The stars of Bellator MMA shined Wednesday as lightweight champion Michael Chandler, welterweight champ Ben Askren and light-heavyweight contender Muhammed (King Mo) Lawal picked up dominant wins at Bellator 97.
On a night that was overshadowed by an announcement that former UFC light-heavyweight champions Quinton (Rampage) Jackson and Tito Ortiz will fight at a Nov. 2 pay-per-view event, Chandler improved to 12-0 in MMA after a thrilling win.
He knocked out David Rickels in a mere 44 seconds to defend his belt for a second consecutive time. The win was Chandler’s fourth consecutive victory by stoppage and his seventh career first-round stoppage win.
In the co-main event, Askren smothered Andrey Koreshkov for nearly four full rounds before the referee mercifully stopped the action in the fourth.
Former Strikeforce champion King Mo used a dominant wrestling game to batter Jacob Noe before forcing a verbal submission in round three.
In the first bout on the main card, Patricio (Pitbull) Freire picked up a second-round TKO win over Jared Downing.
Freire improves to 17-2 and moved one step closer to another crack at the Bellator featherweight title, currently held by Pat Curran. Freire will fight UFC and WEC veteran Diego Nunes at Bellator 99 in a Season 9 featherweight tournament quarterfinal bout.
Also on the main card, Vitaly Minakov picked up a TKO win over Ryan Martinez to win the 2013 Summer Series Heavyweight Tournament. He earned the chance to fight Bellator heavyweight champion and fellow Russian Alexander Volkov at an event later this year.
On the preliminary card, Anthony Leone and Rafael Silva picked up wins to advance to the 2013 Summer Series Bantamweight Tournament final.
Here are the complete results from Bellator 97:
MAIN CARD
— Michael Chandler def. David Rickels by KO in Round 1
— Ben Askren def. Andrey Koreshkov by TKO in Round 4
— Muhammed Lawal def. Jacob Noe by verbal submission in Round 3
— Vitaly Minakov def. Ryan Martinez by TKO in Round 3
— Patricio Freire def. Jared Downing by TKO in Round 2
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Bubba Jenkins def. Mike Barreras by TKO
— Anthony Leone def. Frank Baca by submission
— Rafael Silva def. Rodrigo Lima by submission
— Will Brooks def. Cris Leyva via by TKO
— Adrian Cruz def. Felipe Chavez by TKO
— Javier Palacios def. Richard Jacquez by unanimous decision
— Shawn Bunch def. Russell Wilson by split decision
— Jeremy Kimball def. Keith Berry by KO
