This weekend presents a rare opportunity for Bellator Fighting Championships. Not since October 17th of last year have they promoted an event on a UFC-free weekend. Each of their scheduled 2015 shows going forward are also opposed by UFC events a day or two either side.
Bellator 135 takes place on Friday night airing live on Spike TV, and with just World Series of Fighting 19 for company the following night, it is a real chance for Bellator to draw some extra fan and media attention.
If the thought of a weekend without the UFC is pushing you towards a nervous breakdown, don’t fear. Despite a bout between Eduardo Dantas and Mike Richman falling through, Bellator 135 remains bantamweight heavy. Here’s why the 135lb’ers should be providing your MMA fix this weekend.
Joe Warren Vs Marcos Galvao
When Scott Coker ditched the tournament format that had gained the company traction under previous CEO Bjorn Rebney, he ran the risk of becoming UFC-lite. No longer the great proving ground for emerging talents, Coker instead went back to what he knows best. Fighters with recognized name value, big personalities, and exciting styles clashing in the cage whether the fights carry divisional relevance or not.
Less UFC-lite, more Strikeforce-lite then.
Promoting fights that carry a story is vital for any company looking to gain viewers, but especially so for Bellator in their new framework. Joe Warren and Marcos Galvao’s Bellator Bantamweight Championship fight on Friday has plenty of that.
In 2011, way back at Bellator 41, Marcos Galvao faced Joe Warren in the main event. Warren came in to the non-title catchweight bout as the Bellator Featherweight Champion. He looked anything but a title holder. Galvao took him apart for the first two rounds of their contest and seemed nailed on to get the decision. That would not be the case.
Not only did two of the judges award Warren the bout 29-28, a third judge – Chuck Wolfe – turned in a 30-27 scorecard that defied any fight scoring logic.
Galvao’s reward for being ripped off by incompetent judges was a spot in the season 5 Bantamweight tournament. There, the Brazilian would be on the wrong end of another controversial decision that saw him eliminated by Alexis Vila in the semi-finals. Galvao’s early Bellator career was filled with injustice.
Marcos Galvao would go on to win the season 6 Bantamweight tournament before challenging, unsuccessfully, for Eduardo Dantas’ title at Bellator 89. Galvao has strikes at two pieces of unfinished business, avenge the loss that never should have been, and finally get his hands on the Bellator Bantamweight Championship belt.
As for the reigning champion, Joe Warren is clearly a better fighter now than he was on that night back in 2011. He is riding a five fight win streak that has seen him win Bellator’s season 9 tournament and the interim bantamweight title. Warren would go on to turn that into undisputed championship gold in October of last year with a win over Eduardo Dantas.
Warren has conceded that Galvao was a better fighter than him the last time they fought. Whatever the record books say, everyone who saw the fight that night in Yuma, Arizona, knows that Marcos Galvao beat Joe Warren. The champ will be determined to ensure that does not happen again.
L.C. Davis Vs Hideo Tokoro
With fighters no longer having to go through Bellator tournaments to earn their title shots, a win on the televised main card can’t hurt the title aspirations of either of these two bantamweights. With a bout between Mike Richman and Eduardo Dantas pulled from the card due to injury, Davis and Tokoro find themselves promoted into the co-main event slot. It is an opportunity that won’t be lost on either fighter.
International Fight League and World Extreme Cagefighting veteran L.C. Davis has gone 2-0 in Bellator with wins over Tory Bogguess and Zeilton Rodrigues. He dropped to 135lbs back in 2012 and it is a decision he has not regretted, recently stating that it’s the weight he should have been fighting at his whole career. Davis is now focused on earning a shot at the winner of the Warren – Galvao main event.
37 year old Hideo Tokoro will be looking to spoil the party. His 61 fight resume reads like a who’s who of lower weight Japanese MMA. Caol Uno, Royce Gracie, Masakazu Imanari and Rumina Sato all make appearances on the list.
Tokoro also won the DREAM Bantamweight Grand Prix back in 2011. That tournament win seems a long time ago now, as back to back losses – and 4 defeats in his last 6 – suggest this is one of the last opportunities he will get to make a statement.
Davis is expected to win, and probably will, but his Japanese opponent is well known for being in exciting fights. Whatever the result, this one should serve as an exciting appetizer ahead of the Bantamweight title main event.
By the time the night is done, Bellator’s 135lb landscape will be even clearer, and with the likes of Richman and Dantas waiting in the wings, this could become Coker’s most exciting division.
Main Photo via USA Today Sports
