Bellator 84 Discussion Tournament Finals

Dec 14, 2012
The Venue at Horseshoe Casino, Hammond, Indiana, United States


Lightweight Tournament final:

Dave Jansen vs Marcin Held

Dave Jansen
"The Fugitive"
Country: USA
age: 33yrs
18- 2- 0
5'9'
155lbs
Association: Team Quest
Style: Freestyle wrestling/ Boxing
Strengths: Wrestling, Well rounded, Submissions
Last 3 Wins: Ricardo Tirloni, Magomed Saadulaev, Jacob Kirwan
Only 2 Losses: Ricardo Lamas, Kamal Shalorus

Marcin Held
Country: Poland
age: 20yrs
15- 2- -0
5'9'
155lbs
Association: Bastion Tychy
Style: Brazilian Jiu jitsu
Strengths: Jiu jitsu, Submissions, Finisher
Last 3 Wins: Rich Clementi, Murad Machaev, Derrick Kennington
Only 2 Losses: Michael Chandler, Lukasz Sajewski

Heavyweight Tournament Final

Richard Hale vs Alexander Volkov

Richard Hale
"Rare Breed"
Country: USA
age: 27yrs
21- 4- 1
6'4'
233lbs
Association: Koncrete Gym
Style: Brazilian Jiu jitsu/ Boxing
Strengths: Finisher, KO power, Submissions
Last 3 Wins: Thiago Santos, Mike Wessel, Josh Burns
Last 3 Losses: Christian M'Pumbu, Antwain Britt, Matt Lucas

Alexander Volkov
"Drago"
Country: Russia
age: 24yrs
18-3-0
6'7'
226lbs
Association: Red Devil Sports Club
Style: Striker
Strengths: Striking, Presses Action, Reach
Last 3 wins: Vinicius Kappke de Queiroz, Brett Rogers, Stefan Stankovic

Who are the winners for Bellator season 7 Featherweight, Lightweight and Heavyweight Tournament Finals?

Going with Shah, Held, and Volkov.

With the delay of the FW final to this event, I've decided to switch from my original pick in Shamhalaev to Martinez. Being pushed back may discourage a lot of fighters but I think Rad will find strength in this change of events somehow.

So my picks are Martinez, Held, and Hale.

i never knew much about sha going into this tournament but he's impressed me a lot so far, especially taking out richman like he did, the guy i picked to win the whole tournament. i watched sha's pre-bellator fights and his run is defintely no fluke. martinez' striking defense is weak, sha will catch him early. shamhalaev TKO.

hale has power advantage over volkov but his striking defense is god awful and his chin is paper mache. volkov TKO.

i don't give held much of a chance outside of an imanari baseball slide leglock. jansen stuffs his takedowns, beats him up standing for 3 rounds imo. jansen UD.

HHPx wrote:i never knew much about sha going into this tournament but he's impressed me a lot so far, especially taking out richman like he did, the guy i picked to win the whole tournament. i watched sha's pre-bellator fights and his run is defintely no fluke. martinez' striking defense is weak, sha will catch him early. shamhalaev TKO.

hale has power advantage over volkov but his striking defense is god awful and his chin is paper mache. volkov TKO.

i don't give held much of a chance outside of an imanari baseball slide leglock. jansen stuffs his takedowns, beats him up standing for 3 rounds imo. jansen UD.

Welcome to G-MMA.

I'm going with Shah as well. I agree, he has been real impressive in this tournament.

Going with Volkov too. I think he gets the TKO in this one.

Jansen is solid but I'm going with Held. Hope he can pull off some kind of leg sub. in this one.

HHPx wrote:i never knew much about sha going into this tournament but he's impressed me a lot so far, especially taking out richman like he did, the guy i picked to win the whole tournament. i watched sha's pre-bellator fights and his run is defintely no fluke. martinez' striking defense is weak, sha will catch him early. shamhalaev TKO.

hale has power advantage over volkov but his striking defense is god awful and his chin is paper mache. volkov TKO.

i don't give held much of a chance outside of an imanari baseball slide leglock. jansen stuffs his takedowns, beats him up standing for 3 rounds imo. jansen UD.

Good picks, I also think Volkov and Shamhalaev win via TKO

rooting for rad 1000%......


hale vs volkov, if hale uses his wrestling he beats volkov, but im rooting for alexander(i think hale will win) and in the other fight rooting for held

tough fights to pick.

I'll take Held, Shamhalaev and Volkov(this one has me thinking twice though)

All these fights could truly be considered toss-ups, which should give us a very good night of fights. Definitely makes up for the loss of M'Pumbu/Vegh.

I'm going with Martinez, Jansen, and Volkov.

