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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Bellator has a problem with their featherweight division. The most talent-rich field they have also brings a cumbersome issue when several of their biggest fights have been highly competitive.
Rematches have been warranted out of several fights, but they created their biggest issue when they made a rematch out of the one fight that didn't warrant one.
By making the immediate rematch between Daniel Straus and Pat Curran following a largely one-sided decision win for Straus last November, they put themselves in a position where they're now forced to screw one of two fighters after that rematch played out on Friday.
Let's back up.
Patricio "Pitbull" Freire challenged Curran for that 145 lb. title last January in the first Bellator fight ever on Spike TV. It was a fantastic and highly entertaining five-round fight, won by Curran via split decision. With how competitive the fight was, and the fact that it wasn't a unanimous win for Curran, an immediate rematch could have been called for at that time. Instead, Pitbull would have to fight again, and enter another tournament in order to earn another title shot.
Meanwhile, Curran defended his title in dominant fashion in his next outing, submitting Shabulat Shamhalaev in just over half a round. That led to the fight with Straus, a rematch of a bout several years prior on the regional scene in Illinois that Curran had won by knockout.
When they clashed in November at Bellator 106, Straus controlled the action for the majority of the 25-minute fight. Curran seemed a bit off his game in the fight, especially in the fourth and fifth rounds. Straus had been controlling the fight, and was clearly ahead on the scorecards; still, Curran never kicked into gear and didn't fight with any urgency whatsoever.
Despite clearly losing his title in a fight that was largely uncompetitive, and not even exciting on top of that, Bellator decided to pass over Freire's rightful shot at the title in order to give Curran a rematch.
Not only did they give him the rematch, they booked the fight very close to home, giving him the home crowd advantage and simply making it look like they just wanted the belt back on him. That's how Straus saw the booking, it's how Freire saw the booking, and it's how many fans and media members saw the booking as well.
Now, the fight itself delivered in a major way on Friday. It's the leading candidate for "Fight of the Year" in the first quarter of 2014, and saw Curran do exactly what he didn't in November.
For another 25 minutes, Curran and Straus battled back and forth both with striking exchanges and wild grappling exchanges as well. It was thrilling for its entirety, with Straus ahead on the scorecards again into the final frame - at least, so most of us thought, but more on that in a moment - and Curran needing a finish to secure the victory.
This time around, Curran had much more of a sense of urgency about him, and when he scored a late takedown, he quickly took Straus' back and then went for a rear naked choke. He was up against the cage with the hold, but stayed patient and slowly but surely cinched it in. Straus tried to hold on and ride out the round for what he felt would have been a decision win, but the hold tightened, and before he was choked out entirely, he tapped with just 14 seconds remaining in the fight.
Bellator got what they wanted in a way, as Curran now has the belt back around his waist after a thrilling fight. They clearly think he's the more marketable champion, and they almost got there in even shadier fashion.
Were it not for Curran finishing the fight with that choke, the scorecards would have been read off. Almost all watching the fight had Straus up three rounds to one into the final frame, including Bellator commentators Jimmy Smith and Sean Wheelock. The final round would have gone to Curran, but anything other than a 48-47 in Straus' favor at that point would have been the wrong card.
Yet that's just what we would have seen. Bellator's Director of Communications, Anthony Mazzuca, tweeted out the scorecards as they appeared into the fifth round, and the wonky scores would have resulted in a split decision in Curran's favor.
Given how the fight looked prior to the last second finish, that would have absolutely required another fight between the two, and would have been decried even further by fans and pundits.
Instead, Curran finished, and the man they wanted on top is back on top. And on that note, despite any reasons given to try to defend the matchmaking, they did indeed screw "Pitbull" Freire out of a rightful shot in order to make this fight happen.
And that brings things around to Bellator's self-induced dilemma.
Even without a screwjob decision, Friday night's Straus-Curran fight is much more deserving of an immediate rematch than their second meeting last November. Straus deserves a chance to regain his title much more than Curran did, but they can't pass up Pitbull a second straight time and hope to keep any semblance of order under their roof.
There was going to be outrage from one camp or another given the way this all played out, and it's Bellator's fault for skipping over Pitbull in the first place.
They're going to try to make everyone happy, as they announced at the post-fight press conference that the next fight will be Curran-Pitbull II. With that booking, Straus will get to skip fighting in a tournament, and instead will meet the winner of that matchup afterward. Still, that means a lengthy layoff for Straus when he did a lot more to earn a quick rematch than Curran had.
This isn't to take away from what Curran did on Friday night, either. That's not the point. He was given an opportunity and ultimately found a way to take advantage of that. This is about Bellator putting themselves into this position in the first place.
For that matter, Pitbull is ready to take his rematch with Curran, but it doesn't mean there's any love lost between he and Bellator.
The next contender took to Twitter in the immediate aftermath of Friday's event, and made several heated comments regarding the current situation.
Now it's a matter of honor. @BjornRebney@BellatorMMA I'm going to ruin your plans and win the title.Take care of my belt, I'm coming for it
And therein lies the final issue with this entire situation. They've created their own backlog in their most competitive and stacked division, to the point that the tournament winner here in season ten can't hope to get their own shot until sometime in 2015. On top of that, their next title challenger very well may capture that belt, and as disgruntled as he is, could finish out his contract with the belt and no desire to stick around with them.
Bellator has gotten some great fights out of these matchups and these three fighters, and they're likely going to get a few more out of it as well. But they've bred contempt from their own and set themselves up to screw over more fighters who are left now waiting even longer for an opportunity that no longer seems guaranteed, even with a tournament win. It's a problem, and it could be a major one. It's also no one's fault but their own.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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