By Ryan Young
The UFC may be out of action until the second week of November but there’s still some high-level MMA action on tap because Bellator Season 7 is already in full swing.
Next on the schedule is Bellator 77 live from the Sovereign Center in Reading, Pa., on Friday night.It will be only the second time Bellator has visited Pennsylvania coming nearly two years after Bellator 33 was held in Philadelphia.
Taking centre stage is the opening round of the lightweight tournament featuring a couple Zuffa alums and some undefeated European youngsters.
Shall we…
Main Event
Lightweight Quarter-Final bout
Rich “No Love” Clementi (44-21-1, 1-1 Bellator) vs. Alexander “Tiger” Sarnavskiy (20-0, 0-0 Bellator)
And the Russian invasion continues.
Sarnavskiy, 23, looks to join the likes of Michail Tsarev and Alexander Volkov as Russian fighters who have come overseas and dominated their respective Bellator Season 7 tournament quarter-final bouts. With an unblemished 20-0 record, 17 of those wins coming by way of stoppage, the former M-1 Global fighter may have the most hype of all the foreign imports entering Bellator this season.
He’ll be tested early in the tourney by former UFC fighter Rich Clementi. The 35-year-old has gone a modest 11-7 since his release from the top promotion in February 2009, but he’s now won three of his past four including his first Bellator victory over Derek Campos at Bellator 70 in May.
This one is a case of the old grizzled veteran stepping in the cage with a young lion. It’s never easy to count someone with Clementi’s experience out of a fight, but Sarnavskiy has looked extremely well-rounded and talented in the early stages of his career. I expect a competitive first round before Sarnavskiy gets comfortable and puts it away in the second.
Winner: Sarnavskiy via second round TKO.
Lightweight Quarter-Final bout
Rene “The Brazilian Bomber” Nazare (10-2, 3-2 Bellator) vs. Ricardo Tirloni (14-2, 1-1 Bellator)
Both of these men are getting their second chances in a Bellator lightweight tourney after coming up short in Season 6.
Nazare, 30, rocketed out of the gate in his career winning his first 10 fights including three with Bellator. He then lost an upset decision to Jacob Kirwan to kill some of his momentum entering last season’s tourney, which translated into a mediocre performance in a split-decision loss to Thiago Michel in the quarter-finals. With two straight losses “The Brazilian Bomber” needs to find a way to regain some of the mojo he began his career with.
The 29-year-old Tirloni was on a roll when entered the Season 6 tourney having won 11 straight including his Bellator debut over Steve Gable. Unfortunately, the Brazilian was matched up with Rick Hawn in his opening round bout, a fight he would lose by first-round knockout to the eventual tourney winner and current No. 1 contender. He now has a chance to show his shortened run in that tournament was just a case of a tough first fight.
This time around Tirloni doesn’t have to worry about nearly as much one-punch knockout power when he faces Nazare. Both fighters are of similar moulds in that they’re Brazilin jiu-jitsu black belts and have adequate yet unspectacular striking skills. Usually when two ground technicians face off a stand-up battle comes to fruition, and that’s how I see this one playing out. I like Nazare’s speed to give him a slight advantage if it does, but one way or another this should be a super close fight.
Winner: Nazare via split decision.
Lightweight Quarter-Final bout
Marcin Held (13-2, 2-1 Bellator) vs. Murad “Strangler” Machaev (9-0, 0-0 Bellator)
With so many Europeans in the field we were bound to see a matchup of overseas talent.
The Polish Held made his North American debut as a 19-year-old in the Season 4 lightweight tourney. His first opponent? Some guy named Michael Chandler, now the Bellator lightweight champion. Since that submission loss to Chandler, Held, 20, has bounced back with three straight victories including Bellator Ws over Phillipe Nover and Derrick Kennington.
Machaev, 26, has only been to two decisions in his career and has six first-round finishes. The Russian must stay away from the leg locks Held has become notorious for if he wishes to stay undefeated.
In all honesty I haven’t seen a great deal, or any footage for that matter, on Machaev. I have, however, seen the submission skills of Held and they appear to be a handful for anyone.
Winner: Held via first round submission.
Lightweight Quarter-Final bout
Dave “The Fugitive” Jansen (16-2, 3-0 Bellator) vs. Magomed Saadulaev (14-1, 0-0 Bellator)
Jansen, 33, was 13-0 when he made his WEC debut back in October 2009. After winning his first fight, decision losses to Kamal Shalorus and Ricardo Lamas earned him a pink slip. He returned to action in Bellator where he’s rattled off three straight victories over Scott McAfee, Ashkar Morvari, and most recently Jacob Kirwan at Bellator 62 in March.
The 29-year-old Saadulaev is from, that’s right you guessed it, Russia! A submission specialist, Saadulaev has begun training with fellow Russian fighters Andrei Arlovski and Adlan Amagov at Jackson’s MMA in New Mexico. He’ll be making his North American debut when he meets Jansen on Friday night.
It just may not be the debut he’s anticipating. Saadulaev is good, really good, at pulling off submissions, but he’s very one-dimensional. Of his 14 wins eight have come via sub and the other six have been decisions. If his striking hasn’t improved immensely he could find himself in trouble against the savvy Jansen.
“The Fugitive” isn’t a power puncher by any means with only one knockout to his name, but his hands are still better than Saadulaev’s and if he can use his length to keep the fight standing I can see him scoring enough points to earn a decision.
Winner: Jansen via unanimous decision.
Bellator 76 results: We predicted five fights last week, even though only four made the actual main card, and went 3-for-5 with zero correct finishes. That puts us 8-for-13 in Season 7 so far.
Ryan Young is the lead reporter for MMA360.ca and a regular contributor to sportsnet.ca’s MMA section. Follow him on Twitter @YoungRyan4.
