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From MMATorch.com Other Events By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Sean Wheelock and Jimmy Smith open up the broadcast once again. Smith talks about the fights in his weight division for the tournament semifinals tonight and jokes that he's glad he doesn't have to face any of them. The fighters are shown backstage getting taped up for their fights tonight. [Commercial Break] FIGHT ONE: DAN HORNBUCKLE VS. STEVE CARL (WELTERWEIGHT SEMIFINALS) PRE FIGHT: They give a very touching story about Hornbuckle's last fight, where he met a young boy with a terminal illness and made his night by giving him his hat with an autograph. Hornbuckle was choked up and said he could retire now after that. Very cool from Hornbuckle. That just makes him an infinitely more likable fighter than he already was. The ring announcer botches the arena they're at. ROUND ONE: Carl tried to push forward early but Hornbuckle backed off well. Carl got in close and Hornbuckle hopped up and pulled guard. Carl pushed him to the cage as Hornbuckle worked for an arm from his back. Carl traps Hornbuckle's arm under him for a bit but Hornbuckle gets it loose. He does a good job holding wrist control in closed guard. He has a body triangle from the bottom and Carl lifts him briefly and drops him down again. Hornbuckle grabs for a kimura and steps his leg over Carl's head. He has it locked in and rolls Carl over and torques the hold, forcing the tap and another first round submission for Hornbuckle. He is just good. The hold put more pressure on the shoulder there, and Carl's arm was almost straight out instead of the typically seen kimura. Still a brutal looking hold and he was in pain. [Commercial Break] WINNER: Hornbuckle via submission (kimura) at 2:31 of the first round. POST FIGHT: Hornbuckle said he needed to even up his record with ten subs and ten KO's. He told Ryan Thomas and Ben Askren good luck and that they'll have a long night in the finals. STAR RATING: (**+) Hornbuckle's got no problem fighting from his back. He pulled guard to bring it to the ground and then continually worked for a submission of some sort. When he got a hold of that arm he switched to another gear and powered into top position to wrench that arm further. Good stuff, and he's going to be a major favorite over either Askren or Thomas in the finals. [Commercial Break] FIGHT TWO: RYAN THOMAS VS. BEN ASKREN (WELTERWEIGHT SEMIFINAL) PRE FIGHT: They highlighted the war of words that has developed after the controversial finish in their quarterfinal bout, with Askren's multiple comments online taunting Thomas. The time for talking's over, let's hope this can be finished without controversy tonight. ROUND ONE: Askren comes across the cage and chases Thomas down. Thomas tries a high kick and misses. Askren gets in close, grabs a body lock and gets an easy takedown and gets to half guard. Askren lands a few short punches and Thomas gets it back to guard. Askren scrambles and passes to side control. He's trying to trap an arm to get a crucifix but Thomas is holding it off. He passes easily to mount but Thomas almost immediately pulls him to half guard. Askren stood up and landed a few punches. Thomas got it back to guard. Thomas lands a couple of short punches from the bottom. Thomas grabs rubber guard briefly and lands a few punches but then Askren passes back to side control. Thomas tried to push him off and Askren rolled around and got back into guard. Askren went for an armbar and looked to nearly have it locked on. Thomas manages to roll out of it and winds up on top, but not for long as Askren scrambles and puts him on his back again. Askren passes again to full mount and Thomas tries to control his body. Askren briefly attempts to go for an armbar but lets it go. Thomas bucks Askren off but in the process Askren tries to throw up for an armbar. Askren loses it and Thomas winds up on top. He throws two punches before the round ends. Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Askren. Thomas is having trouble from his back, and Askren is staying active. He's still green and it's clear he needs work on his submissions, but his wrestling is excellent and he's keeping position really well and nearly had a couple of submissions in that round. ROUND TWO: Askren lands a punch and grabs a body lock. Thomas, however, manages to take Askren down. Askren rolled and tried to scramble and Thomas tried to grab a toe hold. He couldn't hold onto it, though, and Askren wound up on top of him in side control. Askren moves to the mount again. Thomas gave up his back and Askren tries to pull him back for a rear naked choke. He can't lock it in and Thomas rolls out. Askren gets him into the crucifix position and landed some short punches. Thomas tried to buck Askren off of him but Askren was smothering him. He got his arm free from the crucifix. Askren moved back to the mount again. Thomas held onto his body but Askren postured up. He landed some punches as Thomas turned. He gave up his back, went back to Askren in the mount and then rolled out to grab a leg. Askren stands and moves right back to side control and then a partial crucifix. He lands some short punches and then gets Thomas' back again briefly before turning and getting back to mount.Thomas rolls and gives his back again as the round ends. Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Askren. He's not finding a way to finish in these dominating positions, but some credit has to go to Thomas for that. He's holding on, but he's getting pretty clearly dominated on the ground right now, Askren just doesn't know how to finish yet. ROUND THREE: Thomas comes forward and lands a nice combination. Askren shoots and eats a big knee from Thomas. He gets in however and completes the shot for the takedown. Thomas scrambled but Askren managed to get back to side control. Askren gets the crucifix again and lands some short punches. Thomas pulls his arm free but Askren is still in side control. Thomas rolled and turtled up and Askren took his back. He couldn't get the hooks in however and Thomas got up and to his feet. Askren tried to throw him but Thomas took him down. Askren scrambled again and got out, however. He moved back to side control and then gets the mount yet again in this fight. Thomas gave up his back again and Askren tried to flatten him out. Thomas turned back over. He rolls back again and Askren is just staying on top as Thomas rolls back and forth. Askren lands some punches as Thomas tries to roll out. Askren is just holding position very well here. He lands some more short punches as Thomas is just trying to avoid damage. Askren gets his back again and goes for a rear naked choke with seconds left, but it's not close to getting locked in and the round ends. [Commercial Break] WINNER: Askren via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) POST FIGHT: Thomas thanks Bjorn Rebney for bringing him back and gave Askren credit for the win, the dominant positions and said the crucifix took his gas out. Askren gave Thomas credit for coming for a war and said Thomas made it tough for him to do anything. Hornbuckle came in to the cage and said he's going to enjoy fighting Askren. Askren said he's going to find out if Hornbuckle can stay off his back. That may not be a problem for him. STAR RATING: (**+) That wasn't a bad fight, it was just a non-technical ground battle. Askren dominated the positional battle, but he wasn't able to finish the fight at any point. He may take Hornbuckle down in the final, and he may do it often, but Hornbuckle's dangerous on his back and he's not going to be able to just ride it out to a decision. That should be a good finals fight. [Commercial Break] -They showed Gilbert Melendez calling out Eddie Alvarez on HDNet. Nice that they got the use of that video. Bjorn Rebney comes in cageside and says they should be able to put this fight together, and he said it's just a matter of getting Scott Coker on board. He said it's a fight that should be put together. He said they've tried to get a hold of Coker but haven't been able. They talked about this possibly being to determine the #1 lightweight in the world, but I think B.J. Penn may be taking that back in August if he gets his belt back from Frankie Edgar. [Commercial Break] FIGHT THREE: DIEGO SARAIVA VS. JOE SOTO (FEATHERWEIGHT "SUPERFIGHT") PRE FIGHT: Saraiva talks about nightmares from his first fight when he was 17 years old, when he got his ass kicked and he said he got encouragement after and came back to the sport a few years later. Soto talked about wanting to succeed in life and they ran down his season one run to the Featherweight Championship. ROUND ONE: They trade leg kicks early as Saraiva walked Soto down early. Saraiva landed a right as he Soto walked around the cage. Soto shot in and got a big takedown. Soto stood up and Saraiva threw his legs up, looking to hold Soto off. Soto dropped a nice right hand in. Soto lands another right. Saraiva almost lifts Soto up with his legs. Saraiva lands a couple of hammer fists from the bottom. Soto lands a couple of punches. Saraiva holds off a few more, and is very effective with his legs here in open guard to keep Soto at bay. Saraiva threw up for an omoplata but Soto spun out and got back to the position he was in. Soto then got into closed guard. He lands a couple of good punches. Saraiva lands an elbow from the bottom. He went back to the open guard and landed a punch from the bottom. Soto landed some short punches. Some telestrator action and we get a little NFL-style analysis on the live fight here. Soto landed a huge elbow that cuts Saraiva open badly. He's bleeding really bad and Soto stands up. He lands a couple of kicks to the legs and the round ends. That cut may end this, unfortunately, as it's really bad up near his hairline. [Commercial Break] ROUND TWO: The second round will not begin as the doctor's stop the fight. The cut is really deep and very vicious, and that was a good stoppage, even if it brings a premature end to the fight. [Commercial Break] WINNER: