Bellator 74 main card set with welterweight tourney, Good-Wallhead headliner

A Season 7 welterweight tournament will take center stage at Bellator 74.

Officials today announced the nearly complete lineup for the Sept. 28 event, which takes place at Caesar's Atlantic City in Atlantic City, N.J.

In the MTV2-televised headliner and one of four opening-round tournament bouts, former champion Lyman Good (12-2 MMA, 5-2 BFC) meets Jim Wallhead (23-6 MMA, 1-1 BFC).

Good is 2-1, which included a close Season 4 tournament loss to Rick Hawn, since losing his title to Ben Askren in 2010. He now takes on Wallhead, whose only loss in his past 11 fights came to Hawn in a Season 4 tournament fight. Most recently, "Judo Jim" has knocked off big-show vets Frank Trigg and Joey Villasenor under the BAMMA banner.

Other opening-round tournament fights include Andrey Koreshkov (10-0 MMA, 2-0 BFC) vs. Jordan Smith (17-3-1 MMA, 0-1 BFC), Tim Welch (9-3 MMA, 0-0 BFC) vs. Michail Tsarev (23-2 MMA, 0-0 BFC), and Nordine Taleb (8-1 MMA, 2-0 BFC) vs. Marius Zaromskis (18-6 MMA, 2-0 BFC).

Overall, the tournament competitors have a combined record of 120-23-1.

The prelims, which stream on Spike.com, include featherweights Alexandre "Popo" Bezerra (13-2 MMA, 5-1 BFC) vs. Jeff Smith (10-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC), lightweights Derrick Kennington (6-3 MMA, 0-1 BFC) vs. Phillipe Nover (5-4-1 MMA, 0-1 BFC), featherweights Brylan Van Artsdalen (6-4 MMA, 0-4 BFC) vs. Jay Haas (10-9 MMA, 0-1 BFC), middleweights Kelvin Tiller (4-1 MMA, 2-0 BFC) vs. Plinio Cruz (5-5 MMA, 0-1 BFC), and bantamweights Claudio Ledesma (6-3 MMA, 1-1 BFC) vs. Kenny Foster (10-6 MMA, 3-3 BFC).

Female fighter Munah Holland (5-1 MMA, 1-0 BFC) also will compete against an opponent to be named.

The latest Bellator 74 card includes:

MAIN CARD (MTV2)
Lyman Good vs. Jim Wallhead - welterweight-tourney opening round
Andrey Koreshkov vs. Jordan Smith - welterweight-tourney opening round
Michail Tsarev vs. Tim Welch - welterweight-tourney opening round
Nordine Taleb vs. Marius Zaromskis - welterweight-tourney opening round

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com)
Alexandre "Popo" Bezerra vs. Jeff Smith
Derrick Kennington vs. Phillipe Nover
Jay Haas vs. Brylan Van Artsdalen
Munah Holland vs. TBD
Plinio Cruz vs. Kelvin Tiller
Kenny Foster vs. Claudio Ledesma

http://mmajunkie.com/news/30181/bellator-74-main-card-set-with-welterweight-tourney-good-wallhead-headliner.mma

OK, why no Daley or Lima in this tournament? That said, nice to see Judo Jimmy back in action.

I'm really glad Koreshkov got into this tourney! Agreed though Sonatine, why would Jordan Smith and Tim Welch get a spot in the tourney over Daley or Lima? Bellator is wacky sometimes.

Outside of the notable names, this is kind of a weak field considering the potential while taking their WW roster into consideration.

Really strange that Lima, Foster, and Daley aren't included. Must be a money thing.

Even Rickels should've gotten another shot at the tourney over fucking Jordan Smith. Smith is just food for Koreshkov.

AudaxPowder wrote:Even Rickels should've gotten another shot at the tourney over fucking Jordan Smith. Smith is just food for Koreshkov.

I like seeing these guys get a warm up fight or two over here with the cage & unified rules.

Dagwood wrote:

AudaxPowder wrote:Even Rickels should've gotten another shot at the tourney over fucking Jordan Smith. Smith is just food for Koreshkov.

I like seeing these guys get a warm up fight or two over here with the cage & unified rules.

Koreshkov already had warm up fights on bellator, he's 2-0

bolsheet wrote:

Dagwood wrote:

AudaxPowder wrote:Even Rickels should've gotten another shot at the tourney over fucking Jordan Smith. Smith is just food for Koreshkov.

I like seeing these guys get a warm up fight or two over here with the cage & unified rules.

Koreshkov already had warm up fights on bellator, he's 2-0

Wo... Yeah I guess he has. For some reason when I saw his name in Audax's post it flashed in my mind that he signed with Bellator and it seemed like just a bit ago. I'm gettin' old ya know... 'Early Onset Alzheimer's". Haha, I even watched his under a minute stoppage last fight vs Krantz.

surprised daley is not in it...

MR.WILLIE wrote:surprised daley is not in it...

Exactly. Where the hell is Paul Daley?