THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
Bellator's third season kicks off this Thursday, but there's already been a shakeup to the first event.
In the women's tournament, Angela Magana has been forced out of her bout with Megumi Fujii, and she's been replaced by 3-0 professional Carla Esparza, according to multiple published reports.
The new bout represents a massive disparity in experience, as Fujii enters the fight with a 20-0 record. Esparza was a two time All American wrestler in college, and all three of her fights have been finished by submission.
Bellator 24 kicks off the new season of Bellator on Fox Sports Net this Thursday.
Penick's Analysis: It's kind of surprising that the commission would sanction this fight simply due to the huge difference between the two fighters' records. Still, considering that high end women's fighters are still scarce in the growing sport, they're probably going on with the best replacement they've got available.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP