Bellator's matchmaking, as this kid was nowhere near Larkin's league of fighter. Larkin comes from a high level wrestling pedigree, and he showed that he did not have to rely on it to win, as his striking and submission skills looked very impressive. This is one fighter I definitely can't wait to see again in Bellator.
Bout 7: Jonathan Mackles (5-1) vs Brock Kerry (6-5) (135 lbs)
The fight opened up with Kerry getting the early takedown. This advantage didn't last long as Mackles locked on a fairly tight triangle. Kerry used his trapped elbow to defend the submission, but he ate a number of hard shots in doing so. This position persisted for the majority of the first round with Kerry finally escaping and trading some shots as the round closed.
The second round saw Mackles letting his hands go, and his handspeed was impressive. Kerry sought to counter the punches with leg kicks. This led to a scramble through which Mackles gained Kerry's back. Mackles tried to get the rear naked but Kerry defended it well. From here Kerry rolled into top guard position and tried to land some ground and pound, but Mackles used his elbows very effectively from the bottom. At this point Mackles used the cage to make a very nice sweep into full mount. Kerry escapes to standing as the round closes.
In the final round Kerry came out much more aggressively and pursued Mackles. Mackles landed some crisp punches as Kerry countered with a mid kick. Kerry secures a takedown, but Mackles escapes. From here they lock up in a dirty box clinch, and Kerry lands a beautiful judo throw to end the fight. Mackles wins via split decision.
Bout 8: Tony Roberts (11-5) vs Kelvin Doss (7-4) (Heavyweight)
This fight started out with Kelvin bullying Roberts around. Roberts ate some shots and looked to be in trouble. This however, is where things took a turn for the surreal. I heard some shouting from the audience, and I looked over to see the few people in the crowd beating the crap out of each other. In a second all the press had forgotten about the two guys legally fighting to spectate on the dozens illegally fighting. Apparently Mackles father was knocked unconscious during the brawl, and Mackles himself jumped in the fray to seek vengeance. Security was unable to break up the fight, and the police were forced to shut down the show and clear the arena. By the time the announcement to clear out was made I turned to the cage to see the fight was over and Roberts victorious. I wouldn't have a clue what happened were it not for Roberts heavily inebriated parents sitting right next to me screaming about how many punches their son landed on ol' boy. It's good to see MMA bringing families together.
It is always unfortunate when fans can't simply enjoy the fights as entertainment and decide to participate themselves. I guess it just goes to show that no matter how refined and educated a crowd can be about the technique of MMA, they are still just poking at the animal within that's madly trying to claw its way out.
