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“And nonetheless” was the theme of the 2 championship bouts at Bellator 290 on Saturday night time in Inglewood, California. Ryan Bader and Johnny Eblen each efficiently defended their titles.
Bader, the heavyweight champion, spoiled the retirement fight of MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko. “Darth Bader” additionally grew to become the primary and solely man to defeat “The Final Emperor” twice. Bader sat Emelianenko down after which adopted it up with floor and pound, forcing a TKO stoppage 2:30 into the principle occasion.
An emotional scene adopted as Emelianenko was seen off with in-the-cage visits from fellow MMA luminaries of his period.
Eblen, who remains to be on the upswing in his profession, turned apart the problem of the skilled Anatoly Tokov to retain his middleweight belt. The struggle began shut, with Eblen and Tokov splitting the first two rounds on various scorecards. Nonetheless, the longer the struggle went, it favored Eblen, who began to take over within the third spherical. The takedowns and cage grinding grew to become simpler for Eblen, who wore on Tokov for a decisive win over an opponent with almost three-times his expertise.
Eblen rose to 13-0 with the win after he initially captured the middleweight title off MMA legend Gegard Mousasi within the struggle earlier than.
So what’s subsequent for the 2 champions?
#Bellator290 introduced the warmth! 🔥
Listed here are just a few of our favourite moments from our @CBS debut. pic.twitter.com/N474IJp0gR
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) February 5, 2023
Ryan Bader
For Bader, the winner of Valentin Moldavsky and Linton Vassel makes probably the most sense. Whereas Bader has wins over each, the win over Vassel got here at gentle heavyweight in November 2017. Bader defeated Moldavsky in a hard-fought resolution win in January 2022 in his first of three profitable title protection wins.
Moldavsky and Vassel are set to conflict at Bellator 292 in March. The winner may very nicely earn a rematch with Bader someday this summer season or fall.
If Bellator hoped to go for the recent face route, its hopes had been dashed when Steve Mowry and Ali Isaev fought to a unanimous draw on the Bellator 290 prelims. If a winner emerged from the bout, it could have given Bellator a robust potential opponent for Bader. The 2 ought to rematch and doubtlessly get a title shot off a win.
Johnny Eblen
“The Human Cheat Code,” one of many brightest younger fighters within the sport – he’s nonetheless solely 31 and perhaps not even in his prime – turned apart Tokov one struggle after capturing middleweight gold vs. Mousasi. His resume additionally incorporates a win over John Salter, a longtime Bellator middleweight menace. As Eblen’s schedule has toughened, he has risen as much as the event every time.
Eblen made his subsequent title protection straightforward: He known as out the winner of Mousasi and Fabian Edwards, who’re set to struggle in Could at Bellator Paris. Eblen is but to satisfy with Edwards, the youthful brother of UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards, within the cage, however he already holds a unanimous resolution win over Mousasi.
Edwards is an 11-2 prospect trying to safe what could be the largest win of his profession in former Bellator middleweight king Mousasi. He additionally has a T/KO win over one other legend in Lyoto Machida. The winner would undoubtedly have earned a crack at Eblen’s title, which make’s the promotion’s job straightforward, contemplating it’s what Eblen requested for.
Different Bellator middleweight fighters to observe are the winner of Salter vs. Aaron Jeffrey, as Jeffrey is driving a three-fight successful streak into the bout. Salter is coming off the loss to Eblen.
Dalton Rosta, who has an 8-0 file with all wins coming in Bellator, is probably going one or two wins at most away from his personal title shot. Rosta has victories over the highly-touted Romero Cotton and Anthony Adams.
Lorenz Larkin is driving a seven-fight successful streak of his personal. Bellator could take into account pairing up Larkin and Rosta in a title eliminator later this yr.
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