· Chandler Outpaces Freire In Tournament Finale At Bellator 44
Saturday evening’s Bellator 44 card, from Atlantic City, N.J., crowned a new lightweight tournament champion in a three-round war that nearly went to an overtime period. Additionally, Hector Lombard, Bellator’s current middleweight champion, extended his unbeaten streak to an astonishing 23 fights with yet another highlight reel finish. The seven-bout card had all but one fight go into the third round, but the four televised bouts were exciting and action packed.
Prior to the opening main card bouts, UFC veteran Jay Silva took a dominating decision over Gemiyale Adkins. The judges gave all three rounds to Silva.
In the next bout, former “The Ultimate Fighter” cast member Jeff Lentz took a decision win over Anthony Leone in a featherweight battle.
Opening the televised portion of the card, Alexander Shlemenko used a brutal variety of attacks to keep Brett Cooper off balance in their middleweight tournament qualifying bout. The fight was a back-and-forth battle, and while not a very technical affair, it was an enjoyable contest.
Shlemenko landed numerous spinning back fists and spinning back kicks, in each round to keep pressure on Cooper. To Cooper’s credit he weathered the storm and answered back with some big shots himself, stunning Shlemenko several times in the fight. In the end though, it was Shlemenko’s pressure and aggressiveness that convinced the judges to see things his way, winning a decision with scores of 30-27, 30-28, and 29-28.
With the win, Shlemenko earns a spot in next season’s middleweight tournament, and a potential rematch against Bellator Champion Hector Lombard, who defeated Shlemenko in his previous bout.
Welterweights Giedrius Karavackas and Sam Oropeza came to the cage and provided the fans a great fight, one that ended with an exotic submission. With the crowd in the corner of a Oropeza, a Philadelphia native and training partner of Eddie Alvarez, he came right at the decorated judo player Karavackas. Oropeza threw several strong body and head kicks and kept himself out of the clinch for the majority of the opening two rounds. And when the fight did go to the ground, it was Oropeza that did the majority of the damage, landing powerful strikes from Karavackas’ guard.
The tide shifted in the third however. Karavackas got an early clinch and trip and stayed in side control, trapping Oropeza’s arm and working him over with constant left hands to the head of his opponent. After several minutes of thumping away, Karavackas locked up Oropeza’s arm between his legs and was able to torque the shoulder to the point that Oropeza had no choice but to give up the scarf-hold armlock submission.
Following that bout, dominating middleweight champion Hector Lombard took on Niko Vitale in a non-title bout. Vitale, a UFC and Strikeforce veteran, was considered by many to be the toughest Bellator opponent yet for the Cuban-born Lombard. Vitale proved as much through the first two rounds, employing a unique strategy of standing still in front Lombard, relying on his ability to dodge and slip Lombard’s powerful strikes rather than giving Lombard an opportunity to counterstrike—a technique he has been so precise at. The strategy forced a sluggish opening ten minutes, with neither man imposing their will on the other.
Having likely lost the first two rounds on the judges’ scorecards Vitale had to force the pace in the third in order to win. It was that deviation from his strategic game plan that did him in. Lombard countered a solid combination attempt from Vitale with a thunderous right hand. The punch dropped Vitale and Lombard’s hands immediately signaled victory.
As Vitale attempted to stand, his legs gave way again and he hit the canvas one more time, forcing the referee to step between the champion and his prey. The knockout was Lombard’s eighteenth straight victory, 14 of which have come by stoppage.
In the main event, the lightweights squared off in their season four tournament finale. Patricky “Pitbull” Freire, having stormed through the tournament to get to the finals, seemingly had his lightweight title shot secured. But Michael Chandler, a NCAA Division I wrestler, was not conceding defeat so easily. Chandler used quick movement and aggressive striking to keep Freire from settling into a striking rhythm. Additionally, it was his ability to take the fight to the ground and control Freire that ultimately earned Chandler the fight. Despite losing a point in the third, due to repeated groins strikes, Chandler still managed to win all three rounds on the judges’ tallies, taking the fight 29-27, 29-27, and 29-27.
Chandler will now face Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez in a championship bout later this year.
Concluding the event was Jamall Johnson defeating Randy Smith with a second round rear-naked choke submission.
"I was hugely impressed with the performances our fighters put forth in our cage tonight," Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney exclaimed. "The Pitbull-Chandler fight was an epic battle that had the audience out of their seats."
"Mike Chandler is a very special talent at 155," he continued. "And, Lombard’s one-punch knockout was another YouTube KO for our middleweight champion. A great crowd got to see great fights live here at Caesars.”
Official Results:
- Jeff Lentz def. Anthony Leone via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Jay Silva def. Gemiyale Adkins via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
- Jeff Lentz def. Anthony Leone via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Alexander Shlemenko def. Brett Cooper via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-28, 29-28)
- Giedrius Karavackas def. Sam Oropeza via submission (scarf-hold armlock) - Round 3, 3:59
- Hector Lombard def. Falaniko Vitale via knockout (punch) - Round 3, 0:54
- Michael Chandler def. Patricky "Pitbull" Freire via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)
- Jamall Johnson def. Randy Smith via submission (rear-naked choke) - Round 2, 4:16
