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The very first defense of a Bellator Championship ended with a new Champion on Thursday night, as Joe Warren knocked out Joe Soto early in the second round to capture the Bellator Featherweight Title.
The fight started drastically different from how it finished, with Soto out-boxing Warren in an extremely one sided first round. Using combinations and much better technique, along with some stellar takedown defense, Soto battered Warren throughout the round en route to many 10-8 scorecards.
But Soto's success in the first round wound up being his downfall, as he lowered his guard against the seemingly rudimentary striking of Warren and got dropped seconds into the second round.
The punch appeared to clip behind his ear or to the back of his head, and Warren continued to land a number of punches to the back of Soto's head on the ground. But Soto withstood the initial barrage and got back to his feet.
Warren stayed on him, however, and as he pushed Soto to the cage he unleashed a vicious knee followed by a left hook that put Soto out. The definite "knockout of the year" candidate gave Warren yet another victory in which he was in trouble and needed to come back; he simply didn't waste time on the come back portion of the equation.
Penick's Analysis: It's incredible that Warren can look so bad at times and yet come back to find a way to win. He got destroyed in both first rounds against Patricio "Pitbull" Freire and then Soto tonight, and still found a way to win. Of course, at best the Freire fight should have been a draw, and it really should have been stopped, but he still came back to win the second and third. As for tonight, his striking was awful, and Soto got too comfortable after having no problems in the first round, and it cost him. That knee was nasty and snapped Soto's head back, and it was an impressive finish for Warren after not looking very good at all in the first.
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