Cheick Kongo Wins, Hisaki Kato Produces STUNNING KO – Bellator 139 Post Fight Report

By Nathan “Diesel” Hendrickson (At Cageside)

145 lbs. Greg Scott 3-3 vs. Gaston Reyno 3-0

Round 1 – Big crowd cheer for these local boys who are both fight out of Wichita. Both fighters immediately engaged in a standup battle, each landing hard strikes. Reyno managed to get Scott down on the ground and quickly finished him with a front guillotine choke.
Reyno wins by tap out at 1:17 in round one.

155 lbs. Bobby Cooper 11-4 vs. Pablo Villaseca 9-0

Round 1 – Stand up battle with Villaseca landing a few hard left hands. Villaseca dropped a hard let from Cooper, but Villaseca hung on and got back up to his feet. Villaseca has great energy and a lot of talent. After landing some hard knees in the clench, Villaseca landed an illegal knee leading veteran referee Robert Hinds to call a badly needed time out for Cooper. After some more standup striking, the round ends.

Round 2 – Villaseca takes Cooper down, manages to hold on to him and control him . Cooper managed to get Villaseca in a guillotine, but was unable to finish. Cooper gets inside Villaseca’s guard, but ref stands them up. Cooper finally starts landing some hard strikes rocking Villaseca who is starting to tire, but is still throwing power shots.

Round 3 – A fairly inconclusive standup battle with neither fighter landing anything of consequence, but lots of exciting action. Villaseca swinging for the fences. Villaseca lands a low blow kick about three minutes into the round, leading to a brief time out. Cooper starting to slowly dominate the stand up battle, and Villaseca’s face is getting bloody. After a final flurry from both fighters, we go to a decision.

Bobby Cooper wins a tough fight by a split decision.

145 lbs. Bubba Jenkins 8-2 vs. Joe Wilk 18-10

Round 1 – Two minutes of inconclusive standup. Jenkins takes Wilk down, gets in his guard. With 30 seconds left in the round, Wilk goes for an ankle lock, but Jenkins quickly escapes.

Round 2 – Jenkins takes Wilk down almost immediately. Jenkins unloads on the ground and pound with repeated hard strikes on Wilk. Robert Hinds ends the fight.

Bubba Jenkins TKO via referee stoppage, 1:00 round 2.

265 lbs. Daniel Gallemore 4-2 vs. Augusto Sakai 7-0

Round 1 – Big cheer for local Gallemore. Inconclusive until 3 minutes in, when Gallemore lands a monster hook that staggers Sakai. Sakai manages to stay on his feet and decides to throw bombs back, making Gallemore sway a bit. Both fighters then start throwing bombs not seen since WWII, but neither fighter gets rocked again.

Round 2 – Both lumbering giants decide to throw more bombs again, but their size and weight means they are throwing them much slower. Each fighter throwing hooks, kicks, and knees that can be heard throughout the arena, but no one is going down. The hooks being thrown are starting to look more like St. Louis arches than hooks. Both fighters are game, but tired.

Round 3 – There is no round 3! Amazingly, Gallemore decided not to come out for the third round. That’s too bad, because he was still powerful and dangerous, at least from this Ringside Reporter’s seat. Gallemore’s corner stopped the fight due to an eye injury.

Sakai wins by TKO, 5:00 round 2.

265 lbs. Alex Huddleston 5-1 vs. Javy Ayala 8-3

Round 1 – Huddleston lands a hard punch against Ayala, sending him to the mat. Huddleston follows him to the ground, improves his position, takes his back, and taps him out by a rear naked choke in round 1.

Huddleston wins by tap out, 1:12 round 1.

145 lbs. Iony Razafiarison 1-0 vs. Bryanna “The Pink Ranger” Fissori 1-0 (female match)

Round 1 – Former TV Pink Power Ranger Fissori takes Razafiarison down and establishes ground control. She gets her back and holds on for life, throwing shots, looking for a submission. Razafiarison manages to finally get up and throw Fissori down on the mat in the closing seconds of round 1.

Round 2 – After two minutes of stand up, Razafiarison takes Fissori down, but Fissori reverses the position and gains top control. Razafiarison fights back and manages to stand back up. Razafiarison manages to land a couple of hard shots before Fissori takes her back down right as the round ended.

Round 3 – Fissori takes Razafiarison down and gets inside her guard. Fissori seems to have superior ground skills to Razafiarison and its starting to show in round 3. Razafiarison unable to mount a defense and is getting dominated by a pink Power Ranger, with Fissori throwing short elbows and ground and pound, all the while moving for positions. With a minute left in the fight Fissori gets a full mount finishing the round on top while doing some nasty ground and pound.

Fissori wins by unanimous decision.

