Bellator 120: Rampage vs. King Mo (5/17/2014) - Southaven, MS (Landers Center)

[Elsalvajeloco]

 

Bellator 120: Rampage vs. King Mo

May 17, 2014

Southaven, MS (Landers Center)

 

Light Heavyweight Tournament Finals: Quinton Jackson (205.9) vs. Muhammad Lawal (205.6) - Jackson, DEC (unanimous)

Interim Bellator Lightweight Championship: Michael Chandler (154.9) vs. Will Brooks (154.2) - Brooks, DEC (split)

Alexander Shlemenko (201.9) vs. Tito Ortiz (205.5) - Ortiz, SUB (arm triangle choke), R1 (2:27)

Heavyweight Tournament Finals: Blagoi Ivanov (249.5) vs. Alexander Volkov (236.1) - Volkov, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (1:08)

Michael Page (170.5) vs. Ricky Rainey (170.1) - Page, TKO (referee stoppage), R1 (4:29)

 

Spike TV Preliminary Card:

Cheick Kongo (235) vs. Eric Smith (253.8) - Kongo, TKO (strikes), R2 (4:35)

Marcin Held (158) vs. Nate Jolly (158) - Held, SUB (armbar), R1 (4:20)

Fabrício Guerreiro (147.9) vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev (145.1) - Guerreiro, SUB (kimura), R1 (3:29)

Mike Richman (145.5) vs. Goiti Yamauchi (145.5) - Yamauchi, DEC (unanimous)

 

Spike.com Preliminary Card:

Austin Lyons (152.4) vs. Zach Underwood (152.3) - Lyons, DEC (technical unanimous)

Justin Frazier (264.5) vs. Mike Wessel (257.9) - Wessel, TKO (punches), R1 (4:28)

Ben Brewer (170.2) vs. Andy Uhrich (170.5) - Brewer, KO (punch), R2 (2:40)

 

Untelevised Preliminary Card:

Anthony Lemon (170) vs. Codie Shuffield (170) - Shuffield, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (2:15)

Brian Hall (125.6) vs. Cortez Phelia (125.6) - Hall, TKO (strikes), R3 (0:24)

 

Buyrate: 100,000

 

Cancelled Bouts:

Marcin Held vs. Patricky Friere - Injury to Friere (Hand)

Will Brooks vs. Nate Jolly - Brooks Removed From the Bout

Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler - Injury to Alvarez (Concussion)

[LethalStriker]

Why not just matchup Held and Jolly now since they're both LW's and both lost their opponents, they need another fight for the SpikeTV portion of the card.  Not the biggest fight but when your main event has already lost some of its luster at least don't have less fights on the card.

[Guest Edwin]

Held said a replacement was found for him and that he's still on the card, but he said he couldn't say who it was, but I guess it's got to be Jolly.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Just checked. The Polish sources says it's Held vs. Jolly. I'm not sure if it's on the PPV or Spike TV portion.

[TheVileOne]

So...does that mean Held will still be a finalist against Pitbull, even if he loses?

[Casey]

How good is Codie Shuffield? Not to be THAT guy, I went to school with Anthony Lemon. He's a pretty cool dude, no clue how he fights though. I think he's undefeated?

[Elsalvajeloco]

How good is Codie Shuffield? Not to be THAT guy, I went to school with Anthony Lemon. He's a pretty cool dude, no clue how he fights though. I think he's undefeated?

 

Lemon? Tapology has him at 2-4 pro/am and Sherdog has him 2-3 pro. Shuffield is undefeated pro and ammy, but he has fought only in Mississippi (which is definitely not a great assessment of talent). The only thing Lemon certainly has on him is the fact he fought in a bigger show before and fought Brock Larson.

[Joe Lucia]

This is kind of funny, and speaks to how far Bellator needs to go to capture the casual fan.

