Ryan Bader unified the Bellator MMA heavyweight titles by defending his belt with a unanimous decision win over interim titleholder Valentin Moldavsky in the main event of Bellator 273 Saturday night.
Bader rocked Moldavsky with a right hand roughly 20 seconds into the opening round, but the Russian recovered and the two competitors went back and forth for the remainder of the five-round bout.
“Obviously, it was a really close fight and at the end there I’m like man that’s a toss-up,” Bader said after his 29th professional victory.
Bader ended up winning three rounds to two (48-47) on all three judges’ scorecards.
“I was rocking him pretty good with my punches and I was seeing everything clearly,” Bader added. “I underestimated his clenching, his body lock, he kept stepping in front of me with this weird move and he’s stronger than I thought.”
Moldavsky had his six-fight winning streak snapped and fell to 11-2 in his pro MMA career with the loss.
Bader, a former Bellator light-heavyweight champion as well, has still never lost when competing in the heavyweight division.
The organization has already announced Bader will next defend his title against Cheick Kongo in Kongo’s native France on May 6. It is a rematch of a Bellator 226 bout from 2019 between the pair that ended in a no-contest due to an accidental eye poke.
Below are the complete Bellator 273 results:
MAIN CARD
— Ryan Bader def. Valentin Moldavsky by unanimous decision
— Benson Henderson def. Islam Mamedov by split decision
— Henry Corrales def. Aiden Lee by technical decision (accidental eye poke)
— Sabah Homasi def. Jaleel Willis by submission (arm-triangle)
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Enrique Barzola def. Darrion Caldwell by technical knockout
— Chris Gonzalez def. Saad Awad by knockout
— Dalton Rosta def. Duane Johnson by unanimous decision
— Nikita Mikhailov def. Blaine Shutt by technical knockout
— Lucas Brennan def. Ben Lugo by submission (arm-triangle choke)
— Sullivan Cauley def. Ben Parrish by technical knockout
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