135 lbs. Jeimeson Saudino 8-4 vs. Aaron Ely 4-2

Round 1 – Big cheer for these boys who both train locally. The fight goes to the mat with Ely unsuccessfully attempting a guillotine on Saudino. Saudino answers with his own guillotine attempt. Ely gets back and mount positions hanging on for dear life while trying to gain position for a choke.

Round 2 – After some inconclusive standup, Ely got Saudino in a standing front guillotine. It wasn’t a standing guillotine for long, because Saudino went to sleep and lay down on the mat.
Aaron Ely wins by submission, round 2.

155 lbs. Marcio Navarro 13-11 vs. Cody Carillo 8-11 (FIGHT CANCELLED)

Televised Spike TV Card:

145 lbs. Pat Curran 20-7 vs. Emmanuel Sanchez 10-1

Round 1 – Standup battle with Curran landing some hard shots. Sanchez is attacking Curran’s legs with kicks. Neither fighter hurt the other, but both men are in good shape and active. You can tell by watching that this fight could change any minute.

Round 2 – Referee “Big” John McCarthy calls at time out after a nasty accidental headbutt that opened a gash over Sanchez’s left eye early in the round. Curran takes Sanchez down and starts to work inside the guard, but Sanchez gets to his feet. Sanchez is starting to get the better of the exchanges, but Curran is still dangerous. Curran takes Sanchez down with 30 seconds left in the round, not enough time to do anything effective.

Round 3 – Sanchez is coming out aggressive, but Curran still has enough power and juice left to catch Sanchez if he’s not careful. Curran takes Sanchez down about a minute into the round and starts throwing nasty short elbows inside the guard. Curran gets his back briefly, but Sanchez escapes and gets back on his feet. Sanchez takes Curran down immediately, but Curran reverses and gets back into back control. This fight is a barn-burner! Curran is working hard for a rear naked choke, but Sanchez escapes back onto his feet. The fight ends with the fighters giving it their all standing up.

Pat Curran wins by unanimous decision, but the fight was closer than it would appear by the decision.

185 lbs. Hisaki Kato 4-1 vs.Joe Schilling 2-2  

Round 1 – The fights starts with both men throwing hard strikes, with Schilling landing some nasty kicks. Kato takes Schilling down about a minute and a half in, and Kato gets to work inside the guard. Although the crowd starts booing, Kato’s corner is screaming at him to stay down on the ground. Schilling manages to get to his feet right as the round ends, but getting manhandled on the ground seems to have taken some gas out of him.

Round 2 – As the fight starts, both men look for positioning on their feet. Out of nowhere, Kato lands a flying left hook that knocked Schilling out cold. Schilling was on the ground not moving for about a minute. That will be a highlight reel knockout, I guarantee it. Kato hit him so hard, I think I felt that punch back when I was in the third grade.

Kato by KO, 0:34 round 2.

155 lbs. Dave “The Caveman” Rickels 16-3 vs. John Alessio 35-17

Round 1 – Rickels is a big crowd favorite, fighting out of Derby, Kansas just a few miles down the road. He is a showman, and comes out with a splash wearing a gold leopard-print sport jacket.
After standing up, Rickels rocked Alessio with some hard knees and strikes. Right when it looked like Rickels was finishing him, the referee called a time out due to illegal knees. The crowd actually thought the referee stopped the fight, but was confused by the time out. The crowd was loudly booing the referee, but Robert Hinds is a veteran referee and one of the best in the business. He made the right call. Alessio could not fight anymore, so after consultation with a very experienced ringside doctor that I’ve used in StriKing and seen at many Bellator events, Dr. Matthew Bohm, referee Robert Hinds called the fight much to the chagrin of the crowd.

Fight is ruled a no-contest due to illegal unintentional knee at 2:24, round 1.

265 lbs. Cheick Kongo 22-10 vs. Alexander Volkov 24-5

Round 1 – After feeling each other out for two and a half minutes, Kongo takes Volkov down and pins him against the cage on the mat. Volkov stands up only to be taken right back down again. Kongo started landing some nasty elbows opening up a cut on Volkov.

Round 2 – Kongo takes Volkov down again. Volkov does not seem to have the ability to stop the takedown. He pays for it by eating Kongo’s elbows and getting smothered like a wet blanket. Although Kongo isn’t landing anything solid, he is wearing out a tiring Volkov who has no answer to the veteran Kongo smothering him.

Round 3 – Volkov comes out swinging in desperation only to have Kongo slam him down to the mat again and start his withering attack. Kongo’s short punches and elbows are starting to get through to Volkov in greater numbers. Once again, Volkov has no defense. Although Volkov tried a desperate guillotine after Big John McCarthy stood them up, Kongo escaped it, and grinds his way to a victory by decision.

Kongo wins by unanimous decision.

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