Bellator had a busy weekend as the promotion held a doubleheader on Friday and Saturday night. Let’s look at who some of the biggest winners were.
It’s a good thing that the Viacom owned promotion booked back to back nights in Uncasville, Connecticut. If the promotion would’ve packed it up and headed home after Friday night’s main event disaster, fans may have rioted. Luckily Bellator 216 on Saturday night largely delivered.
From undefeated prospects taking the next step, to hype trains getting derailed, both events produced some memorable moments.
Let’s take a look at the biggest winners from Bellator’s doubleheader weekend.
Michael “Venom” Page
While it may not have been the striking exhibition fans though it was going to be, MVP did just enough to earn a decision against bitter rival Paul Daley in the main event on Saturday night.
With the win Page keeps his professional record unblemished at 14-0. He will fight Douglas Lima in the next round of the Bellator World Welterweight Grand Prix May 11 in Chicago.
John Douma
The 22-year-old Douma did exactly what he said he was going to do on Friday night: derail the Mike Kimbel hype train.
Keeping true to his word, Douma submitted the heavily hyped Kimbel at the 2:51 mark of the first round at Bellator 215. The fight was featured on the main card and should offer Douma something in the way of mainstream exposure.
Valerie Loureda
The 20-year-old Taekwondo master kicked off the main card on Saturday night and delivered the only finish on the broadcast.
Loureda, an American Top Team product, looked great in her professional debut, living up to the hype and answered any naysayers in the process.
If the promotion builds her correctly, she could likely be the face of the flyweight division for years to come.
Cheick Kongo
Kongo may have escaped Uncasville, Connecticut with a win over Vitaly Minakov but many fans think the French striker lost.
Regardless, the 43-year-old Kongo improves his winning streak to eight in a row. He will now get to test his mettle against the promotion’s first-ever double-champ Ryan Bader at an event to be determined later.
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 2/18/19.
Bellator star Paul Hughes wants Conor McGregor in his corner for a possible title shot against Usman Nurmagomedov.
Last weekend, Paul Hughes made an emphatic statement. In his battle with AJ McKee at PFL: Battle of the Giants, he was able to put in the performance of a lifetime. He dropped the favorite and hurt him on multiple occasions, eventually riding his way to a split decision win. Now, many believe the natural next step is for him to challenge Bellator champion Usman Nurmagomedov for the belt.
It appears that Bellator veteran Dillon Danis wants to return to the cage.
The controversial ‘El Jefe’ hasn’t been seen in action since his boxing match with Logan Paul a year ago. In the co-main event of Misfits 10, Dillon Danis was badly outboxed by ‘The Maverick’. Despite a lot of pre-fight trash talk, the MMA fighter was very little more than a heavy bag last October.
UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier feels the UFC is the only MMA promotion in which athletes truly have an opportunity to achieve a superstar fame level.
Cormier sat cage-side as UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira defeated Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC 307. Pereira defended the belt for the third time in just seven months and rallied from early adversity to finish Rountree.
Next month’s Bellator Paris card headlined by Patchy Mix vs. Leandro Higo has been canceled.
‘No Love’ hasn’t been seen in the cage since a split-decision victory over Magomed Magomedov in May. That victory was Patchy Mix’s first defense of his Bellator bantamweight title and moved him to 20-1 as a professional. Following the victory, the champion was booked opposite Leandro Higo for next month in France.
Yaroslav Amosov, a former Bellator welterweight champion, has announced his departure from Bellator MMA and is teasing a UFC run.
Amosov had been with Bellator since the summer of 2018. He went on a tear under the promotion, going 8-1. Along the way, the Ukrainian bruiser became Bellator’s 170-pound champion with one successful title defense and a unification win. He suffered the first loss of his pro MMA career after being stopped by Jason Jackson in late 2023.
Khabib Nurmagomedov started choking Umar Nurmagomedov, seemingly out of anxiety, while watching Usman Nurmagomedov compete last week.
Last week, Usman Nurmagomedov defeated Alexander Shabliy with a dominant unanimous decision triumph to successfully retain his Bellator lightweight championship. It was a really solid display and in his corner, he had Umar Nurmagomedov and the great Khabib Nurmagomedov there to guide him through the contest.
Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov believes he is the future of MMA.
Nurmagomedov put his 155-pound hardware at stake against Alexandr Shabliy in the main event of Bellator Champions Series 4 this past Saturday. The Dagestan bruiser earned a unanimous decision win to maintain his hold on the gold and improve his pro MMA record to 18-0, 1 NC.
Lorenz Larkin picked up a huge win over Levan Chokheli last night in their battle at Bellator San Diego.
Over the course of the last 15 years, Lorenz Larkin has served as an interesting case study in mixed martial arts. For the longest time, he was viewed as someone who has the potential to be a real superstar. In equal measure, some of his appearances inside the cage didn’t quite live up to the hype.
