By: Sensei Phillip Palmejar
March 7, Pechanga Casino and Resort, Temecula, Ca.
The Southern California Desert on a late winter evening sets the stage for another great night of Bellator tournament fights. The audience is littered with champion stock as Michael Chandler, Dominick Cruz, Brandon Vera and Dan Henderson take their seats cage-side. The semifinal hopefuls of the middle and featherweight categories did not disappoint as the night’s combatants stepped into the cage with dreams of gold and glory.
The Spike TV live broadcast began with a bang as lights and music ushered in the first of the main event bouts. Featherweight tournament semifinalist, Alexandre “Popo” Bezerra, was taking on seasoned Bellator veteran Mike Richman. This was a hard fought, three round war in which the power and ground game of Alexandre Popo matched up almost perfectly to the heavy hands and quick footwork of Mike Richman. After a round spent on the mat, Popo found himself up 10-9, almost finishing Richman in the first round from his back. However, in the second, Mike “The Marine” came back strong with accurate and active striking to even the bout with a round a piece going into the third. A back and forth third round saw the fight going to the judge’s score cards. It was razor thin but Mike “The Marine” Richman wins the split decision over Alexandre Bezerra. Running in from his corner, trainer Pat Berry seemed more excited about the victory than Mike Richman.
The tournament bracket continued to roll on with speed and finesse as viewers lost no time with Brett Cooper and Dan Cramer making their way to the cage only minutes after the first of the featherweight finalists was decided. This fight was a complete onslaught from the bell with the pugilistic aggression of Dan Cramer nearly sending Cooper into dream land. With his combination of heavy punches, aggressive clinch work, knees inside and takedown defense, Cramer worked his way through the first two rounds finding himself ahead on all the judge’s scorecards. Coming into the third round, one had to wonder if “Fudoshin” Cooper was even going to make it out of the fight conscious. His beard is supporting one of the toughest chins in Bellator’s middleweight division but after 10 minutes of punishment, what did he have left. His answer was astounding as he pounded Cramer into submission with less than two minutes remaining in the fight. It was a comeback victor reminiscent of Scott “hands of steel” Smith and one of the best in recent Bellator history.
To round out the middleweight division finalists, the night transitioned to the next semifinal bout in that weight category with seasoned favorite Doug “Rhino” Marshall and tough Russian Sultan Aliev. The fight was a classic match-up of striker versus grappler as the uber aggressive Muay Thai of Marshall matched up to the Sambo that won Aliev both a Russian and European Combat Sambo Championship. Round after round saw nothing change as Marshall chased Aliev around the cage looking to land combinations of body and low kicks peppered with fast hands with knock out power. Sultan played it smart, keeping range just outside the mean strikes of The Rhino while utilizing his forward footwork to perfectly time his takedown entries. Throughout the fight Marshall was visibly frustrated by the smothering ground fighting and pressure that Aliev was bringing to the table, although he was able to get back to his feet in the first round, it is becoming more and more difficult as the match goes on. After trading the first and second round, the third round set the stage for the final conflict. Although Aliev was able to secure the takedown and control from the top position most of the third round, the aggressive striking and hunt for the finish is eventually what earned Marshall the split decision victory on the judge’s cards. A second split decision tournament match in only three bouts so far.
Rounding out the Spike TV event and headlining the night’s festivities was Bellator veteran and BJJ Black Belt, Marlon Sandro, taking on heavy handed Russian Sambo specialist Magomedrasul “Frodo” Khasbulaev. Frodo is coming into this bout with a 7 fight win streak, 3 of which are under the Bellator banner. Although starting his career with 14 straight victories, Sandro has of late been hot and cold losing bouts to the top two ranked featherweights in his current division, Champion Pat Curran and #1 contender Daniel Straus. After a long mishap in the first round due to a knee from Sandro to the groin of Khasbulaev, the fight is restarted in what looked to be a possible no contest stoppage. Once he regained his composure, Frodo came back with authority combining takedowns with punches and submission attempts to win the first round. The second round was no better for Sandro as the momentum clearly favored the Russian fighter who was grappling and punching his way to a unanimous decision victory. In the third Khasbulaev comes out and gets the takedown again, working with aggression from the top and switching from punches to submission attempts. After a series of control positions on the mat, Frodo opens up with punches, punishing Marlon Sandro with shots to the face until Big John McCarthy steps in to stop the action at 2:38 of round three. Khasbulaev moves on to face Mike Richman in the featherweight tournament finals.
After each tournament bracket was set, Bjorn Rebney had the two finalists face off in the center of the cage. Mike Richman will be facing tough Russian Khasbulaev, while aggressive striker Doug Marshall will be fighting super tough Brett Cooper. With the preliminary bouts running as smooth as a Canadian curling competition, Bellator is becoming a serious player in the MMA community. The production value and fighter talent level is on par with the best organizations in the world. It’s no wonder why the UFC is constantly scooping up fighters from the Bellator talent pool, they are some of the top fighters on the planet.
Bellator 92 Full Results
Main Event:
– Khasbulaev defeats Marlon Sandro (TKO 2:38, round 3)
– Doug Marshall defeats Sultan Aliev (Split Decision)
– Brett Cooper defeats Dan Cramer (KO 3:19, round 3)
– Mike Richman defeats Alexandre Bezerra (Split Decision)
Preliminary Bouts:
– Nick Piedmon defeats Cleber Luciano (TKO :55, round 1)
– Ricky Legere defeats Sabah Homasi (RNC 2:52, round 2)
– Akop Stepanyan defeats Chris Saunders (TKO 3:55, round 3)
– Keith Berry defeats Richard Rigmaden (Kimura 1:31, round 1)
– Josh Appelt defeats Manny Lara (UD)
– Aaron Miller defeats Shad Smith (UD)
– Brandon Halsey defeats Rocky Ramirez (Arm Triangle :50, round 3)
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