Breaking Down: Bellator 147

Breaking Down: Bellator 147

 

 

           

            Bellator 147 takes place Friday, December 4, 2015. The main card will air on Spike TV at 9pm and prelims to stream on spike.com at 5pm. The event takes place in, main eventer, Josh Thomson’s hometown, San Jose. When current Bellator President, Scott Coker ran Strikeforce the promotion held numerous events in San Jose and Thomson was featured on the main card for 9 of those events, including a trilogy with Gilbert Melendez. In September “The Punk” debuted in Bellator with a 3^rd round Triangle submission over Mike Bronzoulis in San Jose.

            Prior to his Bellator win Thomson dropped his last 3 fights in the UFC: Tony Ferguson (UD 7/15/15), Bobby Green (SD 7/26/14), Benson Henderson (SD 1/25/14). The Lightweight holds wins over notable fighters including: Nate Diaz, TKO (2^nd 3:44, 4/20/13), KJ Noons (UD 3/3/12) and Duane Ludwig Sub (2^nd 4:36). Josh Thompson takes on Pablo Villaseca in the Main Event at Bellator 147.

Villaseca fights out of Santiago, Chile and brings a record of 10-1 to the San Jose University Event Center, Friday night. In the 28 year old’s ten wins, three have come by KO and four by Submission. The single loss on his record came in his Bellator debut in June, by way of a split decision to Bobby Cooper. Villaseca bounced back with an Arm-bar Submission of Marcos Cornejo (9/19/15 Arena Tour 7) in Argentina.

What else to watch for:

The Co-Main event features two of the promotions most experienced fighters, they have fought, in a combined, 73 fights. 24-4-1 Georgi Karakhanyan takes on 35-9 Daniel Weichel. It didn’t take Karakhanyan long to find the win over Bubba Jenkins in his first fight with Bellator in nearly 4 years. He secured a Guillotine Choke at 1:49 in the 1^st. It was his 14^th win by Sub. GK holds notable wins over: Lance Palmer (Sub Guillotine 4:40, 3^rd), Din Thomas (UD 4/12/13), and Micah Miller (UD 9/7/12).

At only 31 years old it’s difficult to believe that Daniel “The Weasel” Weichel made his pro debut on May 12^th 2002. In his last bout he lost by KO (2^nd 0:32) to Patricio Pitbull, but prior to the loss he was on a seven fight win streak, capped off by a Split Decision win over Pat Curran in February. With 21 Sub wins of his own the grappling in this contest just might neutralize each other. Each fighter has proven striking power: Weichel owns five KO wins and GK has four.

Interesting timing for this Lightweight rematch:

Derek Anderson 12-2-1 beat Patricky Pitbull 14-6 by UD 9/7/13. The two hold 14 KO wins combined (9 for Pitbull) and 7 Subs (6 for Anderson). That’s 21 early stoppages in 26 total wins. Anderson lost his last fight a SD to Brent Primus (8/28/15) while Patricky is coming off a UD over Saad Awad on the same card. While Patricky holds KO wins over: Derek Campos (2^nd 0:52 4/18/14), David Rickels (2^nd 0:54 3/21/14) and Kurt Pellegrino (11/26/11 1^st 0:50) Anderson will enjoy a sizeable height advantage, 6’0” to Pitbull’s 5’7”.

Who cares about two guys with six wins each?

Mario Soto has only seen the final bell once in his career, it’s also the only time he has lost in his 6-1 career. “DR. Mario” has one KO and five Submission wins. Adam Piccolotti has a balanced undefeated career. At 6-0 Piccolotti has two KO, two Sub and two Dec wins. In September he Submitted Salvador Becerra (2^nd 1:47) in his second fight with Bellator. Expect a finish in this Lightweight fight.

Tune in on time

Brian Rogers’ move up to Light Heavyweight comes at an alarming time. He has lost four of his last five fights as a Middleweight. Rogers is fighting in his eleventh fight with Bellator and gone 4-6 with 3 KO’s. Brian Rogers takes on Virgil Zwicker (14-4) who has ten KO and two Sub wins. Zwicker’s last fight was a KO win over Razak Al-Hassan (3:51 1^st 5/15/15) marking his eighth first round KO stoppage. This is the first fight on the televised card so tune in on time or you may miss this fight.