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While this weekend’s big event in the world of MMA is definitely UFC 234, hardcore fans may also be interested in Bellator’s first show in their new European series, which goes down a little earlier on Saturday night.
Titled Bellator: Newcastle – rather than being a “numbered” Bellator event, the show takes place in Newcastle, England, and will be aired on DAZN and the Paramount Network in the US, and live on Channel 5 in the UK. The preliminary matches will also air on Bellator.com and on the promotion’s mobile app.
The show is unsurprisingly low on name value, but there are still a couple of fights worth watching – including the latest foray into the cage from UK reality TV star Aaron Chalmers. Here are the predicted outcomes for Bellator: Newcastle.
#1 Patricky Freire vs. Ryan Scope
Although he’s not had as much success in the Bellator cage as his brother Patricio, ‘Patricky Pitbull’ remains one of Bellator’s most recognisable stars and this Saturday marks his 21st appearance in the promotion. He’s also on arguably the hottest streak of his career, as he’s won his previous 4 fights – including picking up a major win over former UFC champ Benson Henderson, and a pair of knockouts over veterans Josh Thomson and Roger Huerta.
Scope, meanwhile – nicknamed ‘Big Baby’ – is practically a local fighter, as he hails from Sunderland. This will unsurprisingly be the biggest spotlight he’s ever faced, as he’ll be making his Bellator debut against by far the toughest opponent of his career. Prior to signing with Bellator, Scope once held the BAMMA Lightweight title – arguably the top title in the UK these days.
But how good is Scope really? It’s honestly hard to say. Simply put, he hasn’t been tested against top opposition in his career, and there’s some evidence to suggest that Freire may well be a step too far for him. A glance at Scope’s highlight reel and of clips of his earlier fights shows a fighter most comfortable standing, throwing nice boxing combinations behind a decent jab, as well as some solid leg kicks.
His most recent win, however, was more concerning. Faced with French UFC veteran Mickael Lebout – a fighter who hardly moved the earth during his UFC run, no offense – Scope was largely backed up throughout the fight, and while he bloodied Lebout up with his punches, he was also badly hurt in the second round and perhaps should’ve come away on the wrong end of the decision.
Freire, on the other hand, has lost just once since the beginning of 2016, and while he was stopped, it was at the hands of Michael Chandler, arguably the best 155lber outside of the UFC. Prior to that, his only other recent losses saw him largely outgrappled – something Scope isn’t likely to be able to achieve.
Simply put, going up against a genuine Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt – the best grappler he’s ever faced by a mile – and also a man who appears to have bricks for hands and who has taken out a list of world-class Lightweights, Scope looks to be massively outgunned. I expect the Brit to put up a fight – and if he were to pull off the upset, the crowd will likely go mental – but in the end I think Pitbull will switch off his lights.
The Pick: Freire via second round KO
#2 Aaron Chalmers vs. Corey Browning
When Aaron Chalmers – star of controversial UK reality TV shows Geordie Shore and Ex on the Beach - announced a foray into MMA back in 2017, most fans of the sport scoffed. The likelihood of Chalmers succeeding seemed absolutely minimal, and it seemed more likely that he’d become another CM Punk – someone who would sell tickets as a curiosity and then crash and burn inside the cage.
Surprisingly though, Chalmers has proved all of his critics wrong thus far. Handed some relatively easy opponents by BAMMA – understandably given his profile and lack of experience – Chalmers thrived, submitting Greg Jenkins with a keylock before knocking out both Alex Thompson and Karl Donaldson in under a minute.
Bellator swiftly came knocking and signed up the former reality star – with this series of European events clearly in mind – and Chalmers made his promotional debut at Bellator 200 last May, submitting opponent Ash Griffiths with a guillotine choke in just under two minutes.
Chalmers is clearly an A+ athlete, and while he’s not the most technical fighter, he’s clearly got some skills both standing and on the ground. What’s impressed me about him, however, is the way he’s slowly stepped up in competition. His first three opponents had about as much experience as him, but Griffiths had 9 pro fights when he faced ‘The Joker’, even if 5 of those were losses.
