By Ryan Young, sportsnet.ca
Bellator is going all out for the second half of its two-event 2013 Summer Series schedule.
Undefeated champions Michael Chandler and Ben Askren both put their belts on the line during a card that also features multiple tournament finales as Bellator returns to the Santa Ana Center in Rio Rancho, NM, with Bellator 97 beginning on Wednesday at 7 p.m. EST on Spike TV.
Here’s a breakdown of the evening’s five-fight main card…
Main Event
Lightweight Championship bout (155-pounds)
Michael Chandler (11-0, 8-0 Bellator) vs. David “The Caveman” Rickels (14-1, 8-1 Bellator)
Originally scheduled to defend his title against long-shot Dave Jansen a month ago before an injury cancelled it, the emerging face of Bellator, Michael Chandler, will now meet David Rickels instead.
And the 24-year-old Caveman’s chances of victory aren’t much better than the man he’s replacing.
Chandler, 27, made himself into a household name in the MMA world when he submitted Eddie Alvarez to win the Bellator lightweight title in a thrilling fight of the year-worthy contest in November 2011. Ever since that time, and before then really, the former University of Missouri wrestler has dominated his opponents inside the cage. He’s finished all but two of his fights and is coming off perhaps the most impressive performance of his career, a second-round submission and an all-around technical destruction of what was supposed to be his biggest threat to date, Rick Hawn.
In Rickels he’s facing a fellow tough, scrappy young dude, but one who is nowhere near as athletically gifted. The Caveman has put together four-straight victories, three of them decisions, using sound strategies and his modest all-around skillset to outwork opposition. It may not be pretty when he fights, or when he walks to the cage if MMA fighters flaunting giant inflatable dinosaurs isn’t your thing, but with his lone professional loss coming via disputed split decision it’s hard not to respect his ability to find ways to win.
If he figures out the perfect concoction to defeat Chandler it will be his crowning achievement to date. How he will do it against a fighter who is stronger, quicker, more technically skilled in all areas, and has more experience in big time fights? I’d be as intrigued to know as you.
Winner: Chandler via first-round submission stoppage.
Welterweight Championship bout (170-pounds)
“Funky” Ben Askren (11-0, 8-0 Bellator) vs. Andrey “Spartan” Koreshkov (13-0, 5-0 Bellator)
Even the way Ben Askren finishes fights it’s a little ‘Funky.’
The often criticized longest reigning champion in Bellator earned his first stoppage in his last seven fights when Karl Amoussou failed to answer the bell for the fourth-round of their January title fight after Askren sat on his chest and punched him in the face for the better part of 15 minutes. It won’t be making any highlight reels for the 29-year-old, but it once again showed his overwhelming ability to dominate fights with his Olympic-level wrestling.
Is Koreshkov the man to bring an end to Askren’s nearly three-year long title run? The 22-year-old Russian striker has been perfect in his MMA career to this point and made the jump to fighting in the United States appear seamless. He’s coming off a unanimous decision victory over Lyman Good in November where outclassed the former welterweight champion in the stand-up.
While there’s no question the ‘Spartan’ is more dangerous in the striking department, will he be able to stay upright long enough for him to be able to do any damage? He’ll have to if he wishes to have any shot at victory, though I wouldn’t hold my breathe his wrestling is anywhere near good enough.
Winner: Askren via unanimous decision.
2013 Summer Series Light Heavyweight Tournament Final bout (205-pounds)
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (10-2 1nc, 2-1 Bellator) vs. Jacob “The Psycho” Noe (12-2 1nc, 3-1 Bellator)
Remember that time ‘King Mo’ was supposed to come in and be the face of Bellator and then he got knocked unconscious? That’s funny, because he doesn’t.
But seriously, the 32-year-old former Strikeforce champion is just one win away from having the chance to remove the image of that Emanuel Newton spinning back-fist from the public’s memory by earning a title shot against the winner of Newton’s upcoming bout with champ Attila Vegh. He started his comeback by absolutely blasting through Seth Petruzelli in the first-round last month causing the long-time veteran to hang ‘em up for good.
Lawal isn’t the only man entering the cage on Wednesday who just retired an opponent.
Noe, who also knocked out Petruzelli in the first round in January, put an end to the career of MMA veteran Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral by knocking him out in the third-round of their fight last month. The 32-year-old’s lone loss in his last 11 fights came via armbar submission to Mikhail Zayats in the finals of the Season 8 light heavyweight tournament in February, but there’s no question a tournament victory, the $100,000 that comes with it, and a W on the ledger over ‘King Mo’ will make that loss seem like years ago.
Whether he’ll be able to secure it is the question. Lawal has to have learned his lesson about fighting overconfidently when he was caught with his hands down against Newton, so don’t expect that kind of arrogance again. If the former Oklahoma State wrestling star brings his ‘A’ game into the cage, it’s his to win pretty much however he wants to.
Winner: Lawal via first-round TKO stoppage.
2013 Summer Series Heavyweight Tournament Final bout (265-pounds)
Ryan Martinez (10-2, 3-1 Bellator) vs. Vitaly Minakov (11-0, 2-0 Bellator)
Ryan Martinez wasn’t supposed to be in this heavyweight tournament, but talk about taking an opportunity and running with it.
The 25-year-old Colorado native found out mere days before the semifinals last month that he’d be replacing the injured Vinicius Queiroz against Richard Hale. What’s that, preparation you say? Ain’t nobody got time for that. Martinez took out Hale in the first-round to win his third straight and second bout in under 180 seconds.
While Hale is a durable veteran fighter, the stalky five-foot-eleven Martinez is stepping in the cage with a whole new animal in Minakov.
The six-foot-three undefeated Russian needed just 32 seconds to dispatch of Ron Sparks in his tournament semifinal fight, the 10th of 11 professional fights Minakov hasn’t needed the help of judges to win. At 28-years-old, Minakov appears poised to knockoff of fellow countrymen Alexander Volkov as Bellator’s new ‘baddest man on the planet.’
These are heavyweights, so everyone has a punchers chance. If I were a betting man though, I’d be putting my money on that puncher to be Minakov.
Winner: Minakov via second-round TKO stoppage.
Featherweight bout (145-pounds)
Jared “Demon Eyes” Downing (9-2, 2-0 Bellator) vs. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (17-2, 5-2 Bellator)
So close, yet so far away.
That must have been the feeling for the youngest of the ‘Pitbull’ brothers when he came up short in a split decision loss in his title fight with Pat Curran in January. The 26-year-old gave Curran all he could handle and in many people’s eyes, including my own, deserved an automatic rematch. Unfortunately for Freire that isn’t the case and the Brazilian will enter the Season 9 featherweight tourney and open against former UFC fighter Diego Nunes at Bellator 99.
Before that he’ll face Jared Downing, a replacement for the injured Rob Emerson.
Downing is coming off a split decision loss to Lance Palmer at a Resurrection Fighting Alliance event last month. The loss ended his three-fight win streak, all of them going the distance. While entering as a significant underdog, he does have some Bellator experience under his belt picking up two victories with the promotion back in 2010.
This isn’t 2010 and he isn’t fighting Chad Vandenberg or Danny Tims, however, so don’t hang your hat on those results too much.
Winner: Freire via first-round submission stoppage.
Bellator 96 results: We went 3-for-5 calling two of the finishes correctly last month. That makes us 36-18 (67 per cent) for in 2013.
