By Ryan Young
Bellator is coming back to Ontario for the second time in a month.
The Casino Rama plays host to Bellator 79 on Friday, a card that was once stacked but has now lost a lot of its lustre.
Originally scheduled to headline the event was a bantamweight title fight between Eduardo Dantas and Marcos Galvao, but lingering effects from a concussion suffered by the champion Dantas forced him to withdraw from the bout.
Also not making the trip is Paul Daley, the British UFC alum who had visa issues and thus could not compete.
Instead, two Season 7 semifinals take the top billing.
Here we go…
Main Event
Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal bout
Richard “Rare Breed” Hale (20-4-1, 5-1 Bellator) vs. Thiago “Big Monster” Santos (11-1 1nc, 3-1 1nc Bellator)
Hale, 27, pushed his streak of first-round finishes up to three straight with an armbar submission over Mike Wessel in his quarter-final bout. The win was his seventh in his last eight, the lone loss coming to the now light-heavyweight champion Christian M’Pumbu.
The 25-year-old Santos is coming off his second straight fight with Eric Prindle that ended due to a kick to the groin. The two of them had a no contest declared when Santos landed a low blow in the finals of the Season 5 heavyweight tournament, then earned the W when Prindle returned the favour in the form of an axe kick in this season’s quarter-finals.
A former light-heavyweight, Hale will be giving up at least 30 pounds to Santos who weighed-in just under the 266-pound limit against Prindle last month. Hale will be significantly faster than his Brazilian opponent and will be best suited to keep the fight standing and make Santos chase him. What happens if Santos gets a hold of him? Probably nothing good, but I think he’ll manage to avoid any takedown attempts.
Winner: Hale via unanimous decision.
Featherweight Tournament bout
Mike “The Marine” Richman (13-1, 2-0 Bellator) vs. Shahbulat “Sha” Shamhalaev (10-1-1, 1-0 Bellator)
Through the 16 Season 7 quarter-final bouts across four different weight classes, the most impressive performance was Richman’s. The 27-year-old knocked out Jeremy Spoon in just 23 seconds, six months after taking out Canadian Chris Horodecki in the first round of his Bellator debut in April.
He’ll look to continue the destruction when he steps into the cage with Shamhalaev. The 29-year-old manhandled Cody Bollinger in his quarter-final matchup, scoring a TKO stoppage with 11 seconds left in the opening round. The win made it four in a row for the Russian who hasn’t been beaten in nine fights dating back to his lone loss in November 2009.
Shamhalaev has never been knocked out or TKO’d, but Richman will surely be hunting to change that. With just one of Richman’s 13 victories having gone the distance, I like him to finish this fight either by knockout or submission.
KOs are always the sexier pick…
Winner: Richman via first round knockout.
Welterweight bout
Douglas “The Phenom” Lima (21-5, 3-1 Bellator) vs. Jacob “The Kobe Stunna” Ortiz (13-3, 1-0 Bellator)
Season 5 welterweight tourney winner Douglas Lima returns to the cage after coming up short in a unanimous-decision loss to champion Ben Askren. The 24-year-old had won nine straight entering the Askren fight, with tournament victories coming over Steve Carl, Chris Lozano and Ben Saunders.
Ortiz has won five of his last six including his lone Bellator appearance over Edgar Garcia at Bellator 55 last year, a first-round knockout. He has a pretty well-rounded skillset with an even split of five KO/TKOs and submission victories apiece.
Lima is known for his power punching and it should be on full display here. It wouldn’t be shocking if Ortiz puts up a good test for the youngster, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Winner: Lima via first round knockout.
Welterweight bout
Kyle “Alley Cat” Baker (12-6, 0-0 Bellator) vs. Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford (18-4, 1-0 Bellator)
Edmonton’s Ryan Ford returns to Casino Rama after successfully making his Bellator debut there with a second-round TKO of Luis Santos in May. “The Real Deal” has now won six of his last seven with notable victories over former UFC fighters Pete Spratt and Karo Parisyan.
Baker, 32, was originally scheduled to take on Daley but that obviously didn’t pan out. The journeyman fighter has been sporadic throughout his MMA career going 3-3 over his last six fights including a unanimous decision loss to Lucio Linhares in his last outing in March.
When Ford fought at Rama earlier this year he was the most cheered fighter on the card that night. I don’t expect anything different this time around as he wears down Baker slowly but surely and earns a stoppage later in the fight.
Winner: Ford via third round TKO.
Bellator 78 results: We finally went a perfect 4-for-4 last week and called two of the finishes correctly. Still some room for improvement…
Ryan Young is the lead reporter for MMA360.ca and a regular contributor to sportsnet.ca’s MMA section. Follow him on Twitter @YoungRyan4.
