Bellator 36: The Bottom Line
By Ben Bieker
Main Event:
“Razor” Rob McCullough (19-6-0) vs. Patricky “Pitbull” Freire (7-1-0)
Fans should be ready for a striking extravaganza in this fight. Rob is known for his powerful strikes back in his WEC days. Since he was champion he has had a rough go of things. Losing to Jaime Varner, Donald Cerrone, and Karen Darabedyan forced the company to cut ties with him. Only one of those losses, the one to Jaime Varner, was due to TKO. I question his ability to fight at the top level, and if he wins this tournament he will have to fight Eddie Alvarez, if he is still champion. He will need to prove in this fight that his striking is up to snuff as it is his best weapon.
Patricky comes into the tournament with a record of 7-1. His only loss was to Willamy Freire who recently fought in the UFC. In his early fights in Brazil he was a beast where he beat two of his first three opponents by stomps. As that weapon is not allowed in America he is a little short handed, but he still is a brutal striker. Look no further than his fight with Marlon Medeiros where he won by knock out due to a flying knee and punches. With these two strikers in the cage you can bet that this fight will not go three rounds.
The Bottom Line: Rob I believe is past his prime while Patricky is on his way up. Rob has the hunger to still fight, but his skills are declining. In the end, Rob’s desire and experience will win out here as he stops Patricky late in the third round for a comeback win.
Co-Main Event:
Ferrid “Hurricane” Kheder (18-5-0-1) vs. Toby Imada (28-16-0)
Toby Imada may have a bad record, but he is a very good fighter. He is 14-3 in his last seventeen fights. That is a respectable record which put his record before that at 14-13 which is a horrible record. A lot of his losses do come to top competition, but in his last fourteen wins he has finished all of his opponents. He has fallen short of getting the title a few times in Bellator. He was choked out by Eddie Alvarez, and lost a close split decision to Pat Curran for a second chance at Eddie. He is a good fighter with tons of ring savvy for an indication of that look to his innovative submission of Toby Imada that still plays on highlight reels today.
Ferrid is a world class judo fighter. Coming from that background into MMA caused him a few losses at the start of his career. He is 13-1 in his last fourteen fights with his only loss to Daisuke Nakamura at a catchweight fight. He is a good fighter with his base in Judo giving him a good shot at beating people on the ground or on the feet. He did have a controversial fight with Hermes Franca not to far back where it looked like the promoter gave him the win.
This fight could be contested on the feet or on the ground. Obviously Ferrid will have strength in his clinch game while Imada will have the ability to submit him on the ground. I think that Ferrid may have the power in his hands, but he will not clearly have the technique that imada has. This fight could go a multitude of ways and is probably the best fight on the card.
The Bottom Line: Imada is the better fighter and the more experienced fighter. He will test it out on the feet in the first until he takes Ferrid down and submits him in the second.
Carey Vanier (10-3-0) vs. Lloyd “Cupcake” Woodard (10-0-0)
Carey will be looking to win this fight for more than just the move up the tournament ladder. I am sure; he will be looking for a rematch with Toby Imada on his way toward the title. Toby submitted Carey less than a year ago in the last Lightweight tournament. To win this fight, move on and beat Toby, and then to win the title would make a good year for Carey. The problem to all of that is Lloyd Woodard who is going to give Carey a real fight if he wants to make those dreams come true. Carey beat a veteran of the game in Rich Clementi, even though he cheated, to make it here so I am sure he does not want to lose on his first fight into the tournament.
Being undefeated is a good and a bad thing. It puts a target on your back for other fighters to be the first to defeat you. Lloyd has proven himself this far to be a competent fighter. His record is also not padded with losing opponents. He has fought quality fighters in Ryan Healy and Alonzo Martinez. Here he will be facing a fighter who has more than just wanting to take away his undefeated streak.
Both of these fighters have the ability to stop the other anywhere the fight goes. The ground game will be the decider in this fight. If Lloyd is able to control the ground game he will win, but if Carey is able to take Lloyd down and stay on top he will win. Both fighters have a penchant for submission so it will be interesting to see how this fight play out.
The Bottom Line: I can’t bet against a guy from Montana so I will take Lloyd by unanimous decision.
Marcin Held (10-1-0) vs. Michael Chandler (5-0-0)
Hard to think that a 19 year old fighter has more experience than his opponent but that is the case in this fight. Marcin is only nineteen and some consider him to be the person who will be the youngest to have a black belt in BJJ in Poland. Michael has had a somewhat lucky career too. He got onto a Strikeforce card with just one professional fight and after two wins he got picked up by Bellator. These are two fighters with a lot of promise, and ether one of them could be a dark horse in the tournament.
Hard to say how this fight goes since Mike is more of a wrestler, and Marcin obviously has that BJJ background. If it goes to the ground Mike better be ready to fend off submission, but if his standup is good enough he should keep it on the feet. Also Marcin is kind of small for 155 and that might play a factor with Mike obviously cutting weight to make it.
The Bottom Line: Hard to say, this is a real toss up. Part of me wants to say Marcin by submission or Michael by TKO. I think in the end Michael’s strength comes in to play and keeps Marcin’s submission at bay for a third round TKO win.