There are obvious complaints you can make about Bellator. Whether it’s the surplus of UFC castaways being brought in or Bjorn Rebney’s opinion on certain fighters, the company has gained negative press throughout 2013. Then they had begun to setup there first ever pay-per-view headlined by UFC castaways in Tito Ortiz and Rampage Jackson. Thankfully for the company’s pride and money, Ortiz got injured and the event would be shown on Spike TV.
Bellator 106: The card was saved by Chandler-Alvarez II and now we look towards the trilogy
I watched the whole main card and it was lackluster to say the least. It wasn’t just because of the fights either. The commentary lacked passion and seemed to be too generic during the fights. Obviously the fights were a letdown, particularly Emmanuel Newton’s victory over King Mo. It was back and forth of failed takedowns or horrendous spinning back heel attempts.
The card was hard to watch, not to mention the ridiculous amount of time passing between each fight. Then the fight that everyone had waited for happened occurred between Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler. As my good buddy Ariel Helwani would say, this was the “people’s main event”. He couldn’t have labeled it better and you can feel the atmosphere in the air for the first time all night.
It was an incredible 25-minute war, where Alvarez showed no rust and looked to be in tremendous shape throughout the fight. Other than his wrestling, he outclassed Chandler in all aspects of the fight. Even though he took a few huge slams, Alvarez bounced back and continued to tag Chandler. He worked his jab efficiently and completely shut Chandler’s left eye.
Even when he was taken down, it wasn’t until the fourth round when he was taking significant damage. His defense on both of Chandler’s rear naked chokes were excellent by never allowing Chandler perfect position, despite having both under hooks. Alvarez is too good on the ground to be submitted twice by the same opponent. He wouldn’t be caught again on the ground.
It was surprising to see Chandler a bit fatigued, while Alvarez was always trying to be the aggressor when the fight was on it’s feet. Everyone knows how good of an athlete Chandler is, along with being completely well rounded. You have to wonder how much did those takedown attempts affect his stamina. King Mo seemed to have worn himself out in the first round going for the takedown and never had the same explosiveness in the later rounds.
As for the judging decision, I didn’t necessarily agree with it. Obviously round two was the round for debate, since Chandler clearly won rounds one and four. Then we saw Alvarez do just enough to win round three and clearly win round five. While I’m in favor of significant striking being more favored in judging, it’s hard to look past that Chandler slammed Alvarez multiple times in the same round. While his face was busted up, it’s hard to give Alvarez that round considering he wasn’t really landing many major shots.
It wasn’t until the fifth round, where Alvarez was all over Chandler and nearly finished him with a rear naked choke. I’m not really upset by the judging decision because it was a razor thin fight. I’m still not sure how he won the second round, but his striking was the major difference maker. Alvarez’s striking was always top class, which is why this was finally going to be the first major test for Chandler.
In the end, we all win here. We got to see two legitimate top ten lightweight fighters in the world compete for free. Now we’ll get to see it in 2014 and people will want to buy it. There is now more interest into this rivalry, especially with it being Alvarez’s last fight in Bellator. Chandler is no long undefeated and fans will never forget his face after the fight.
Even through a night of two dull title fights, this is something that has MMA fans talking about Bellator in a positive light. I’m sure in a few weeks they will be making jokes about Rampage Jackson fighting Joey Beltran. Regardless of the jokes, there will be even more MMA fans invested in Chandler facing Alvarez one more time.
As for the fight in itself, the adjustments will be key to look out for. It’s pretty clear that Chandler was a bit over confident going into the fight and may want to rely less on his head movement to defend Alvarez’s boxing. He took too much excessive punishment, when he could have put his arms up to defend. As for Alvarez, it’ll come down to wrestling and continuing to get out from the bottom position. Other than the fourth round, Alvarez did an excellent job getting off his back and using his explosive hips to get the fight back to standing.
For all the criticism about Bellator and how their business motto is wrong, this is something that everyone can agree on as a positive. This is a rivalry, where it’s based on the actual fight itself. The only bad relationship is with Bjorn Rebney and Alvarez. It was a classless move by Rebney to shake his head in back of Alvarez. That didn’t ruin the great moment for Alvarez, but it would have been nice to see Rebney be more appreciative of a fight that will be talked about for years to come. I’m sure that the third fight in 2014 will be even more memorable.
You can follow me on twitter at @Allen_Strk & @MMASucka for all news and updates.