Martinez, because he's a very tough fighter and i'm not sure Shamhalaev's finishing power will be enough to put away Martinez. Wouldn't be surprised if that were against the case, though.

Jansen's got a much better all-around game, so he should easily be the favored fighter here but with Held's submission game, he virtually has a chance against anybody. It's a shame we couldn't see him against Aoki in the future.

I think Volkov/Hale is the closest fight of all because both have their flaws and outstanding positives. This is truly anyone's fight to win. Hale has finishing power, but Volkov has better technique. Hale has better wrestling and submissions, but Volkov is genuinely as good at everything else too.
REAL close fight.

how is hale's wrestling? i havent seen any of his fights outside of his HW stint and his fight with mpumbu which have been mostly standup.

wekka wrote:All these fights could truly be considered toss-ups, which should give us a very good night of fights. Definitely makes up for the loss of M'Pumbu/Vegh.

I'm going with Martinez, Jansen, and Volkov.

Martinez, because he's a very tough fighter and i'm not sure Shamhalaev's finishing power will be enough to put away Martinez. Wouldn't be surprised if that were against the case, though.

Jansen's got a much better all-around game, so he should easily be the favored fighter here but with Held's submission game, he virtually has a chance against anybody. It's a shame we couldn't see him against Aoki in the future.

I think Volkov/Hale is the closest fight of all because both have their flaws and outstanding positives. This is truly anyone's fight to win. Hale has finishing power, but Volkov has better technique. Hale has better wrestling and submissions, but Volkov is genuinely as good at everything else too.
REAL close fight.

Good breakdown. Yeah, these are some pickem fights.

HHPx wrote:how is hale's wrestling? i havent seen any of his fights outside of his HW stint and his fight with mpumbu which have been mostly standup.

Seems to have some decent TDD. Santos is not a world beater at wrestling but Hale kept it on the feet for the most part. I don't remember anyone in his Bellator fights taking him down easy. He has some real solid sub. skills. He has 8 out of 21 finishes by sub. and his inverted triangle against Fekete was one of the best subs of the year last year.

rad probably had no respect for the punching power of wagney and naz.

i think he will have a compeltely different gameplan for sha.

HHPx wrote:how is hale's wrestling? i havent seen any of his fights outside of his HW stint and his fight with mpumbu which have been mostly standup.

he got lay n prayed by some ufc bum duke luke lucas or some shit 2x

one of the matches he pulled a late kimura from his back

This past week, food poisoning delayed Bellator Fighting Championships' Season 7 featherweight tournament final.

Today, Bellator officials announced something a bit more noble will push Rad Martinez (14-2 MMA, 4-0 BFC) vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev (11-1-1 MMA, 2-0 BFC) to 2013.

"Rad and Shamhalaev will fight sometime during season 8," Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said on a conference call promoting the company's upcoming programming. "It will be an epic fight, and we're glad to have it. Rad's just not able to make it work timing-wise, and I completely, 100 percent respect what he's got to tend to."

Martinez and his brother are the primary caretakers of their father, who suffered severe brain damage in a car accident. Their story was featured in a 2011 episode of ESPN's "Outside the Lines." It's that responsibility that prevents Martinez from fighting at this week's Bellator 84 event despite an initial announcement to the contrary.

"I spoke too soon at the show last Friday," Rebney said. "Rad is saddled with responsibilities that are admirable. None of us can probably understand the depth and the level of what he's got to deal with. Post-fight, I talked to Rad and got he and his brother on the phone. We just sat down and talked for a while. Literally, Rad is not in a position to be able to fight – not because he's not ready, not because he's not in incredible shape, not because he didn't prepare but simply because he's got to take care of his dad.

"Between his brother Levi and Rad, that is an epic requirement, an epic responsibility. Their tending to him is an admirable on a level that's hard to talk about, and Levi was going to be out of town, and there literally is nobody else that can care for his father the way his dad needs to be taken care of, so he's not going to be able to make it this Friday."

Finalists Martinez and Shamhalaev were originally expected to meet at this past weekend's Bellator 83 event in New Jersey. However, New Jersey Athletic Control Board inspectors saw Shamhalaev vomit in the locker room, and the fight was scratched just moments before it was scheduled to take place. Bad fruit was to blame for the food poisoning, Rebney later said.

Bellator officials did not reveal a targeted date for the rescheduled encounter, but the company's 12-week Season 8 begins on Jan. 17. The Season 7 tournament final winner earns $100,000 in total pay and a guaranteed title shot

Bellator 84, which still features Season 7 tournament finals in the heavyweight and lightweight divisions, takes place Friday at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind. It's Bellator's final event of 2012 and the last one before the organization moves to Spike TV in January.

