Bellator Fighting Championships returned for round four on Spike TV last night (Feb. 7, 2013) with a middlweight title fight and the season eight featherweight tournament quarterfinals with finishes galore.
The main event of the evening was a battle between tournament winners Alexander Shlemenko and Maiquel Falcao who were competing to fill the vacant title left behind by former champion Hector Lombard when he left for UFC.
Shlemenko was a two-time tournament winner, losing a title fight to Lombard and then winning the season five middleweight tournament to earn another shot while Falcao was victorious in the season six middleweight tournament.
The Russian got off to a bit of a slow start early and Falcao capitalized by keeping his striking short and crisp. Falcao landed a few nice punches but his best work was his knees, which he threw every time both men clinched either in the cage center or along the fence.
Shlemenko bounced back by attacking to the body with his left hand and also mixing in his patented spinning attacks whether it was back fists or back kicks, but he seemed a step slow early on. He helped himself out by securing a trip takedown, but couldn't do much with the position.
In the second round, The RusFighter turned it on, really taking his aggression up a notch and hammering home some solid punches, kicks and body shots. When he had Falcao trapped against the fence, Shlemenko unloaded with a big flurry of blows, connecting with several shots and doing some serious damage.
With Falcao hurting badly, a short right hand from Shlemenko convinced him that dropping to the ground would be a good idea. Unfortunately for the Brazilian, Shlemenko followed him there and blasted him with a left then a right hand to put the "Bigg Rigg" out cold on the canvas.
The victory earned Shlemenko the vacant Bellator Middleweight Championship and his enthusiastic post-fight speech proved just how much it meant to him.
For complete Bellator 88 results and detailed round-by-round commentary of all the televised fights click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment