Bellator 55

[rayallen0]

Bantamweight tournament semifinals!  How exciting this should be!  I really like the fighters remaining in this tournament and I know we’ll see a great finals regardless of who wins tonight.  Alexis Vila is probably the most talented fighter remaining, but Marcos Galvao, Ed West, and Eduardo “Dudu” Dantas are great competitors in their own right.

I like the light heavyweight bout we’re seeing, even at the contracted weight of 210 pounds.  I also wish that the Efrain Escudero fight was on the main card, since he’s a fighter with some name power.  I guess it’s still possible that Tirloni vs. Gable could get bumped down to the prelim card.

Bellator 55 airs live on MTV2 tonight at 9:00 PM EST/8:00 PM CST with a replay shown at 1:00 AM EST/12:00 AM CST.  The preliminary fights will also be live on Spike.com at 7:00 PM EST/6:00 PM CST.  I’ve never seen the Spike.com fights before so I’m glad to get a chance to tonight.

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinals: Alexis Vila (10-0) vs. Marcos Galvao (10-4-1)

Hey look, it’s the last two fighters to beat Joe Warren!  Yes, I know Galvao lost his decision to Warren, but I felt that he pretty clearly won their fight at Bellator 41.  Alexis Vila left absolutely no doubts when he punched Joe Warren in the face very, very hard and Joe Warren decided to go to sleep.

I’ve long been a proponent of the flyweight division so just imagine how pleased I am with Alexis Vila’s success.  He’s one of the most talented fighters at flyweight and he proved against Joe Warren that he’s also one of the most talented bantamweight fighters.  Galvao is a very capable fighter who has competed in some big bouts for Shooto and the WEC.  He’s looked great in Bellator thus far.

I really like Vila to win another bout by knockout.  He has such fantastic power and Galvao proved in the WEC that he’s a little vulnerable to heavy handed fighters.  Vila is as well-rounded a fighter as there is in the lighter weight classes, even at 40 years old.

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinals: Ed West (17-5) vs. Eduardo Dantas (11-2)

Ed West’s only loss in Bellator was in the previous bantamweight tournament, where he lost to Zach Makovsky for the vacant Bellator Bantamweight Title.  “Dudu” Dantas started this tournament quite impressively by defeating Wilson Reis.  He also holds a victory over top flyweight Shinichi Kojima back from Dantas’ days in Shooto.

Dantas is a much more well-rounded fighter than Ed West, who hasn’t finished a fight with strikes in his eight year career.  Dantas holds a handful of submission wins and definitely shows off his strikes, just like we saw against Wilson Reis.  West might be 9-1 in his last ten fights, but he really lacks any significant wins.  I’ll take Dudu by decision in this contest.

Light Heavyweight: Christian M’Pumbu (18-3-1) vs. Travis Wiuff (64-14, 1 NC)

I’m looking forward to this one, if only because we don’t always see fighters with over 60 wins in competition.  Wiuff certainly has the experience edge since few fighters have 80 fights under their belt.  Wiuff is a very busy fighter, but unlike similar fighters such as Dan Severn, Wiuff actually has a handful of quality wins including victories over Jeff Monson, Chris Tuchscherer, and Kazuyuki Fujita.

But I really like Christian M’Pumbu, who is the reigning Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion.  M’Pumbu looked extremely impressive in the his three tournament fights and has shown great striking with five TKO victories in his last five wins.  M’Pumbu may be a slightly undersized light heavyweight, but I’ll be damned if he isn’t a super talented fighter.

I have a hard time seeing Wiuff winning this fight and I see him being M’Pumbu’s latest knockout victim tonight.  I expect big things from Christian M’Pumbu so long as they can bring in the talent necessary to challenge him at 205 pounds.  Based on what we’ve seen from Zach Makovsky, I don’t have very high hopes for that.

Lightweight: Richard Tirloni (13-1) vs. Steve Gable (5-1)


Uhh…Richard Tirolni wins. 

[Triple OG Rapsodie]

hahahah judges hate Marcos Galvao. I was going with Alexis Vila to win, but I was pretty sure he lost.

This was my first time seeing Christian M’Pumbu and frankly I wasn't impressed. Yes, he seems like a good striker but he had zero TDD and no answer for having a wrestler on top of him. That's not the make of a long-term champion.

[rayallen0]

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinals: Alexis Vila d. Marcos Galvao (Split Decision)

This was a very close fight that could have gone either way.  Vila didn’t have a lot of success with his takedown attempts and the fighters spent most of their time exchanging strikes.  I felt like Vila generally got the best of Galvao and the split decision was warranted.  Either way, Vila moves on to the bantamweight tournament finals!

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinals: Eduardo Dantas d. Ed West (Split Decision)

The split decision here?  Not good.  Eduardo Dantas won this fight, period.  He at least won the first two rounds easily while the third could have gone either way.  I’m pleased that Dantas didn’t get jobbed here as he was the clear winner.  Ed West also somehow thought he won, which resulted in him making a comically serious shocked face when the decision was announced.  How pleasing!


Light Heavyweight: Travis Wiuff d. Christian M’Pumbu (Unanimous Decision)

Christian M’Pumbu, I am disappoint.  Wiuff did his best to hold M’Pumbu down in the first two rounds, though the champ did have success during his limited striking displays.  M’Pumbu should have won the fight in the third after staggering Wiuff, but followed his much bigger opponent to the ground in a weak attempt to stop the fight.  A very disappointing loss in a non-title fight.  Wiuff said after the fight that he only won because he’s a big wrestler and he is right.


Lightweight: Ricardo Tirloni d. Steve Gable (Submission – Round 2, 3:54)

Hey, Ricardo Tirloni won!  I was right!  Tirloni looked pretty sharp, even if his opponent was a fairly inexperienced 35 year old dude.  A win’s still a win.  I thought I heard that Tirloni would be fighting Chris Horodecki later this season because of this victory, so whoopie?