Breakdown: Bellator 150

Breakdown: Bellator 150

 

            Marcos Galvao was forced out of his title defense fight, at Belator 150, against Eduardo Dantas due to illness. The February 26^th event, at Kansas State Arena in Mulvane, Kansas, will now be headlined by Heavyweights: 23-10 Cheick Kongo takes on 8-3 Vinicius Kappke De Queiroz.

The Forty year old Kongo is in his eighth fight with Bellator, his record with the organization is 5-2, two of those victories by TKO and one via submission. The Parisian won his last fight, June 26^th 2015 by Unanimous Decision, versus Alexander Volkov. At 6’4” Kongo will still be looking up to the 6’7” Brazilian.

De Queiroz has finished each of his eight wins, six by KO/TKO. “Spartan” is on a two fight win streak, including a 0:23 KO of Lavar Johnson (10/4/13) and a second round (4:00) arm triangle submission of Ewerton Teixeira in September.

Lightweight Action

            David “The Caveman” Rickels will be competing at his sixteenth Bellator event 10-4-1. The Lightweight was winless in 2015: an accidental knee to a downed John Alesseio resulted in a No Contest in June and he was TKO’d by Michael Chandler in the second round (3:05) in November. He takes on 12-5 Bobby “Super Duper” Cooper. Cooper won his last fight with Pablo Villaseca by Split Decision 6/26/15. “Super Duper” is 8-5 in fights that go to decision, he also has 3 subs and 1 KO.

22 Wins by Submission Combined

          Kendall Grove is 6’6”. Tall for the Middleweight division. He has an 80” reach. You might think more than six of his 22 wins have come by KO/TKO, but the Hawaiian has ten wins by sub. Grove is a veteran fighter, he won The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 as a MW. Grove is 4-2 in his last six with two TKOs and a Sub. Last fight he ended Joey Beltran’s night in the third round (2:27) by TKO 9/25/15. He takes on 13-3 Francisco “Kiko” France.

France is unbeaten since 2011. Only a single win has made it to the judges, the rest all Subs. Including the thirty-three year old’s Bellator Debut 11/20/15 when a second round (1:08) rear-naked choke proved the end for Ben Reiter.

Finishing Featherweights

            Twenty-nine year old, Gaston “Tonga” Reyno of Uruguay is 5-0-2. He began his career with two consecutive matches resulting in a No Contest, since he’s rattled off five straight (2 KO/TKO 3 Sub). “Tonga” is efficient. In fact he hasn’t been out of the first round yet. His longest fight to date: took him 3:35 to finally sink a RNC on Yohance Flayer 10/3/15. His most recent Bellator fight (6/26/15) versus Greg Scott only lasted 1:17 before Reyno locked a Guillotine Choke in for the tap. He faces 6-2 Chuka “The Lion King” Willis.

The twenty-two year old Willis is making his Bellator debut. “The Lion King” has finished three of his six wins by KO/TKO including his last pair: a third round (1:47) TKO of Christian Carnahan 10/23/15 and John Milledge suffered the same fate only eleven ticks into the opening round 12/11/15.

Submission VS Striking in Flyweight Fight

          Twenty-eight year old Lena “Hunter” Ouchynnikova of Ukraine is 10-3 with eight wins by submission. She has been a pro since September 2006, but hasn’t competed since 10/18/14 when she submitted Svetlana Gotsyk with a third round (3:40) RNC. She takes on Rebecca “Becky” Ruth.

At 5-1 the thirty-seven year old Missouri native has been the more active as of late. She totaled three TKO wins in 2015. In fact all five of her wins are KO/TKO. In September she stopped Alice Smith Yauger in the third (0:33).