Soto via TKO (doctor's stoppage due to cut) at 5:00 of the first round POST FIGHT: Saraiva said he can't feel worse than he does right now, and said that's the bad thing about fighting. He said he's never been stopped before, and he gave Soto credit for doing just that. Soto said hopefully Saraiva gets into the tournament next year. Soto said he's not there to send a message, he's there to fight and compete. He said he respects both guys in the season two featherweight final and said it will be a good fight against either of them. STAR RATING: (*+) It was a good battle for position in the first round with Saraiva working well defensively, and it could have gone differently if not for the cut. Tough break for Saraiva, but the cut was terrible right in his forehead and would have been opened up multiple times and easily had he been allowed to continue. [Commercial Break] LOCAL FEATURE FIGHT: JARED LOPEZ VS. JOHNNY BEDFORD (BANTAMWEIGHT) ROUND ONE: Bedford's got a vocal fanbase behind him here in the Verizon Theater. Bedford walks Lopez to the cage. He comes forward but eats a right hand. Lopez lands a jab. He circles and avoids Bedford's shot. Bedford lands a leg kick but eats a combo from Lopez. Lopez lands the right again. Lopez lands a kick but Bedford grabs his legs and picks him up and drops him hard. Bedford gets to side control and lands some short punches. He tries to get the crucifix but can't get it. He stands up and drops down with a big combination into Lopez's guard. Lopez held onto Bedford, and Bedford lifted up to slam him down again. He landed some short punches from the guard. Bedford steps up and passes to side control with a big right. He lands some punches in side control. Lopez kicked up out of the position on the cage but Bedford then grabbed a guillotine and dropped to his back. He didn't have it locked in, however, and Lopez broke free. Bedford landed some elbows from the bottom to end the round. Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Bedford. Lopez landed a couple of early punches, but spent most of the round on his back. Bedford nearly locked in that guillotine as well. [Commercial Break] ROUND TWO: Bedford lands a leg kick early and a push kick. He comes forward and lands a nice leg kick. Bedford comes in with a nice combination. He pushes Lopez to the cage and they trade punches. Lopez then moves in and Bedford shoots and takes him down into half guard. Bedford landed some big punches as Lopez tried to control his body. Bedford gets to side control. Bedford walked over and grabbed for a kimura. Lopez held it off. He throws a knee from the bottom that lands on the head and he gets warned. Bedford let go of the arm and landed a couple of elbows to the head. Bedford gets bucked off but he rushes in and lands a big knee as Lopez is getting up. He lands a quick combination and another knee before scoring another takedown. Lopez holds him in guard but Bedford lands a couple of hard forearm shots. He lands some more short punches. He lands some big body punches. Lopez kicks him off with 30 seconds left in the round. He goes for a head kick that is slightly off target. They trade punches in a combination. Lopez gets another takedown as the round ends. Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Bedford. He's controlling this fight everywhere right now. [Commercial Break] ROUND THREE: Lopez tried to rush in with a combo but missed on all the punches. Bedford lands a kick and Lopez responds with a leg kick of his own. Lopez lands a combo. Bedford walks him down and lands some big uppercuts to the body and head. He then shoots and completes the takedown. The ref stands them up after a stall in the action. Lopez misses a right and Bedford lands some big body punches and drops him with a couple of knees in the Thai clinch. He lands some punches on the ground and the ref stops the fight. Nice finish. [Commercial Break] WINNER: Bedford via TKO at 2:16 of the third round POST FIGHT: Bedford gave a warning to Danny Tims, who is in the season three bantamweight tournament and is a fighter he has beaten before, saying he better hope he doesn't get signed on for the tournament because he'll beat him again. STAR RATING: (**+) That was a good undercard fight. Bedford started slow but took over more and more as the fight wore on. The finishing sequence was nice as well. -That's another Bellator event in the books, and the welterweight finals are now set. Bellator again showed another one up on Strikeforce with the airing of an undercard fight with time left. If they can afford to film all their fights Strikeforce and Showtime have no excuse. Anyway, it was another decent event, though the "superfight" ended in a disappointing doctor's stoppage with the cut. But Dan Hornbuckle impressed again and will look to do a lot of MMA fans a favor in beating Ben Askren in the finals. We'll be back with live coverage tomorrow night with two more events, Strikeforce Challengers on Showtime and Moosin: God of Martial Arts on pay-per-view! © Copyright by MMATorch.com |
