Bellator Fighting Championships enter week two of season six with a eight-man single elimination middleweight tournament with an interesting cast of characters.
The original main event tonight was a heavyweight tournament final between Eric Pringle and Thiago Santos but when Prindle suffered from flu-like symptoms the bout was pushed back another week.
Here at MMASucka.com we have all your live results from Bellator 61.
Middleweight tournament semi-final bout: Brian Rogers vs. Vitor Vianna
Vianna enters this series as the odds-on favorite and a lot of pressure on his back, the Brazilian slugger made it to the finals of last seasons champ Alexander Shlemenko — The Wanderlei Silva protege brings experience and a well-rounded game to the cage.
Rogers is an explosive, powerful striker who looks to finish everytime he enters the circular cage — The special needs teacher will be looking to put Vianna away early and start prepping for his semi-final opponent.
Vianna and Rogers opened the bout striking with the Brazilian looking to tie him up, work from the clinch and have this bout enter his wheelhouse on the floor but Rogers wasn’t having any of it quickly standing up after entering Viannas guard following a powerful hip toss.
Just when it seemed that it was going to be a slow end to the round Rogers charged with a flying knee knockout that may have stamped his ticket for the MMASucka knockout of the month for March.
Middleweight tournament semi-final bout: Giva Santana vs. Bruno Santos
Santana is better known by his moniker “The Arm Collecter” for forcing thirteen opponents to submit to his deadly armbar submission hold — The experienced Brazilian comes in as an interesting dark horse to this series.
Santos is an unbeaten Brazilian prospect making his promotional debut in this tournament — Stepping into this tournament he will have to deal with a higher level of competition so the jiu-jitsu stylist will have to be on top of his game.
We’ve seen it happen a million times, when two grapplers face one another neither can get the fight to the mat so it turns into a sloppy kickboxing match and that’s what happened here.
The first two rounds were highly competitive with both men exchanging, Santos controlled a lot of the action but Santana was being the more aggressive striker which split a lot of viewers down the middle on score cards.
The final frame was all Santos who was able to get the tired 38-year-old submission specialist to the floor and unload with his ground and pound, Santana desperately attempted a heel hook in the dying moments of the bout but it was too late.
The cageside judges gave the nod to Santos who remains undefeated with scores of 30-27, 29-28, 29-28.
Middleweight tournament semi-final bout: Vyacheslav Vasilevsky vs. Victor O’Donnell
Vasilevsky first began known from capturing the M-1 Global light-heavyweight championship having little problems defeating fifteen opponents on the European market including Tomasz Narkun and UFC veteran Xavier Foupa-Pokam – This fast-handed Russian is someone to keep an eye out for.
O’Donnell is the biggest underdog in this tournament, the former failed Ultimate Fighter cast member is yet to win inside the Bellator cage but comes in with nothing to lose looking for another upset tonight.
Vasilevsky opened early showing off his boxing technique landing with a series of tight, technical, crisp shots that stunned O’Donnell before he got taken down and took punishment from O’Donnell from top position to close out a highly-competitive opening stanza.
Vasilevsky stunned his foe early in the second round taking it to the floor looking to finish with hammer fists and a heel hook attempt but O’Donnell used the time to recover before the Russian finished the round in full-guard and active ground-and-pound to ring in a dominate 10- 8 round.
Third round opened with a severe case of deja vu as Vasilevsky floored him with a straight, technical shot and the Russian rained down looking to finish early before going to guard again and working from side control with shots before returning to the feet.
The closing period of the round came with two tiring middleweights on the feet with Vasilevsky landing over and over with O’Donnell just hanging on for dear life, another dominate 10-8 round for Vasilevsky.
The judges didn’t agree with my score cards but regardless the result is the same as Vasilevsky advances with 29-28 scores across the board.
Middleweight tournament semi-final bout: Maiquel Falcao vs. Norman Paraisy
Falcao makes his Bellator debut tonight – this Brazilian bomber has 23 knockouts to his credit and accomplished grappling ability, his lone UFC appearance he defeated Gerald Harris and has been 2-1 since then with two stoppages.
Paraisy is a young, talented fighter who returns to Bellator after a three-year hiatus, during his time away he has collected four stoppages and a victory over former WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho.
Falcao opened up showing patience not going balls-out looking for an early stoppage, clinching up with the Frenchman and and taking it to the mat with a slam.
The final two rounds were contested a lot on the feet with Falcao getting in close with the clinch and punishing his French foe with with his muay-thai striking edge and utilizing his leg kick over and over to keep him at bay and putting in work on top position.
Falcao easily took the fight, hurting his opponent but being unable to put the nail in the coffin.
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