Matches to Make After Bellator 172

Just mere hours before one of sport’s pound-for-pound greats was set to make his promotional debut, Bellator MMA’s best laid plans went horribly awry.

Matt Mitrione’s losing bout with kidney stones forced the cancellation of the originally planned Bellator 172 headliner, delaying the stateside return of Fedor Emelianenko and likely doing serious damage to the big ratings anticipated by Viacom, Spike and promotion officials.

Even without a big-ticket main event, the show must go on, and Patricky Freire made sure it was an entertaining show indeed. The older “Pitbull” brother became just the second person to knock out Josh Thomson, finishing “The Punk” with an uppercut and follow-up hammerfists 40 seconds into the second frame of their featured lightweight encounter at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday night. Just one bout removed from a devastating knockout loss to Michael Chandler for the vacant lightweight title, Freire may have just emphatically re-inserted himself right back into the championship picture.

In the wake of Bellator 172, here are six matches that ought to be made (online sportsbooks).

Patricky Freire vs. Michael Chandler: In normal circumstances, Freire might need another win or two to get back to a No. 1 contender’s spot in the lightweight division. But not since Yves Edwards floored Thomson with a flying head kick at UFC 49 in 2004 has someone finished “The Punk” with strikes. Since Freire played the spoiler in a matchup partially designed to set up a long-awaited Chandler-Thomson showdown, he deserves to fill the void his knockout victory created. Using his post-fight microphone time to direct an expletive at the reigning lightweight king doesn’t hurt his case, either.

Josh Thomson vs. Benson Henderson: The incidental clash of heads that occurred before he was finished by Freire might have affected Thomson more than we’ll ever know, but regardless of the means, it still stands as a loss on the American Kickboxing Academy product’s record. Assuming the 38-year-old Strikeforce veteran still has the desire to continue, there is unfinished business with Benson Henderson, who took a contentious split verdict over Thomson under the Ultimate Fighting Championship banner in January 2014 and is coming off a loss to Chandler at this past November.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Matt Mitrione: Kidney stones floored Mitrione before he could make his walk to the cage on Saturday night, but it appears that “Meathead” will still get his shot against the Russian legend at a later date. While Emelianenko had no lack of willing short-notice suitors, “The Last Emperor” reportedly preferred to wait to make his Bellator debut against a fully healthy Mitrione. Mitrione has notched a pair of KO/TKO victories over Oli Thompson and Carl Seumanutafa in his first two promotional appearances, while Emelianenko has won five straight fights since his Strikeforce release in 2011. Matchmaker Rich Chou can use the postponed bout to potentially strengthen an upcoming card in the first half of 2017.

Cheick Kongo vs. Bobby Lashley: Kongo isn’t always thrilling, but at his best he can be brutally effective. The Frenchman dominated former training partner Oli Thompson in the co-main event, racking up some lopsided scorecards (30-26, 30-25, 30-25) in a relatively easy decision triumph. Since coming up short against then heavyweight champion Vitaly Minakov in April 2014, Kongo has won six of seven in the Bellator cage. Lashley, meanwhile, is unbeaten in five Bellator appearances and should be ready for a step up in competition. Promotion president Scott Coker has teased a heavyweight tournament at some point in 2017, and Kongo vs. Lashley could fit in nicely into such a hypothetical bracket.

Veta Arteaga vs. Anastasia Yankova: Arteaga’s aggressive approach netted her a third-round stoppage victory over muay Thai stylist Brooke Mayo in a featured flyweight tilt. A straight right hand in the third stanza landed cleanly, causing grotesque swelling near Mayo’s left eye and forcing a doctor stoppage following a competitive contest. Arteaga lost a controversial split decision to Yankova in their first meeting at Bellator 161. Running that bout back could provide some necessary closure for both women and some clarity in Bellator’s 125-pound division.

Mauricio Alonso vs. Andre Fialho: Alonso was as much as a +260 underdog entering his Bellator 172 matchup with Josh Koscheck, but the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt pulled the upset, stopping “The Ultimate Fighter 1” veteran via technical knockout 4:42 into the opening stanza. While Koscheck might not be at the peak of his powers, it still ranks as the most significant triumph of Alonso’s career and warrants another high-profile bout in the Bellator cage. A native of Lisbon, Portugal, Fialho turned heads with first-round knockouts in his first two promotional appearances before being stopped in just 21 seconds by Chidi Njokuani at Bellator 167.