After a week off, Bellator MMA returns to action with the Season 7 lightweight tournament final in the organization’s first trip to the state of Maine. In the main event, Dave Jansen will battle Marcin Held for the chance to face Bellator Lightweight Champion Michael Chandler. Bellator 93 will also have two other fights on the Spike TV portion of the card.
Kicking off the evening will be a scrap at welterweight as former UFC fighter Marcus Davis makes his Bellator debut against Waachim Spiritwolf. Even at 39, Davis should still be the more talented fighter of the two. Spiritwolf is a very tough guy but he will need to be at his best if he wants to be beat Davis even at this stage in his career. Expect a stand-up heavy match which promises to be entertaining.
The other fight of the night will be at heavyweight is between Ryan Martinez and former light heavyweight tournament runner-up Travis Wiuff. Martinez is 1-1 in Bellator and even though he is taking on a beefed-up 205 pound fighter, a win over Wiuff would be a big deal for Martinez. I am not sure if Wiuff is moving to up to heavyweight or simply doesn’t want to cut weight for a non-tourney fight but whatever the case may be, Wiuff has more to lose in this fight than Martinez. Wiuff came close to winning a tournament and am I sure that if he wants to get another chance at winning he should stick to his wrestling and try to outwork Martinez.
As mentioned earlier, the main event of the evening will be for the season 7 lightweight tournament championship as Dave Jansen faces off with Marcin Held. This fight was going to be at Bellator 84 as part of season 7 but a unforeseen problem with Held’s age got this fight delayed at the last minute. Four months later we will now finally see who will be crowned the next challenger for the Bellator lightweight title. Jansen showed much improved stand-up in his semi-final bout and should have the advantage in that department. Held is a very tricky submission specialist and would prefer to have the fight in that area. The key factor in this fight will be the wrestling of Jansen. I expect Jansen to use his wrestling to keep the fight on the feet and now allow Held to work his submission game. Jansen is the better striker and will look to pick apart Held on the feet rather than tempt fate and try to grapple with the man from Poland.
Whoever comes out of this fight the winner should be able to make a good fight with the champ Michael Chandler. With this card not having any tournament bouts I still think Bellator 93 is good card and should be a fun one to watch on Spike this Thursday at 10 p.m. eastern.