Browning, his latest opponent, actually made some noise inside Bellator last year by taking out the much-hyped ‘Baby Slice’ Kevin Ferguson Jr. That fight was largely sloppy, but saw Browning win essentially by virtue of his stronger cardio – he survived Ferguson’s offense and TKO’d his exhausted opponent in the second round.
Could he do the same to Chalmers? I guess so. For all of his success thus far Chalmers is still massively untested – not that it’s his fault, but every fighter reaches their ceiling at some stage – and none of his opponents have forced him to fight through adversity. Browning is clearly tough enough to do that, and is also tough enough to capitalise if the Geordie runs out of steam.
In the end though I’m pretty confident in Chalmers here; I can’t see Scott Coker and company looking to match him too highly at this stage, and while Browning will be a tougher out than his other opponents – he may well reach the second round – Chalmers looks good enough to get him out of there at some point.
The Pick: Chalmers via second round submission
#3 Fabian Edwards vs. Lee Chadwick
These are two names which probably won’t ring many bells for MMA fans, but Edwards is in fact the younger brother of current UFC Welterweight contender Leon Edwards, and trains out of the same gym – the Birmingham-based Team Renegade. At 5-0 – and with a 6-0 amateur record behind him – Edwards is bringing some deserved hype into his Bellator debut.
He’s faced with a pretty tricky test, though – Chadwick is a veteran of 12 years experience, and he’s also been in there with some recognisable names, with losses to Jack Marshman and Zelg Galesic – as well as a victory over Cathal Pendred – on his record. At 34 he might be past his prime, but he’ll still likely give Edwards a very tough fight.
Fighting out of a southpaw stance though, Edwards brings in an absolutely nasty Muay Thai game. His body kick stoppage of Claudio Conti in his last fight was savage, and the flying knee he used to destroy Rafal Cejrowski in his Bellator debut back in 2017 was even better. Throw in the fact that he also appears to have a venomous grappling game, and he could be a handful for anyone on Bellator’s roster – particularly on their European circuit.
Chadwick should be able to hang in there at least, but I don’t see him beating Edwards, who should develop into a genuine contender in Bellator – as his brother has in the UFC. I don’t think it necessarily matters where this fight goes, I suspect Edwards can end it from anywhere really.
The Pick: Edwards via first round TKO
#4 Terry Brazier vs. Chris Bungard
The reigning BAMMA Welterweight and Lightweight champion, Brazier is making his Bellator debut here coming off 9 straight wins. In fact, he hasn’t lost a fight since 2015, a pretty impressive streak. A physical specimen, Brazier appears to be a stronger grappler than he is a striker; not that his stand-up is bad at all, more than he just appears to be somewhat hittable to me. On the ground, though he’s clearly an incredibly powerful man, particularly at 155lbs. His win over Rhys McKee, for instance, showed him to be a huge, strong Lightweight.
Bungard meanwhile appears to be a smaller 155lber, but he’s clearly an offensively-minded fighter. Coming in with a record of 11-4, the Scotsman’s footage shows a flashy – but somewhat sloppy - striker who’s more adept to using an excellent submission array to take out his opponents. ‘The Bad Guy’ is clearly a talented fighter, and Bellator have done well to put this fight together as it could be argued both men are among the best Lightweights in Europe.
I suspect we’ll see a grappling-based affair then, with the stand-up exchanges likely being pretty brief and probably involving Bungard throwing wild strikes and Brazier looking to close the distance. On the ground, it should come down to whether Bungard can attack the larger man with submissions without giving up too many strong positions and taking too many ground strikes.
I’m going with Brazier here as I think his size will be enough to allow him to control the fight, but I wouldn’t be shocked with a somewhat controversial decision based on Brazier gaining top position only to have to defend a lot of submission attempts.
The Pick: Brazier via split decision
