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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor
Bellator 120 hit pay-per-view this past weekend. Let's just get right to the breakdown.
Bellator 120
GOOD: Michael Page stops Rickey Rainey
Page was just so much better than Rainey here, it wasn't even close. Page did whatever he wanted. He even threw in a bunch of showboating for good measure. Page got the stoppage late in the first round.
GOOD: Alexander Volkov submits Blagoi Ivanov
The first round sucked, but Volkov was able to turn it around and get the submission in the second round.
BAD/UGLY: Joe Warren
Warren was given the mic for some reason and proceeded to run down Eduardo Dantas like a dullard meathead. Seriously, Warren has come off as such a fool and a buffoon as he makes baseless claims that Dantas is faking a head injury. It's ironic that Dantas has the head injury yet Warren is the one ranting like he's the one who was concussed.
GOOD: Tito Ortiz submits Alexander Shlemenko
Shlemenko is a good fighter, and Ortiz just handled him like he was a nobody. This doesn't mean that Ortiz is back, but maybe he's got more in the tank than I thought he did.
GOOD/BAD: Michael Chandler vs. Will Brooks
The fight itself started slow, but was a GOOD fight overall. The BAD is for the judging. I gave Chandler rounds one, two, and five, and Brooks rounds three and four. I thought Chandler took it 48-47. Instead, Brooks was given the 48-47 scorecards by two of the judges for the split decision win. I don't agree with that at all. I think you could make a stronger argument for the fight being a draw rather than a Brooks win. Sad to say for Bellator that this wasn't even close to the worst thing to happen on the night, not even close.
UGLY: Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal
The fight was a bit of a turd, but that became secondary when the decision was announced. Somehow, Rampage won the decision despite clearly losing two of the three rounds. King Mo was incensed and went on a pointed tirade aimed at Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney. This was a horrible decision. It wasn't like King Mo put on a great fight or anything, but he clearly won. There's no way you could possibly make the case for Rampage winning, it's just not feasible.
UGLY: Timing issues
This was absurd. It's one thing to have some questionable judging in the Chandler-Brooks and Jackson-Lawal fights, or even to have booked the Ortiz-Shlemenko fight in the first place, but the timing issues...
It was ridiculous to see Bellator wasting time with empty cage shots and extended interviews that were out of place. You can't have this on a pay-per-view, where you're asking people to pay money for the show. This is just so horribly bad in so many ways. It makes Bellator look low-rent, like they have no idea how to time a show properly.
It could be excused if this were their first handful of shows, but this was Bellator 120. They've been putting shows on cable TV for quite some time. This was also their first foray into PPV, so you'd think that they would have this timed out perfectly because the stakes are so high. There's a lot of potential here in Bellator, it's a shame to see them not meeting that potential.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank
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