Bellator News

BJPENN.COM News - September 24, 2015

Fedor Emelianenko was in the house at this past Saturday’s Bellator ‘Dynamite’ event in San Jose, California and apparently took photos with everyone in the arena. I mean, it’s not everyday you run into an MMA legend like Fedor, so of course you’re going to ask to take a picture. One of the photos making its way around the web is of Fedor standing next to Cris Cyborg’s pole dancing instructor.

BJPENN.COM News - September 23, 2015

Former UFC lightweight and Strikeforce champion Josh Thomson made his promotional debut for Bellator MMA this past Saturday in front of his home crowd. It was a winning effort and afterwards Thomson had nothing but great things to say about his new boss and new promotion, which he considers to be like a family, something that was missing from the UFC.

BJPENN.COM News - September 23, 2015

At this past Saturday’s Bellator ‘Dynamite’ event it was announced that Fedor Emelianenko will be headlining an event in Japan, put one by the former boss of PRIDE FC, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, on New Years Eve. The card will air on Spike TV. It seemed like the popular thought was that he’d finally sign with the UFC, but everyone was duped.

BJPENN.COM News - September 23, 2015

This past weekend, at Bellator ‘Dynamite’, fans who tuned in were treated to fireworks, Crazy Pride lady, kickboxing and MMA. We also saw a one-night light heavyweight tournament, featuring four of the promotions best 205’ers. Former UFC fighter Phil Davis ended up winning the whole thing and will now face the champ, Liam McGeary, next.

BJPENN.COM News - September 23, 2015

This past Saturday we finally got to see what Bellator’s ‘Dynamite’ event would actually look like. There were a lot of questions leading into the cross promoted event, featuring both MMA fights in a cage and GLORY kickboxing matches in a ring. The night also featured an old school one-night tournament in which former UFC fighter Phil Davis ended up winning. In the night’s main event champ Liam McGeary took on MMA vet Tito Ortiz. Ortiz seemed to have control of the fight, taking Liam down and working from top position, but eventually got trapped in an inverted triangle and tapped out.

BJPENN.COM News - September 23, 2015

So there’s some good news and some not so good news when it comes to Bellator’s ‘Dynamite’ event this past Saturday. The event, which featured GLORY kickboxing and MMA action also had a four-man, one-night light heavyweight tournament, debuts of Josh Thomson and Phil Davis, and a main event between champ Liam McGeary and Tito Ortiz.

BJPENN.COM News - September 23, 2015

Former UFC lightweight Josh Thomson made his Bellator debut this past Saturday at the ‘Dynamite’ event and won, submitting Mike Bronzoulis in the third round. Thomson has had nothing but great things to say about his new home and apparently, according to MMAFighting, he also faired much better with sponsorship money than he would have in the UFC.

BJPENN.COM News - September 23, 2015

At this past Saturday’s Bellator ‘Dynamite’ event the light heavyweight champion Liam McGeary successfully defended his belt, submitting MMA vet Tito Ortiz with an inverted triangle. The fight started out with Ortiz getting an early takedown and it looked like it was going to be a classic Tito fight, full of ground and pound and top control. However, McGeary had different plans.

BJPENN.COM News - September 22, 2015

This past Saturday the combat sports world watched as kickboxing and MMA collided at Bellator ‘Dynamite.’ On the MMA side of things we were treated to an old school one-night tournament featuring the best light heavyweights the promotion had to offer. In the opening fights, Phil Davis took out former champ Emanuel Newton and ‘King Mo’ defeated Linton Vassell.

BJPENN.COM News - September 22, 2015

Bellator’s ‘King Mo’ Lawal was scheduled to fight in the ‘Dynamite’ light heavyweight tournament final this past Saturday, against Phil Davis. That didn’t happen. Mo won his first fight, defeating Linton Vassell, to advance to the final where he would fight for the chance to be the next title challenger. Unfortunately during that first fight he injured a rib and between fights determined that he wouldn’t be able to fight later that night. So, the alternate Francis Carmont stepped in and lost to Davis via TKO.