For more on Bellator 84 and all of the promotion's upcoming events, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/2012/12/bellators-rad-martinez-shahbulat-shamhalaev-tourney-final-moved-to-season-8

Bellator 84 lineup complete with two tourney finals, eight prelims

The scrapping of a planned featherweight tournament final leaves Friday's Bellator 84 season finale official with three main-card bouts, plus eight prelims.

Rad Martinez (14-2 MMA, 4-0 BFC) vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev (11-1-1 MMA, 2-0 BFC) was moved off this past Friday's Bellator 83 event when Shamhalaev got food poisoning. The bout held a hopeful spot at Bellator 84 this week, but Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney on Tuesday said he spoke too soon when announcing it this past week.

That leaves the Season 7 finale with just three televised main-card fights on MTV2.

Bellator 84 takes place at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., about 20 miles from downtown Chicago. It is the promotion's third overall trip to the venue and second this season after Bellator 75.

The main card still includes a pair of tournament finals. Rich Hale (21-4-1 MMA, 6-1 BFC) meets Alexander Volkov (18-3 MMA, 2-0 BFC) for the heavyweight tourney crown. Plus, Marcin Held (15-2 MMA, 4-1 BFC) takes on Dave Jansen (18-2 MMA, 5-0 BFC) for the lightweight tournament title.

In addition, in a women's rematch, Felice Herrig (7-4 MMA, 1-0 BFC) fights Patricia Vidonic (7-3 MMA, 0-0 BFC) at 115 pounds.

The tournament winners will received $100,000 in total tourney prize money. The heavyweight tournament winner is expected to be the promotion's new champion after the retirement of Cole Konrad earlier this year. The Held-Jansen winner will be next in line for a shot at the lightweight belt.

The prelims and non-televised fights are set to include welterweights Quinton McCottrell (6-9 MMA, 0-0 BFC) and recent TUF 16 hopeful Kevin Nowaczyk (11-2 MMA, 0-0 BFC); lightweight jiu-jitsu world champ Christian Uflacker (4-0 MMA, 0-0 BFC) vs. Cliff Wright (7-3 MMA, 1-1 BFC); Norwegian middleweight Jack Hermansson (5-0 MMA, 0-0 BFC) vs. M-1 vet Daniel Vizcaya (6-2 MMA, 0-0 BFC); a 215-pound catch weight fight featuring Anthony Gomez (6-2 MMA, 1-1 BFC) vs. Anton Talamantes (5-2 MMA, 0-0 BFC); Strikeforce vet Louis Taylor (7-3 MMA, MMA, 1-0 BFC) vs. UFC vet Joe Vedepo (14-5 MMA, 1-0 BFC) at middleweight; flyweights Joey Diehl (3-3 MMA, 0-0 BFC) vs. Jerald Williams (2-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC); heavyweights Eddie Castillo (0-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC) vs. Dave Sharp (1-0 MMA, 0-0 BFC); and featherweights Robert White (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BFC) vs. Kenny Booker (2-0 MMA, 0-0 BFC).

The full card for Bellator 84 now includes:

MAIN CARD (MTV2, 8 p.m. ET)

Rich Hale vs. Alexander Volkov - heavyweight tournament final
Marcin Held vs. Dave Jansen - lightweight tournament final
Felice Herrig vs. Patricia Vidonic

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com)

Quinton McCottrell vs. Kevin Nowaczyk
Christian Uflacker vs. Cliff Wright
Jack Hermansson vs. Daniel Vizcaya
Anthony Gomez vs. Anton Talamantes
Louis Taylor vs. Joe Vedepo
Joey Diehl vs. Jerald Williams
Eddie Castillo vs. Dave Sharp
Robert White vs. Kenny Booker

http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2012/12/bellator-84-lineup-complete-with-two-tourney-finals-eight-prelims

^Hopefully we see another Vedepo choke.

Bellator 84 Weigh-In Results: Richard Hale, Alexander Volkov On Point for Heavyweight Final

Richard Hale and Alexander Volkov have been cleared to compete in Friday’s Season 7 heavyweight tournament final, as both fighters checked in under the heavyweight limit at Thursday’s Bellator 84 weigh-in.

Hale tipped the scales at 240 pounds, while Volkov weighed 232.2 ahead of the five-round clash that will determine Bellator’s next heavyweight champion. Bellator 84 takes place Dec. 14 at the The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., and marks the Viacom-owned promotion’s final show on MTV2 before moving to Spike TV next year.

The Season 7 finale also features the finals of Bellator’s current lightweight tournament, as World Extreme Cagefighting veteran Dave Jansen (156) takes on Polish prodigy Marcin Held (156) in the evening’s co-main event. The show was also initially expected to feature the featherweight tournament final, but that booking between Shahbulat Shamhalaev and Rad Martinez was postponed until Season 8. Rounding out the televised card will be a pair of middleweight contests, as Daniel Vizcaya (186) meets Jack Hermansson (185) and Louis Taylor (185.8) faces Joe Vedepo (185.6).

