Bellator XXI

Photo courtesy of www.TomHillPhotos.com

Tonight, Imada vs. Curran, and the Bellator debut of Japanese sensation Megumi Fujii.  For anyone who will watch this on a delay or wants to catch the NBC replay, there are SPOILERS after the jump.  You have been warned.

Mike Hayes vs. Steve Banks

Heavyweight fight, the winner will be included in the Season 3 Heavyweight tourney.  Man... I'm already excited about Season 3, with light heavy, heavyweight, and the women's 115 lb tournaments.  But back to these fights...

Ok, Banks had to cut to make 265.  He's rather heavy, compared to Hayes, who looks to be in much better shape.  The first round is spent with these guys throwing some big punches back and forth, but nothing earth shattering.  Actually that's the story of the whole fight.  Banks is gassing by the 2nd round, and the crowd is actually booing the standup, it's so not exciting.  They go to the judges, and Hayes wins by UD. 

Megumi Fujii vs. Sarah Schneider

Wow, all the action that wasn't in the Hayes/Banks fight was right here.  Going into this fight, Fujii was 19-0 with 16 of those by sub, and Schneider was 4-4.  And Schneider's relative lack of experience showed.  Fujii pushed the pace the whole fight and kept throwing flurries of punches, followed by takedowns.  Schneider was great at locking up Fujii to prevent her managing a submission, but she played defense almost the whole fight.  By the third round, Fujii wasn't even having to work for the takedowns, and finally she mounted Schneider and just started pounding her in the face.  Schneider wouldn't do anything but cover up, so the ref stops in.  And just like that, Megumi Fujii gets her first TKO win! 

Jimmy Smith asked Fujii after the fight what she thought about getting the TKO.  Her reply was great - "Very suprised, I want more!"

Pat Curran vs. Toby Imada

This was a great fight.  Imada spent the whole fight almost stalking Curran, eating some punches and throwing some as well.  He wasn't really able to get a takedown, but he controlled the pace and just kept moving forward, showing way more agression than anyone expected.  Curran spent the fight backing up, stuffing takedowns, throwing a good punch here and there, and completely refusing to follow up when it looked like he might have an advantage.  At least twice he threw a punch that seemed to stagger Imada.  Each time, he backed off and let Imada recover, instead of moving in to try to finish.

Third round, Curran finally hits Imada hard enough to open up a cut over Imada's right eyebrow, but again he fails to capitalize on it.  Imada continued to do what he'd been doing all night: move forward and punch, eat a few punches, clinch, try for a takedown, throw about 10 knees to the body and legs, break, rinse and repeat.  Curran did manage to get Imada down once on one of those takedown attempts... and then he backed up and let Imada stand up.  The fight went to the judges and, due maybe to his strategy of skillfully walking backward most of the fight, a split decision went to Curran.  Pat Curran will face Eddie Alvarez for the Bellator lightweight title.  My hubby's reaction (in a tone of complete disbelief): "Man. Imada was robbed."

If it tells you anything about that decision, Curran was the hometown favorite tonight.  When the announcement was made, the whole place was booing him.  Sigh.  Don't let it go to the judges, boys.  I kinda feel sorry for Curran, though -  Alvarez is going to eat him alive.