Bellator 162 Breakdown

               

                                             Bellator Heavyweight contender, Bobby Lashley appears casted from a superhero mold, his physique looks more natural at his other gig, Professional Wrestling. Lashley performs in TNA Wrestling and formerly the WWE. The Dominator recently (10/6/16) lost the TNA HW World Championship, just in time to focus on his October 21^st showdown with Josh Appelt at Bellator 162. The pair will square off in the Co-Main, proceeding Main Eventers, Kendall Grove and Alexander Shlemenko in Memphis, Tennessee. Click link for Main Event coverage: http://fightpage.blogspot.com/2016/10/da-spyder-and-storm.html

               

Bobby Lashley is on a seven fight win streak, including four submissions and two by TKO. Most recently he avenged his last career loss (5/6/12) to James Thompson, stopping Thompson in the first round (0:54) by TKO at Bellator 145 (11/6/15). This is Lashley’s first fight of the year, but in 2015 the Army Veteran (in addition to Thompson) also TKO’d Dan Charles in the second round (4:14) at Bellator 138. The Dominator has stopped eleven of his fourteen wins, seven by submission. The Musclebound wrestler groomed his skills at Missouri Valley College where he was a three time National Champion. This is Lashley’s fifth scrap with Bellator, he has stopped his four previous opponents in the promotion’s HW division (2TKO, 2Sub). Lashley faces a hard-striking Heavyweight from Olivehurst Ca, 12-5 Josh Appelt.

               

Appelt is also coming off a pair of TKO wins, at West Coast Fighting Championship 16 (1/23/16) he stopped Roy Boughton in the second round (4:58) and ruined Joe Hernandez’s night at WFC 15 (10/10/15) in the first round (1:58). The Juggernaut hasn’t fought for Bellator since a 4/4/14 Unanimous Decision loss to Freddie Aquitania. Appelt is 3-1 with the promotion one win by TKO and one Submission. He has stopped ten of his twelve wins (8 KO/TKO). The Thirty-three year old’s last four fights have been with WFC where he is the HW Champion. He is also the former Gladiator Challenge HW King.

               

Hisaki The Japanese Musketeer Kato is a French and Japanese fighter, born in Paris, living in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. All eight of the 6-2 striker’s fights have ended by KO/TKO. Kato hasn’t been out of the second round with two KO/TKO wins in the round’s opening minute. Kato is 4-1 in Japanese promotion, Heat. At Heat 31 it took Kato only 0:53 to TKO Yuki Niimura and go home with the Middleweight strap. The Japanese Musketeer Knocked Out Joe Schilling in his US and Bellator debut with a second round (0:34) Superman Punch 6/26/15. In June Kato, again stopped Schilling in the second round, this time in Kato’s Pro Kickboxing debut at Bellator Dynamite 2. Schilling is 19-9 with eleven KO/TKO wins in Kickboxing. In his last MMA action (4/17/16) Kato TKO’d Yuta Watanabe in the first round (1:04) at Rizin 1. He faces 8-5 AJ Matthews in a Middleweight contest.

               

 Carlsbad, California’s AJ The Mercenary Matthews is 2-3 in fights that go to the judges’ scorecards. Matthews is a finisher that has KO/TKO wins in six of his eight wins. The Mercenary has dropped his last two: in June he lost a UD to Ben Reiter at Bellator 156 and was KO’d by Anatoly Tokov at Rizin FF (1/29/15). Prior to the pair of losses Matthews scored two consecutive, first round TKO wins, at Bellator 141, Emiliano Sordi never returned from the stool following the opening round and Kyle Bolt was stopped at 1:39 of the first frame at Bellator 131. With two heavy-hitting Middleweights going at it the action should be thrilling and likely brief.

                 Injury caused a late replacement for Ryan Couture's opponent at Bellator 148, which proved to be bad news for 10-4 Couture. Patricky Pitbull scored a first round KO (3:00) of Couture (1/29/16). The loss halted a four fight win streak, which all ended with Couture cinching a Rear-Naked-Choke on his adversaries' throats (three in the first round). At Bellator 135 Couture caused Dakota Cochrane to tap at 3:23 of the opening round. The Las Vegas fighter has six subs in his ten wins and faces Japan’s Goiti Yamauchi who has fifteen submission wins of his own.

                Yamauchi is 5-2 in the Bellator cage with three wins by RNC and a first round KO of Saul Almeida at Bellator 109 (11/22/13). Yamauchi is 19-3, all three losses were by Decision, and sixteen fights were stopped early (more than Couture has fights). The Twenty-three year old lost a UD to Bubba Jenkins at Bellator 151 last fight, ending a four fight win streak (all Subs).

                Another son of a famous MMA fighter, Kevin Baby Slice Ferguson Jr makes his pro debut opposite Rick Bing of Mississippi (also debuting) on the undercard.

Bellator 162 airs live from the Fedex Forum in Memphis on Spike TV Friday night.