Bellator 64: What to Watch For
Bellator Fighting Championships makes its Canadian return on Friday, holding Bellator 64 from Caesars in Windsor, Ontario.
The Chicago-based promotion’s ongoing sixth season has provided fight fans with more than a few memorable moments thus far, and this event appears capable of living up to the standard established by its predecessors, featuring four new bantamweight talents, a potentially explosive featherweight tournament semifinal and the season’s second world title fight.
Advertisement
‘Funky’ Fresh
Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren
will be the first one to admit he is still a work in progress. To
that end, when he speaks of his in-cage abilities, Askren is
direct. He is a wrestler, and a damn fine one at that.
While refreshing to hear a fighter -- a champion, no less -- talk honestly about his skill set without clinging to the seemingly ubiquitous mantra of “I’m a well-rounded mixed martial artist,” Askren also seems aware that his elite wrestling base can take him only so far.
Askren’s last in-cage appearance was not an easy one, as he was taken to the brink of defeat by Season 4 tournament winner Jay Hieron at Bellator 59 in October. Though he walked away with his perfect record and title reign intact, the two-time NCAA wrestling champion still showed deficiencies in his standup game, despite training with renowned trainer and former world kickboxing champion Duke Roufus.
Will Askren’s time at Roufusport pay dividends, allowing him to utilize his world-class wrestling skills more freely? The smart money says Askren will need to show improvements in his footwork and defense if he is to close the distance against red-hot challenger Douglas Lima.
‘The Phenom’
I do not know about you, but I watched Lima’s Bellator 53 knockout of Chris Lozano about 25 times immediately after it went down. Even after repeated viewings, the force of the Lima’s right hand crashing into Lozano’s skull was hard to comprehend.
The term “one-punch knockout power” is bandied around too liberally, but in this case, its use is justifiable. The lesson is simple: when Douglas Lima swings, be somewhere else. A winner in nine straight fights, Lima appears to be reaching his potential at just the right moment.
With that said, Lima has never faced a wrestler the caliber of Bellator’s welterweight champion. While stoppage wins over Ryan Ford, Terry Martin and Ben Saunders are impressive in their own right, those victories do not mean the talented 24-year-old will be able to withstand Askren’s grinding game plan if the champ is able to put Lima on his back for five rounds. Will “The Phenom” sink or swim if Askren takes him into deep waters?
The Stretcher Man
Just a few weeks ago, I was caught wondering aloud whether Marlon Sandro would deliver to Bellator fans the type of awe-inspiring violence that made him famous overseas.
He must have heard me.
Seriously, though, Sandro was more aggressive in his last outing than Bellator fans have ever seen him. He stalked Roberto Vargas in the featherweight quarterfinals and put down the hammer in less than four minutes at Bellator 60. No frills, no wasted motion. Plainly, Sandro looked like an Antonio Banderas-level assassin out there.
The problem with dominant performances like the one described is that the contented, couch-dwelling public expects them to be produced every time the fighter responsible steps into the cage. While this is a syndrome to which even the best of the MMA community have succumbed at some point -- please stop staring at me, it is rude -- let us try to be patient as we anticipate another exciting performance from the former All-Violence first-teamer.
‘Popo’
A man also known for finishing fights, Bezerra has earned just one of his 13 career victories by decision. A perfect 5-0 through his Bellator career thus far, “Popo” was tested but prevailed in his Nov. 12 clash with Douglas Evans, eating a ton of leather before finally wrenching a heel hook to snatch the victory.
Maintaining his momentum, Bezerra put forth the best performance of his Bellator career in his most recent outing, submitting Team Bombsquad standout Kenny Foster with a rear-naked choke to punch his ticket to the semis at Bellator 60.
While Sandro is certainly the more seasoned competitor, his younger countryman may be able to effectively utilize a potential athletic advantage. If his fight with Foster is any indication, “Popo” should put on a classic with the Nova Uniao rep. Do not miss this one.
Bantamweight Blitz
Most observers will not know their names, but the competitors represented in this half of the bantamweight bracket are capable of great things.
Only 20 years old, undefeated Rodrigo Lima has blasted his way through eight of his 10 career victims. A nine-time veteran of Brazil’s Watch Out Combat Show, “Ratinho” is as explosive as they come but has been known to swing wild at times. Meanwhile, his opponent, Deep and Shooto veteran Hiroshi Nakamura, has won five of his last six fights and posted victories over Masakazu Imanari, Seiji Akao and current Deep titlist Yoshiro Maeda in 2011. “Iron” does not possess the raw power of his younger opponent but should use his footwork and head movement to set up counterstrikes and a solid double-leg takedown.
In the other quarterfinal, former Shooto 132-pound titlist Masakatsu Ueda makes his North American debut against Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts representative Travis Marx, a man used to competing at heavier weights against opponents like Rad Martinez, Steven Siler and Richie Whitson. Ueda -- who already owns a victory over Bellator Season 5 tournament winner Eduardo Dantas -- will likely try to use his quickness and a variety of creative takedown and submission attempts to derail Marx’s own ground-heavy attack.
It is anybody’s guess what will happen when these four men step into the cage, but I would bet on fireworks.
Related Articles
