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Bellator 226 went down last night from San Jose, California, and although the show had the misfortune to be on the same date as a huge UFC show – UFC 242 – meaning there wasn’t much fanfare coming in, it turned out to be a pretty fun show overall, until the main event at least.
The show marked the beginning of Bellator’s Featherweight Grand Prix, and all four of the fights from the opening round were pretty good. The less said about the outcome of the main event – a Bellator Heavyweight title match between Ryan Bader and Cheick Kongo – though, the better.
Here are 4 talking points from Bellator 226: Bader vs. Kongo.
#1 Was this the most unfortunate main event of 2019?
MMA is undoubtedly one of the most unpredictable sports in the world, but unfortunately, that’s not always a good thing. 2019’s big UFC main events have all thankfully gone smoothly thus far, and obviously last night’s UFC 242 main event was pretty climactic as Khabib Nurmagomedov finished off Dustin Poirier. Unfortunately, Bellator hasn’t been that lucky.
February’s Bellator 215 show saw its main event end in a No Contest after Sergei Kharitonov took an accidental low blow from Matt Mitrione and was unable to continue, but last night’s main event between Ryan Bader and Cheick Kongo somehow ended in even stranger fashion.
Bader was dominating the fight on the ground, assaulting Kongo with powerful strikes from the top, but in the process of looking to set up a D’Arce choke on the Frenchman, he accidentally thumbed him in the eye. After being checked by the cageside doctor, Kongo was judged to be unable to continue, and the fight was declared a No Contest.
Obviously this wasn’t Bellator’s fault – these things happen in MMA and a similar ending could easily take place in the UFC – but it was horrendous luck for the world’s second-biggest MMA promotion, and left a black eye – no pun intended – on the show overall.
#2 Who’s next for Bader?
Ever since moving to Bellator from the UFC in 2017, Ryan Bader has been on an incredibly dominant run. Not only did he capture the promotion’s Light-Heavyweight title in his debut fight, but he’s also gone on to win their Heavyweight title too after crushing his opposition in the Heavyweight Grand Prix, a tournament that saw him defeat the great Fedor Emelianenko in the final match.
After last night though, the question has to be around who’s next for ‘Darth’. Bellator could book a Cheick Kongo rematch given the controversial ending to last night’s fight, but realistically it was clear that Bader was the better fighter, so would there be any point?
They could match him with Sergei Kharitonov, who knocked out Matt Mitrione a couple of weeks ago, but Kharitonov is past his best, meaning that fight wouldn’t be massively compelling either.
A post-fight fracas seemed to suggest Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson wants a piece of Bader – but that’d be a hard sell given Jackson has hardly looked great in his recent outings. Former Heavyweight champ Vitaly Minakov might represent the toughest test for Bader, but Scott Coker may want him to pick up another win before making that fight.
Essentially, Bader is probably in the form of his life right now – it’s just a pity Bellator’s roster probably isn’t quite deep enough to truly challenge him.
#3 Will the Featherweight Grand Prix work out?
Okay, so I’ll freely admit that unlike Scott Coker, I’m not a big fan of tournaments in MMA in the current era. Sure, they were cool in the Wild West days of PRIDE when fighters – most likely pumped up with PEDs – were able to fight every couple of months, but these days, largely due to injuries and layoffs, they often prove to be near impossible to run smoothly.
Fighters end up dropping out and being replaced by alternates, fights get delayed and the whole thing can take months, even years before it’s resolved. But last night’s show sold the Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix pretty well, so Coker’s promotion deserves a lot of credit.
Last night saw the first four fights of the planned 16-man tournament – the other four will take place at Bellator 228 in three weeks’ time – and outside of a somewhat slow fight between Derek Campos and Daniel Straus, they all delivered in terms of action, with Emmanuel Sanchez and Pedro Carvalho submitting Tywan Claxton and Sam Sicilia respectively, and hot prospect Adam Borics knocking out veteran Pat Curran.
Even more impressive was the job done in selling the whole thing by Bellator’s broadcasting team. By the time all was said and done, not only was I excited to see Borics, Sanchez and Carvalho again, but Josh Thomson and ‘Big’ John McCarthy also had me dying to see AJ McKee, Darrion Caldwell and Saul Rogers in action – and that’s not even mentioning current Bellator Featherweight champ Patricio Freire.
I’m not sure that any of the entrants would be considered a title contender in the UFC – Sam Sicilia, who washed out of the UFC with 3 losses in a row was Carvalho’s opponent last night – but if the tournament runs smoothly then it’ll be an excellent boon for Bellator. Kudos to Scott Coker for putting it together.
#4 Bellator gets into the Cyborg business
While the news that Bellator had signed former UFC Women’s Featherweight champ Cris Cyborg was announced earlier in the week, the promotion made a big deal of the signing last night, bringing the Brazilian to the cage for a promo to hype up her future debut. According to Scott Coker, the contract given to Cyborg is “the most lucrative in female MMA history”.
Personally I have a hard time believing that, given Ronda Rousey made millions due to her pay-per-view cut when she was at the top of the UFC, but assuming Bellator are paying Cyborg generously, I have to question whether it’ll be worth it in the long run.
Bellator’s female 145lbs division is more established than the UFC’s by virtue of it having been around for a longer period of time, but in reality it’s just as thin when it comes to the levels of talent available, purely because there just aren’t that many great female fighters who are that big. Champion Julia Budd is a good fighter, but does anyone really think she can beat Cyborg?
Sure, Cyborg might’ve left the UFC with a win over Felicia Spencer, but the overriding image of her UFC run is most likely her violent KO loss at the hands of Amanda Nunes – a loss that erased her aura of invincibility for good.
Is there really any money now in Cyborg squashing overmatched opponents in one-sided fashion? Scott Coker evidently believes there is, but personally I’m not so sure – meaning this deal could end up blowing up in Bellator’s face somewhere down the line.
