Last night Eddie Alvarez scored a dramatic first round KO win (video above) over Patricky “Pitbull” Freire at Bellator 76 and potentially earned a UFC contract. The fight was the last on Alvarez’ contract with Bellator.

After Alvarez won, UFC President Dana White reportedly tweeted him saying, “congrats Bro!!! Let’s talk ”

Alvarez isn’t the top lightweight in Bellator after losing to Michael Chandler, but he has rebounded nicely from that loss with the win over Patricky and Shinya Aoki. Alvarez has long been regarded as one of the best fighters in the world not signed to the UFC.

We’ll keep you posted on developments with this story as they emerge. For now, enjoy Alvarez’ nasty KO.

- Elias Cepeda

Rick Hawn, Olympic Judoka knock-out artist (Video: YouTube/BellatorMMA)

It just wouldn’t be a Friday night without a Santos-Prindle cancellation and an action-packed Bellator tournament. If you went dateless last night (or had a really awesome date) and managed to catch the opening round of the Season 6 Lightweight tourney, you were treated to some memorable scraps. For those who missed it: someone got concussed, someone’s in a cast, and we’ve got your cheat sheet right here.

Rene Nazare was looking to let his hands go from the onset, but once Thiago Michel rattled off a few front kicks to the grill his interest in a standup battle waned. Michel worked his kickboxing game all three rounds, using his long limbs to land combinations while keeping Nazare at bay. The BJJ specialist was denied takedowns throughout the fight, and when he did manage to pull Michel to the ground he was either short on time or short on action. Michel’s aggression on the feet and defense on the ground was enough to score the split decision win.

A rare submission, a knock out, and a broken limb await you after the jump.

Eric Prindle vs. Thiago Santos, fight ending low blow comes at the 2:07 mark. All videos in this post props to IronForgesIron.com

Coming fresh off of Last week’s action packed show, Bellator looked to keep building momentum last night in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The good news for Bellator is that, for the most part, the card delivered exciting, entertaining fights. The bad news for Bellator? That above video not only happened, but was supposed to be this season’s heavyweight tournament finale.

Rather, this season’s heavyweight tournament ends with a controversial no contest. On one hand, it would be anti-climatic to name a number one contender by disqualification from to an illegal kick. On the other hand, if Santos was aiming for the inside of Prindle’s thigh, it sure didn’t look like it. Prindle will meet Santos again to determine a contender for Cole Konrad, although a date for their next meeting hasn’t been announced yet.

(Good to have you back, buddy.)

Well damn, that didn’t last long. A little over three months after announcing his retirement from MMA — due to his fading motivation to compete and a desire to spend time with his new son — the game has sucked Batman back in. Kurt Pellegrino announced on Saturday that he has signed with Bellator, and will face Season Four lightweight tournament finalist Patricky “Pitbull” Freire at Bellator 59, November 26th at Caesar’s Atlantic City. As Kurt explained:

“It was like Rocky II when Adrian awoke from the coma and told Rocky to ‘win’. I was retired, sitting home watching videos with my son, but I was also training at that time and was in great shape when my wife walked up to me and said ‘If you want to do it again, go for it’. Before that, I felt bad for being away training and missing my daughter’s first words, changing diapers, etc. I was so happy that I was able to be there for my son’s big moments – but the fact that my family supports me returning to fight means everything to me…

(Rosenthal, you scene-stealing son-of-a-bitch.)

MMA history is littered with badass sets of brothers — the Nogueiras, the Shamrocks, the Ruffos — but we wouldn’t necessarily want to see them cage-fight to the death. There are, of course, a few exceptions to that rule. In honor of tomorrow’s release of Warrior, which features two estranged brothers who [SPOILER ALERT!] beat the crap out of each other at the end, we humbly present our top-five dream fights between bros. Enjoy…

Clay Guida vs. Jason Guida

With all the times that Jason has slapped his brother in the face before UFC fights, you’d think that Clay might want to give some of it back, just once. Sure, the Carpenter would be at a solid 50-pound weight disadvantage, but I think he’d take it by decision due to his pace and his wrestling. Besides, it’s been too long since we’ve had a good open-weight freak show fight in this country.

