Bellator took place on Friday night at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington. The main event featured Jason Jackson and Douglas Lima in a welterweight matchup.
Jackson defeats Lima via Unanimous Decision
It was a one-sided affair for the ass-kicking machine as Jackson dominated the full 5 rounds using his wrestling to keep Lima down for most of the 5 rounds. Only an upkick by Lima stunned Jackson but he was quick to recover. The former champ had nothing he could do to escape from Jackson’s wrestling acumen.
With the win Jackson can decide to sit back and wait for the fight between Yaroslav Amosov and Logan Storley. Amosov is returning from serving in the defense of Ukraine from the Russian invasion.
Jackson’s win was not fan-friendly as he used his superior wrestling skills to keep Lima down and caused a negative stir. Fans were so frustrated that they were filing out of the venue during the 5th round of the fight.
In the co-feature, Tofiq Musayev scored the biggest upset of the night with a first round stoppage of Sidney Outlaw just 27 seconds into the fight. Outlaw was the number 1 contender at lightweight and took the fight on late notice as he was to face Patricky Pitbull Freire in the original main event for this card.
Usman Nurmogomedov was impressive once again as he made quick work of former LFA lightweight champion Chris Gonzales. Nurmogomedov used a quick trip to get Gonzales off balance and then ratcheted in a front choke to which Gonzales had no exit but to tap.
Nurmogomedov called for a title shot as his next fight but also stated he wanted to get another fight before the end of the year.
Lorenz Larkin and Mukhamed Berkhamov ended in a no-contest after an elbow landed on the back of the head of Berkhamov. Unable to continue, the fight ended just minutes into round 1. Larkin was frustrated in his post-fight comments and noted that Berkhamov was complaining more about a knee injury that the strike to the back of the head.
In the first fight of the main card, Marcelo Golm came from behind to submit Davion Franklin with just 24 seconds left in the fight. Franklin controlled the fight for most of the three rounds as it looked like Golm would succumb to strikes on a couple occasions. Yet, it was Franklin that looked gassed at the end of the three rounds.
On the undercard, Dalton Rosta took care of Romero Cotton with a stoppage in the third round. Rosta looked impressive throughout the fight, stuffing takedown after takedown on the former DII National Champion. The fight was a long time coming after several postponements in which Rosta seemed to take issue with the Cotton camp.
Also of note on the undercard, Veta Arteaga, fighting out of Boise, Idaho, pleased the locals as she submitted Vanessa Porto in a very entertaining fight. Arteaga closed space on Porto throughout the fight and was able to lock in a submission in round 2.
Roman Faraldo continued his undefeated and impressive stoppages with a first round KO of Luis Iniguez. To be honest, it was clearly a mismatch from the start and only a matter of time in the fight that Faraldo would put him down. A step up in class is likely for the welterweight.
The oddest decision of the night was Jaylon Bates’ win over Mark Coates via split decision. One judge had the fight for Coates despite the fact Bates had controlled most of the three rounds. After the fight, Bates was not pleased with his own performance and believed he had to go back to the drawing board.
Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmogomedov was in attendance as he cornered 3 fights including his cousin Usman. He was in town for an event that was held in Seattle the following night.
Overall, a good night of fights for Bellator and a pleasant debut for the promotion despite the card shuffling.
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