 

I got an email from a local sports bar today advertising the PPV...without even saying the name "Bellator" in the subject line. They called it "the Rampage-King Mo" fight. In the body, there was a Bellator logo that was below the cut. That says a lot about the pull that the name Bellator has (which is none)

[Elsalvajeloco]

That's weird considering the footage I saw in an extended spot between the end of the Clippers-Thunder game and the start of SportsCenter last night. That is prime real estate to try to pull in casual fans on the west coast and those on the east coast who didn't switch off as soon as the outcome was no longer in doubt. They made sure you knew it was Bellator and it featured EXTREME closeups of a Bellator belt. However, I will say the sizzle reel wasn't up to par with what the UFC produce. And if you've seen the countless UFC TV spots over the last several years, you know that doesn't mean great things about the production. It just didn't feel polished enough to be a top level product. It still felt like "You guys heard about the stuff they call UFC? Well this is sorta similar! Plus we have guys from there you might know from the past. Please watch!" With all the money Viacom has, you would figure they could do better than the Monster Truck "Sunday! Sunday!" ads.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Meltzer live tweeting the Bellator weigh ins is the best

 

Dave Meltzer ‏@davemeltzerWON  5m

This guy looks like Don Muraco without the tan and steroids.

[twiztor]

there must be something wrong. it's the day before the fight and Tito hasn't pulled out yet.

[glfpunk]

No, it's after the fight that he will tell you about all his injuries.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Cracked skull and a broken freaking back

[Zero]

Looking foward to the show. Kinda reminds me of an old Pride show. It's got the freakshows, legends, top talent vs. not so top-talent. 

[Joe Lucia]

Because what this PPV really needed was Joe Warren cutting a promo telling Dantas to come get his belt...even though Dantas is the champion. He's apparently also a pussy that's hiding. OK then.

Face, meet palm.

[Guest Edwin]

The PPV has been solid until now, but they've handled the airtime in between fights horrendously. There's literarily been 15-20 minutes in between each fight with fighters selling the card that's already on it's way.

 

They should fill in the time in between fights with clips of the prelims or by re-airing prelims from earlier on in the night instead of these interviews and empty time.

[Guest Edwin]

Ill Will just killed Bellator's dreams of having Alvarez vs. Chandler headline their next PPV.

And yes, that was a hugely underwhelming performance by Chandler.

[Kevin Wilson]

Thought Brooks/Chandler was a great fight.  I had it 48-47 Chandler but the last two rounds were close.

[Guest Edwin]

I also had it 48-47 Chandler. The only reason I didn't score round 3 a 10-8 round for Brooks is because MMA judges hardly give 10-8 rounds, but I could totally understand it being scored a 10-8 round. I thought Chandler dropping Brooks and almost finishing him in round 5 was the lock to either give Chandler the decision depending on how you score round 3 or it being scored a draw.

 

I can't say I can complain about the decision going in Brooks favor though as it was a really close fight.

[BalancingAct]

God, could I care anything less about Mo?  What a boring fucking "fighter".  At least Rampage sort of tried to work the grudge a bit.

[Guest Edwin]

Bjorn Rebney is probably smashing whatever he can get his hands on right now.

[Guest Edwin]

So, yeah... 

[Guest Edwin]

How much did Bjorn pay the judges for that decision?

[Zero]

I don't even think it was the worst decision on the card, matter of fact. I kinda think Rampage did win.

 

This card may have not been what Bellator wanted (Chandler losing, Tito winning, Mo talking shit) I thought it was pretty damn great, and memorable. Has me looking forward to future Bellator a lot more 

[twiztor]

so, what happens with Alvarez now?

he's got one fight left or whatever, does he face Chandler in the rubber match or unify the belts vs Brooks?

 

and that Rampage/Mo fight was terrible. there was no winner. also, LOL at Rampage calling for a rematch immediately. Like anybody wants to see that.

 

and Tito, eh? was this card in Canada because i feel like we're in Bizarro World.