SEVERAL CHICAGOANS ADDED TO BELLATOR 25 LINEUP
July 26, 2010 by searstapper
Bellator 25, scheduled for August 19 at the Chicago Theatre, is shaping up to be a showcase of local Chicago area talent. Three area fighters will reportedly take part on a fightcard already claiming the likes of two welterweights who’ve earned their stripes in area fight promotions.
VIDEO: BELLATOR’S TOP FINISHES
July 19, 2010 by searstapper
Bellator puts out a video of the Top Ten finishes from its first two seasons. The third season will begin on Thursday August 14 at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, FL.
MR. INTERNATIONAL FIGHTING AT BELLATOR 25 IN CHICAGO
July 15, 2010 by searstapper
Chicago’s own Shonie Carter will reportedly be part of the fightcard when Bellator returns for action later this summer at The Chicago Theatre.
BELLATOR RETURNS TO CHICAGO THEATRE
July 9, 2010 by searstapper
Chicago/LA based Bellator Fighting Championships is gearing of for its third season of Mixed Martial Arts Action.
Bellator 25 will mark the Chicago landmark’s second-ever mixed martial arts event — the first being Bellator 14 which took place on April 15, 2010. The Bellator 25 card will feature two quarterfinal fights in both the Season 3 Heavyweight and Women’s World Championship tournaments.
Damian “The Polish Pitbull” Grabowski will make his U.S. debut in a quarterfinal heavyweight world championship tournament fight against knock-out artist Scott Barrett.
Grabowski, who was considered one of the top heavyweight free agents in the world before signing with Bellator, boasts a perfect 13-0 pro record. The Polish Pitbull has not only finished each of his opponents by TKO or submission, but not one of his opponents has yet to see the third round of a fight. His spectacular tenacity was on full display in April 2009, when he competed in a one-night, 16-man heavyweight tournament in an Austrian promotion that featured no-time-limit bouts. Grabowski dismantled each of his four opponents, winning the tournament with his longest fight lasting only 3:48 into the second frame. In his most recent fight last month Grabowski TKO’d the highly regarded heavyweight Michal Kita in the first round.
Barrett, who owns a four-fight win streak coming into the tournament, fought earlier this year at Bellator 19 where he knocked out formerly undefeated Ty Lee just 2:25 into Round 1.
Bellator 25 will also include an opening-round fight in Bellator’s World Championship Women’s Tournament featuring Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto and the world’s No. 6-ranked flyweight, undefeated Jessica Pene.
Frausto was added to the tournament after she shocked the MMA world recently at Bellator 23 with her stunning KO of the world’s top-ranked and heavily favored Rosi Sexton. Sexton was subsequently forced out of the tournament due to a 60-day medical suspension from the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority. Pene debuted for Bellator in May 2009 with a first round TKO against Tammie Schneider at Bellator 5. Her unblemished record also features a submission victory over fellow tournament participant and No. 8 world ranked 115 pounder, Angela Magana.
In other action, Aisling Daly, the best female mixed martial artist in Ireland and the world’s No. 3-ranked 125 lbs. woman, will drop down to 115 lbs. to face 13-5 submission ace and No. 3-ranked flyweight Lisa Ward in the opening round of the World Championship Women’s Tournament. The 22-year-old Daly will make her U.S. MMA debut backed by a pristine 9-0 record, while Ward enters the fight with one win already coming under the Bellator banner. Just two weeks ago at Bellator 22, she dismantled Stephanie Frausto with a slick rear naked choke 2:01 into the first round.
The Bellator Season 3 Heavyweight and Women’s World Championship tournaments begin Aug. 12 and will once again be televised LIVE in primetime every Thursday night on FOX Sports Net and during special weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2.
For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator.
Tickets are priced at $100, $75, $50, and $35, and go on sale at Ticketmaster.com beginning this Saturday, July 10th, at noon.
BELLATOR FEATHERWEIGHT FINAL COULD MIRROR WELTERWEIGHT FINAL
June 23, 2010 by searstapper
Bellator had an impressive offseason signing some of MMA’s most coveted free agents as well as little known up-and-comers ready to break out on a bigger stage. Many of those acquisitions have panned out, especially in the middleweight and welterweight tournaments. The finals of both divisions pretty much featured the matchups many thought would happen when the initial pairings were announced. Last week Olympic wrestler Ben Askren grounded and pounded his way past Total Fight Challenge & Sengoku veteran Dan Hornbuckle. On Thursday another Olympic caliber wrestler, Joe Warren, takes on undefeated Patricio “Pitbull” Freire.