Patricio Freire vs. Patricky Freire

This is basically the 2011 version of “I wonder what would happen if Shogun and Ninja fought each other?” With a 17-1 record and a Bellator Season 4 tournament sweep to his credit, Patricio Pitbull is undoubtedly one of the greatest featherweights outside of the UFC. (Notable moments: His TKO of Georgi Karakhanyan and destruction of Wilson Reis.) Patricio’s lightweight brother Patricky is just as ferocious, as proven by his knockout of Rob McCullough and highlight-reel flying-knee against Toby Imada. Make it happen, Bjorn.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/BellatorMMA)

It looks like Patricky “Pitbull” Freire didn’t get permission from Bellator to face DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki. Instead Bjorn Rebney and Co. are sending “Razor” Rob McCullough over to Japan to face “T?bikan J?dan” in a non-title affair at DREAM 17 September 24 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

DREAM announced the match-up on Friday. MMAJunkie.com was the first site to report the news.

(Props: BellatorMMA)

Unfortunately, ReX was unable to provide us with one of his famous Bellator reports this week, so you’ll have to settle for this quick-n-dirty recap of Bellator 44, which went down Saturday night in Atlantic City. First, we’ll direct you to the video above: Hector Lombard earned his 18th-straight victory (!) in a non-title bout against Falaniko Vitale, crushing Niko to the mat with a right hook in the third frame after a surprisingly dull first two rounds. Lombard’s latest performance follows such previous classics as “Six Second Prison Rape” and “A Corpse Named ‘Whisper’.”

Headlining the card, Xtreme Couture’s Michael Chandler scored an upset decision win over the highly-touted Patricky Freire in the Season Four Lightweight Tournament final, outworking the Pitbull in all three rounds; Chandler was docked a point in the third for groin-kicks. The victory netted him a $100,00 check and a future shot at Eddie Alvarez’s belt. In non-tournament action, Alexander Shlemenko spun circles around Brett Cooper, picking up his own UD victory, while Giedrius Karavackas battled back from an early ass-kicking to submit Sam Oropeza by scarf-hold armlock. Full results and video of the Karavackas/Oropeza stoppage are after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/BellatorMMA)

If you haven’t been following Bellator this season, you’ve been missing out on some great fights, most of which have involved two Brazilian brothers with the same name. The Pitbull brothers, Patricky (9-1) and Patricio(15-1) Freire have proven themselves to be two of the most dynamic fighters Bellator has, serving up heaping helpings of flying-knee and one-punch KOs on MTV2 every time out this year.

In spite of their recent emergence from seeming obscurity, the brothers Freire — who happen to train with MMA’s most famous brothers with the same name, the Nogueiras — didn’t just become badasses; they’ve both been bad motherfuckers for some time.

If you watch carefully, you can see his Soul flashing a peace sign when it flies out.  (VidProps: Bellator)

If you listened to this week’s edition of the Bum Rush (you did, right?), you know that some of us were really looking forward to Bellator action this weekend, and some of us were unconvinced.  But when guys are pulling off stupid-rare submissions and handing out beatdowns on the weekly, we say those naysayers are just stupid neenerfaces.  You go ahead and contemplate how much time we’re spending with preschool kids while you click the “Read More” link below, then share your comments about just how awesome Bellator is.  Hyperbole and ridiculous analogies will win you style points, and haterific comments will probably inspire ReX13 to bestow an insulting website upon your login.  That asshole is just way too sensitive sometimes.

Yes, this was a lazy choice for the leading picture.  Suck it, Trebek.

Sometimes when major news breaks, there’s news that falls through the cracks.  So while everyone and their brother is talking about middle eastern uprisings, Japanese earthquakes and #tigerblood, can we point out that we’re watching two major MMA organizations initiate their melodramatic death scenes?  If you had Dream/FEG in your office MMA org death pool, well, we compliment your good sense, and sympathize with your loss.

Anyways, with yesterday’s seismic changes in the MMA scene (and if you believe the “business as usual” line, we have a used space shuttle to sell you), it’s possible you forgot about Bellator XXXVI.  This was the kind of show that Bellator built its rep on: an eclectic mix of journeymen and young prospects competing in a field in which your predictions are about as solid as a coin toss, seasoned with the best undercard fights to round out the show.   Bellator continues to stay on the cutting edge of free agent acquisition, and the tournaments are only becoming more compelling.  If you DVR’d the Louisiana show last night, go watch it right now.  Don’t worry, we’ll wait.  If you can’t, you missed a solid card.  Of the seven fights last night, exactly zero went to decision, although the much-requested Spiritwolf-Jara bloodbath from last week did actually make it to the judges. Come on in and we’ll tell you about it, without rubbing it in too much.