(Garijo vs. Awad. Props: YouTube.com/BellatorMMA)
Swallowed up in the Strikeforce/WEC hype this weekend was Friday’s Bellator show, which was headlined by the finals of their featherweight tournament. Joe Soto, who had already run through Ben Greer and Wilson Reis to make it to the finals, completely dominated Yahir Reyes, beating him up with heavy ground-and-pound in the first round, then doing it some more in the second before sinking in a rear-naked choke. Soto earned $100,000 for the win, bringing his tournament total up to $175,000. Even more memorable than Soto’s win was the dogfight between Diego Garijo and Saad Awad, in which Garijo got rocked repeatedly with punches but managed to survive and choke out Awad with 15 seconds left in round one.
Also on the card, WEC vet Bryan Baker won a unanimous decision over IFL/UFC vet Matt Horwich, and Wilson Reis snuck off with a split decision victory over Roberto Vargas. Full results from the event can be found here; Bellator heads to Uncasville, Connecticut this Friday for their welterweight finals. The Soto/Reyes beating is after the jump.
(Soto vs. Reyes; fight starts at the video’s 6:45 mark)
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comments"Where did the ref go for training, Guantanamo Bay?? "He's not dead yet meng, keep fighting."
Good shit CB, LMAO!!
That was actually unpleasant to watch. It looked more like a school ground beating, with Soto looking up every now and then to see if a teacher was coming to break it up. I'm sure that Jason Herzog could see what was going on, but from where i was wincing it didn't look like Reyes was intelligently defending himself. Was his game plan to wait for Soto to either break both hands on his ribs or get bored and look for another inanimate object to hit? Thank f*ck for the choke stoppage.
I have totally impressed thus far. I hope they stick around and keep putting out fights like the two posted above. Lots of memorable fights and great highlights. Good stuff.
I've gone through dozens of UFC PPV's and alot have been duds, a bunch of decision wins and sucky fights. I think UFC is falling off. Quality wise
Bellator, FTW!
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