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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 as always, highlighting Middleweight Champ Hector Lombard's victory over Jay Silva a couple of weeks back and breaking down tonight's middleweight tournament semifinals. They also highlight Eddie Sanchez and his once record-holding ten second KO from Bellator's first season, and his fight with Marcus Sursa tonight. [Commercial Break] FIGHT ONE: EDDIE SANCHEZ VS. MARCUS SURSA (HEAVYWEIGHT) ROUND ONE: Sanchez walks Sursa down early. Sursa shoots in and pushes Sanchez to the cage but Sanchez dropped down on top of him. Sursa scrambled nicely, however and got on top and into Sanchez's guard. He pushed Sanchez to the cage, but Sanchez walked up the cage and got to his feet. Sursa stayed on him on the cage and landed a knee. Sanchez got loose and landed a nice right but Sursa shot in again and briefly got him down. Sanchez got back up to his feet again and pushed Sursa's back against the cage. Sanchez landed a foot stomp. Sursa landed a nice knee from the clinch but Sanchez kept him against the cage. Sursa landed a short combo and Sanchez returned with a big combination. Sursa shot in and got a takedown again and moved to the mount as Sanchez went for a guillotine. Sanchez moved to the cage again and was able to scramble out and get to his feet. Sanchez then pushed Sursa to the cage and took Sursa down. They exchanged shots on the ground with Sanchez throwing shots from the top and Sursa landing from the bottom. Sanchez passed to side control with 30 seconds left. Sanchez finishes the round strong with punches and elbows in side control. Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Sanchez. He got off to a shaky start but took it back over in the second half of the round. [Commercial Break] ROUND TWO: Sanchez walked Sursa down early and Sursa dropped him with a right. He followed up with a ton of punches on the ground but Sanchez somehow recovers and stalls Sursa on the ground. Sanchez is busted up. Sursa lands some more punches and Sanchez is still trying to recover. Sursa then grabbed for a guillotine, but Sanchez popped his head out and got into Sursa's guard. He's bleeding badly from his nose right now. Sanchez lands som short punches from top position but still looks out of it a bit. He passes to half guard. He continues to throw loopy punches. He lands a big elbow to the jaw and lands some more punches as he tries to pass again. He lands a hard elbow, and another and then gets to the mount. Sursa then gives up his back. Sursa is gassed out here. Sanchez gets back to the mount and starts landing some hard punches. He starts throwing some bombs that are connecting and Sursa is trying to cover up. He's eating a ton of punishment and Sursa's looking exhausted here. Sursa is trying to cover up as Sanchez continues to throw punches all the way until the bell. Crazy round. Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Sanchez. He stole that round somehow after almost getting knocked out cold at the outset of the round. Sursa punched himself out and he's just gassed out. ROUND THREE: Sanchez comes out and drops Sursa with a combination at the outset of the round. He gets right down on him and continues the beating he began at the end of last round and the ref calls it off. Great comeback. [Commercial Break] WINNER: Sanchez via TKO at :23 of the third round. POST FIGHT: Sanchez said Sursa caught him good, but he came back. He gave it up to Marcus for taking this fight. He said he's kind of a slow starter, and he knew if he stayed in there he'd finish him off. STAR RATING: (***) Very fun fight. That second round was crazy, but Sursa just punched himself out when he couldn't finish him and he had nothing left in the gas tank. Major credit goes to Sanchez for pulling that off after nearly being knocked out, though. [Commercial Break] FIGHT TWO: ALEXANDER SHLEMENKO VS. JARED HESS (MIDDLEWEIGHT SEMIFINAL) ROUND ONE: Shlemenko lands an early leg kick. He goes back to the left leg again. Both fighters circle around the cage a bit and fein engaging. Hess is pressing the actiona nd moving forward. Shlemenko continues to back up and then he lands a knee as Hess shoots in. Hess shoots right past the knee however and drives Shlemenko to the ground. He moves to side control. Hess briefly has Shlemenko in a twister, but Shlemenko gets out and to his knees on the cage. Hess lands some punches and stays on a turtled up Shlemenko. Hess lands some elbows to the body. Hess gets both hooks in and goes for a choke but it's over Shlemenko's mouth and the Russian gets out of it. He scrambles and gets up to his feet. Hess has a body lock on him and lands some knees to the thigh. Shlemenko gets out of the body lock, but Hess drops for a single leg and takes him down. Shlemenko gets out in a scramble and gets to his feet. He tries for a spinning back fist but misses. Hess gets him down to the ground again and takes his back, landing a couple of punches before the round ends. Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Hess. He's going to be able to ride out an easy decision if he can keep getting Shlemenko to the ground like this. [Commercial Break] ROUND TWO: Hess gets an immediate takedown but Shlemenko tries for a guillotine. Hess pops out, however, and lands some punches in Shlemenko's guard. He tries to control Hess's body from the bottom, but Hess continues to work. He's landing punches to the body and slipping a few in to the head as well. Hess with some more body punches. He's mixing it up nicely and staying busy. Shlemenko tries to go for a triangle choke and he locks it on. He tries to turn it to an armbar but Hess manages to escape and then scrambles to Shlemenko's back. He goes for a rear naked choke but could not lock it in. Shlemenko grabbed for a heel hook, but Hess managed to get out of that as well. He scrambled again and got into Shlemenko's guard. Shlemenko again tried for a triangle but didn't get it locked in this time. Hess went back to landing short punches in the guard. Shlemenko tries to lock him up, but Hess lands some more punches and stays busy as the round comes to a close. Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Hess. Shlemenko came close to locking a couple of submission in from the bottom, but Hess was on top for almost the entire five minutes of that round and stayed busy with strikes while defending the submission attempts. [Commercial Break] ROUND THREE: Shlemenko lands an early kick, but Hess shoots and takes him down early again. Shlemenko walks up the cage and Hess holds onto him against the cage. Shlemenko gets separation and then comes in and lands a huge knee that drops Hess. Shlemenko couldn't capitalize, however and he grapples a bit and winds up in Hess' guard. Shlemenko is doing nothing from the top here. He stood up and made Hess stand up. Hess' knee is badly hurt and it wobbled and the referee stopped the fight. He dislocated his knee. Oh, that's disgusting! Oh wow, that sucks for Hess. That is just gruesome. Good stoppage by the ref. They have been very good tonight. The replay of where he dislocated the knee was even worse. It was when Shlemenko threw the knee to the jaw. Man that is an awful, awful injury. [Commercial Break] WINNER: Shlemenko via TKO (injury) at 2:20 of the third round STAR RATING: (**+) That was a good back and forth fight with a highly unfortunate ending. The replays they keep showing are sickening. Hess' knee dislocated at the shin and he fell forward on it. He's going to be out of action for a considerable amount of time, and I hate to say it but that's a potentially career ending type of injury. [Commercial Break] FIGHT THREE: BRYAN BAKER VS. ERIC SCHAMBARI (MIDDLEWEIGHT SEMIFINAL) ROUND ONE: Schambari's wanted this rematch for two years, let's see if he can bring a different outcome in this one. Baker circled around early as Schambari tried to walk him down. Baker landed a nice right. Baker pushed in and got in a right again. Schambari pressed in and got him to the cage. He grabbed for a single leg, then moved it to a double and dropped him. Baker threw his legs up for a triangle and locked it in tight. Schambari is in a bad spot here. Baker rolled him to his side and kept the choke locked on. Schambari tries to punch his way out. Be rolls over to his feet and Baker locks it in tighter and Schambari is forced to tap. He walks back to his corner clearly upset with himself. [Commercial Break] WINNER: Baker via submission (triangle choke) at 2:29 of the first round POST FIGHT: Baker said he knew Schambari would take him down, but he knew he had bumped his game up to be able to finish this one. He said he's on a mission to get the belt from Hector Lombard. STAR RATING: (**) Schambari's triangle defense was not very good there, and he stepped into a worse position for himself before tapping out. It was an unfortunate end to his run in the tournament, but an impressive showing from Baker, nonetheless. -Bjorn Rebney is brought in cageside and talks about tonights fights. He announces that Eddie Sanchez is in the season three heavyweight tournament. They discuss the Eddie Alvarez-Gilbert Melendez fight, and said they've tried to get a hold of Scott Coker for nine days and haven't gotten any calls back. Why does that not come as any surprise? [Commercial Break] FIGHT FOUR: NICK MAMALIS VS. MARK OSHIRO (BANTAMWEIGHT) ROUND ONE: Oshiro takes the center and Mamalis circles on the outside. Oshiro lands an inside leg kick. He presses in and they start throwing punches. Mamalis clinches and tries to get a takedown but Oshiro holds it off. Mamalis stays on him, grabs a single leg and then drops Oshiro as Oshiro pulled guard. Oshiro is trying to utilize a high guard here. Mamalis lands a couple of punches from the top. Oshiro tried to scramble and get his back on the cage, but Mamalis stayed on him. He briefly passed to half guard and landed a good punch. Oshiro tried to grab a triangle but Mamalis held it off. He stepped up and passed to side control. He dropped a nice right. He stepped up and dropped down with some big punches again. He lands a couple of elbows and drops into Oshiro's guard. Oshiro pulls rubber guard. Mamalis picks him up and slams him down, but Oshiro holds onto the rubber guard. Oshiro lands an upkick and gets warned as Mamalis' knee was down. They touched gloves and kept going. Oshiro gets both legs up in the rubber guard. Mamalis lands a few hammerfists as the round ends. Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Mamalis. Good work from the top in that one. He landed some good punches and stayed active in top control throughout the round. [Commercial Break] ROUND TWO: Oshiro throws a high kick that gets blocked right off the bat. Oshiro gets in with a couple of hard punches. Mamalis gets in close, takes Oshiro's back standing and then drops down to the ground with him. He grabs for a rear naked choke, rolls over to the mount, rolls back over to the rear naked choke. He loses one of the hooks, but he's got the choke locked in tight and he forces Oshiro to tap! That's definitely an upset victory right there, and he probably earned himself a spot in the third season bantamweight tournament. [Commercial Break] WINNER: Mamalis via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:29 of the second round POST FIGHT: Mamalis said he's never the underdog in his eyes. He said he wants in the season three tournament. STAR RATING: (**+) That was a nice bantamweight fight. The upset and finish brought it up. [Commercial Break] -They show the third round of a flyweight feature bout, featuring a pro debut of one of the fighters and three minute rounds. Jimmy Flick wins a unanimous decision in his pro debut. -This was another good event from Bellator, with one of the more sickening highlights provided with Jared Hess' injury. That will be the stuff of nightmares for many people, but it's yet again another talking point for fans coming out of a Bellator card. Thanks for checking in for this delayed report, now it's time to get to UFC 114 on Saturday! © Copyright by MMATorch.com |