PAT CURRAN WINS BELLATOR LIGHTWEIGHT TOURNEY
June 11, 2010 by searstapper
Crystal Lake’s Pat Curran continues his Cinderella story to win Bellator Season 2 Lightweight Championship.
DAN HORNBUCKLE’S KIMURA AT BELLATOR 19
May 24, 2010 by Matt
Dan Hornbuckle continues to thrill crowds with his exciting style of finishing fights. He had the legendary head kick KO of Akihiro Gono at Sengoku 9. He recently had another Killer Finish at Bellator 19, locking in a Kimura against Steve Carl.
That was Hornbuckle’s second submission victory of the tournament and now he moves on to the finals of the Bellator Welterweight tournament. Hornbuckle hails from Mahomet and got his start in local shows like TFC, Duneland Classic and Ironheart Crown.
HECTOR LOMBARD’S 6-SECOND KO AT BELLATOR
May 14, 2010 by Matt
Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard returned to the cage against UFC vet Jay Silva at Bellator 18. Don’t blink because Lombard finishes things quickly. Bellator’s ability to continually produce highlight endings is just amazing.
PAT CURRAN DEFEATS ROGER HUERTA
May 7, 2010 by Matt
Local fighter Pat Curran shocked the MMA world by pulling an upset victory over UFC vet Roger Huerta at Bellator XVII.
From Bellator.com:
BOSTON, Mass. (May 6, 2010) – Pat Curran, the 22-year-old descendant of MMA royalty pulled off one of the most shocking upsets in recent memory Thursday night with a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over former UFC standout and Bellator Lightweight Tournament favorite Roger Huerta at Bellator 17 in Boston.
Curran’s stunning victory, which quickly set the MMA world abuzz, served to highlight Bellator’s first-of-its-kind tournament-style format, which has also given rise to several other decided underdogs since its inception last year.
“It was a tremendous night for Pat and a tremendous testament to our tournament format,” Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney said afterward. “This was proof of our concept and exactly what I hoped this organization could provide to fighters. I wanted great fighters to have the opportunity to fight other great fighters where nothing but their performance would dictate their future … an organization where it made no difference if a fighter was world-famous or simply had world class ability. Pat Curran took huge advantage of this opportunity tonight and deserves everything he’s receiving.”
The first nationally-televised MMA event in Boston history also witnessed a spectacular “Super Fight” victory by reigning Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez while reigning “Submission of the Year” title holder Toby Imada punched his ticket to this year’s finals.
But the night undoubtedly belonged to Curran who improved his pro record to 11-3 and took a huge step out of the shadow of his cousin and longtime trainer, MMA legend Jeff “The Big Frog” Curran.
Curran and Huerta traded blows for 15 minutes in a stirring tactical standup fight that brought a raucous crowd at the 85-year-old Wang Theatre to its feet. As the decision was announced, Huerta hung his head in disbelief, saying afterward that “it was just one of those nights.”
“I take my hat off to Pat Curran,” said Huerta, who fell to 21-4. “I started out pretty flat and he capitalized. Ultimately, it’s my fault for leaving it up to the judges. It’s really tough for me to swallow, but now I just need to regroup and look to the future.”
Curran, for his part, credited his coaching and thanked Rebney for the opportunity to fight in the tournament and make a name for himself.
“It was an honor to fight Roger,” an emotional and visibly exhausted Curran told Bellator ring announcer Jimmy Smith immediately after the fight. “I just tried to keep my hands clean and went for the straight right … I was trying to counter and land my shots. I’m looking forward to getting back to the gym as soon as possible and getting to work on my ground game and preparing for Toby Imada.”
EDDIE ALVAREZ SUBMITS THE DENTIST
Bellator Lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez stepped back into the cage to throw down with UFC vet Josh “The Dentist” Neer in a Super Fight bout at Bellator XVII in Boston, Massachusetts. Alvarez showed why he is the reigning Bellator champ while Neer showed why he is one of the toughest cats in MMA.