The evening’s undercard, which streams live on Spike.com ahead of the main draw broacast, features seven fights in total, including a strawweight rematch between Felice Herrig (115.8) and Patricia Vidonic (117.8). Herrig emerged victorious in their first meeting, taking a unanimous decision from Vidonic under Florida’s Xtreme Fighting Championships banner this past April.

Bellator 84 Weigh-In Results:

Richard Hale (240) vs. Alexander Volkov (232.2)
Dave Jansen (156) vs. Marcin Held (156)
Daniel Vizcaya (186) vs. Jack Hermansson (185)
Louis Taylor (185.8) vs. Joe Vedepo (185.6)
Quinton McCottrell (170.4) vs. Belal Muhammad (170.2)
Eddie Castillo (266) vs. David Sharp (265)
Cliff Wright (155.8) vs. Christian Uflacker (155.2)
Patricia Vidonic (117.8)* vs. Felice Herrig (115.8)
Joey Diehl (125.2) vs. Jerald Williams (126)
Anton Talamantes (214.2) vs. Anthony Gomez (214) -- catchweight of 215 pounds
Robert White (155) vs. Kenny Booker (158.2)*

*Booker and Vidonic have two hours to cut the additional weight.

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Bellator-84-WeighIn-Results-Richard-Hale-Alexander-Volkov-On-Point-for-Heavyweight-Final-48229

Bellator 84's Dave Jansen wants to do more than ruin Held's weekend

Not that there's anything wrong with his nickname – "The Fugitive" – but Dave Jansen might have topped it without even realizing it.

Jansen (18-2 MMA, 5-0 BFC) on Friday meets Marcin Held (15-2 MMA, 4-1 BFC) at Bellator 84 in the Season 7 finals of the lightweight tournament. And the 33-year-old has some thoughts for Held, 20.

"I crush dreams," he told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "I'm not just ruining peoples' weekends. I make them rethink their entire careers. He's just a kid. He'll bounce back from this beating and he'll be a champion in some organization long after I'm gone. But not this one."

Bellator 84 takes place at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., about 20 miles from downtown Chicago. The event's main card airs live on MTV2 following prelims on Spike.com. Bellator 84 is the final event of Bellator's seventh season and last on MTV2 before a move to Spike TV for Season 8 starting Jan. 17.

Held's been OK in the dream-crushing department, himself. In the semifinals, he took out Rich Clementi with one of his signature leg locks, forcing the veteran to tap from a toe hold.

But Jansen said he believes he'll hold the advantage on the ground if Held gets in position to go after a leg submission. Of Jansen's 18 wins, he has 10 by choke – so he believes he can shrug Held off and impose his own will.

"I have (been working on knee bar defense)," he said. "I've got my wrestling and my boxing, so odds are I won't even need to worry about jiu-jitsu. I'm not going to trade foot locks with a foot lock guy when I'm a choke artist. (If it goes to the ground), I'm just going to use my wrestling to either get on top in a dominant position, scramble to my feet or I'll grab up a guillotine choke – I can't pass on that."

Jansen also won't pass on trying to get a mental edge over his opponent. While some fighters eschew staredowns, Held finds a way to use them to his advantage.

And he's already been in that position a couple times at the fighter hotel with his opponent, he said.

"I think it says something to me when they don't make eye contact," Jansen said. "I think it's a fear scenario, really. I know some dominant guys who don't make eye contact. But I get a lot from the staredown. I've spotted Marcin in the hallway twice and I gave a polite nod, and he just looked down at his feet after that. He just put his head down – right there for the uppercut. I'm going to bring it up with an uppercut and knock it off with my right hand."

And that would indeed be a dream-crusher for Held.

Jansen and Held fight for a total of $100,000 in tournament prize money, and the winner gets a guaranteed shot at the lightweight title. Current champ Michael Chandler puts his belt on the line in January at Bellator 85 against Rick Hawn.

http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2012/12/video-bellator-84s-dave-jansen-wants-to-do-more-than-ruin-helds-weekend

Nice to see that the HW title is on the line.

CDF47 wrote:^Hopefully we see another Vedepo choke.

Hahah the crushing windpipes with the shin from above! Eat your heart out gogoplata.

felice herrig moved to the prelims.....


vedepo vs taylor and vizcaya vs hermansson moved to the main card...

MR.WILLIE wrote:felice herrig moved to the prelims.....


vedepo vs taylor and vizcaya vs hermansson moved to the main card...

Good.

Vedepo/Taylor is a pretty good opener and Hermansson seems like an intriguing prospect.

thank god, neither of those women can fight