BJPENN.COM News - September 21, 2015

Bellator has been known to host some questionable fights in their history. Kimbo Slice went toe-to-toe with Ken Shamrock earlier this year in the headliner of Bellator 138 ahead of featherweight champion Patricio Freire. Most believe that there is no place for fights like that in MMA, but as long as there are no title implications it isn’t doing anybody harm. Former UFC champion Frank Shamrock was about to come out of retirement for one of those fights, however, as he was originally supposed to be the one to face Tito Ortiz at “DYNMAITE”. Instead, Ortiz chose to aim for gold by fighting Liam Mcgeary. Now, Shamrock only has two names he would come out of retirement for: Dana White and Donald Trump.

BJPENN.COM News - September 21, 2015

World Series of Fighting and Bellator both ran major events this weekend and two Renzo Gracie fighters brought some gold back to the gym with them! Liam Mcgeary stepped into the Bellator cage on Saturday evening to defend his light heavyweight championship against the legendary Tito Ortiz. Ortiz was looking to secure gold for the first time since his dominant run in the octagon with the UFC and was well on his way of doing that when he blasted the champion with shots on the ground. Ortiz left himself susceptible to strikes when the tried to implement his ground and pound gameplan and walked into an inverted triangle choke! The jiu-jitsu paid off for Mcgeary as it put another “W” in his record.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

When Reebok and Ultimate Fighting Championship signed an exclusive in-octagon sponsorship deal, fighters were reluctant to celebrate. Fighters like Urijah Faber would be forbidden from promoting his clothing line, Torque, in the octagon like he used to in earlier UFC and WEC days. Miesha Tate and Brendan Schaub sponsorship income would decrease by at least 80% due to the inability to rock external sponsorships in the octagon. UFC lightweight Josh Thomson was one of the first fighters to make the choice not to re-sign with the UFC and jump ship to Bellator, following Phil Davis. On Saturday night, “The Real Punk” informed MMA Fighting that three sponsors alone paid him more than $35,000 for his fight on Saturday at Bellator’s “DYNAMITE” event!

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Tito Ortiz is one of the most decorated fighters to step inside a cage, whether it be the UFC’s octagon or Bellator’s cage. He started his professional fighting career in 1997 and is still receiving opportunities at championship gold in 2015— and it’s not just because of his star-power. Ortiz was riding a two fight win streak at the time he signed the dotted line to challenge Liam Mcgeary at “DYNAMITE” on Saturday night and was undefeated in the Viacom owned promotion. With big wins over Alexander Shlemenko and Stephan Bonnar, Ortiz seemed like a viable opponent for Mcgeary. Mcgeary did a fantastic job at catching the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion off guard with a reverse triangle submission however, and picked up a quick first round win.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Bellator and GLORY showcased the best of their promotions on Saturday night with the spectacle that was “DYNAMITE 1”. Tito Ortiz and Liam Mcgeary headlined the event with a Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship fight. For the first time in nearly nine years, “The People’s Champion” Ortiz had the opportunity to capture gold. Unfortunately for him, Mcgeary is as game as they come. Mcgeary endured Ortiz’s takedowns and attempt at ground and pound but ended up getting caught in a slick reverse rear naked choke. Fans expected a reason or two from Ortiz as to why he lost, but he offered no excuses.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

In April 2015, Phil Davis made the biggest decision of his career when he jumped ship from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to Bellator. Davis surely made an impact on his first fight with his new company as he won two fights in one night to become the next Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship challenger! Davis didn’t even need five minutes to dispose of former champion Emanuel Newton on Saturday night at “DYNAMITE”. Newton landed some good shots on Davis, but “Mr. Wonderful” locked on a kimura that there was no escape from. “King Mo” won the semi-final bout on the opposite end of the bracket but injury kept him from competing for the right to fight for another championship.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

In the night’s main event, at Bellator ‘Dynamite’, undefeated light heavyweight champion Liam McGeary took on MMA vet Tito Ortiz. Early on it was Tito imposing his gameplan, getting McGeary down to the mat and working some ground and pound.

BJPENN.COM News - September 20, 2015

Former UFC lightweight Josh Thomson pulled off a big win in his Bellator debut. He fought Mike Bronzoulis in front of his home crowd and put on quite the performance. Thomson was clearly the better grappler and was able to get the fight to the ground whenever he wanted to.