Filed under: Bellator, News, Videos
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Patricky Freire found himself in hostile territory fighting Josh Thomson in his hometown of San Jose, Calif., but he quieted the crowd with a brutal knockout finish in the main event.
The lightweight bout topped Saturday’s Bellator 172 event at SAP Center, which aired on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie. A previously scheduled headliner of Fedor Emelianenko vs. Matt Mitrione was scrapped just before the start of the card.
After dropping Thomson (22-9 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) in the first, Freire (17-8 MMA, 10-7 BMMA) put Thomson down again to start the second when a clash of heads briefly stunned Thomson before a Freire left knocked him to the floor. After scrambling to his feet, Thomson dropped for a takedown and ran directly into Freire’s uppercut, which sent him sprawling to his back.
Freire would seal the deal with a few follow-up hammerfists, leaving Thomson limp on the floor as referee John McCarthy jumped in to stop it at the 0:40 mark of Round 2.
Freire has now won three of his last four, with his last loss coming against Michael Chandler in June. Thomson’s loss snaps a two-fight winning streak in Bellator.
Cheick Kongo grinds out former training partner Oli Thompson
Cheick Kongo’s performance over Oli Thompson may have lacked in showstopping quality, but there was certainly no shortage of control. After having little trouble dominating Thompson (17-10 MMA, 0-2 BMMA) on the ground for the better part of their three-round co-headliner, Kongo (26-10-2 MMA, 8-2 BMMA) walked away with quite telling 30-26, 30-25 and 30-25 scorecards.
The ex-teammates started the scrap as two men who, indeed, knew what to expect – and probably fear – from each other. After a few timid exchanges, Kongo became the first to land, eliciting a response from Thompson shortly after. Thompson managed to have some control of Kongo against the cage, but the Frenchman soon assumed his role as the aggressor, managing to take Thompson down and subsequently control him from the top.
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Cheick Kongo and Oli Thompson
While Thompson eventually got back up, ending up on the receiving end of some nasty knees in the process, the round painted a pretty clear picture of what was to come. The second round had Kongo once again getting the takedown, controlling his opponent from the half guard with short elbows and punches that showed dominance – but lacked in finishing power – for pretty much half of the five-minute frame.
A similar, but somehow even more dominant scenario repeated itself in the third, with the difference that Kongo managed to land some nasty knees on the clinch and get to full mount twice before the final bell rang.
The unanimous call added a fourth win to Kongo’s current decision-only streak, while Thompson is yet to get his hand raised inside the Bellator cage after being knocked out by Matt Mitrione in his promotional debut last July.
Fedor Emelianenko protege impresses in Bellator debut
Anatoly Tokov got himself into some sticky situations on the ground in the first round of his fight with Francisco France, but in the end, his powerful right hand came to the rescue. Tokov (25-3 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) stung France (13-5-1 MMA, 1-2 BMMA) with one hard right hand from inside half-guard, then jackhammered him with several more to finish it off, ending the fight via TKO at the 2:24 mark of Round 2.
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Anatoly Tokov and Fedor Emelianenko
While it ended with success, Tokov’s night didn’t get off to the greatest start. With his mentor Fedor Emelianenko watching from the corner, Tokov nearly got himself submitted first by an armbar from the bottom and then by a triangle choke attempt from France.
He would survive those attempts to make it into the second, where he forced a brief pause after kicking France directly in the groin while France lay on his back. Shortly after the restart, Tokov got the fight where he wanted it, opening up with right hands from inside France’s half-guard to end the bout.
The victory gets Tokov back in the win column after his decision loss to Ramazan Emeev in M-1 Challenge this past December. France has now lost two straight.
Gritty Veta Arteaga busts up Brooke Mayo for late win
Brooke Mayo’s willingness to eat hard punches like they were no big deal might have made for a fun scrap against Veta Arteaga, but it also opened her up for the sort of damage that caused the doctor to stop the women’s flyweight contest before the final bell.
The resilient Mayo (0-1 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) was clever enough to take the fight to the ground whenever possible, but if she was in any way intimidated by Arteaga’s (2-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) superior power on the feet, she did a good job at hiding it with an unflinching bring-it-on approach.
Mayo’s toughness was, in fact, reflected on her rather vocal resistance to accept the doctor’s decision to end the scrap late in the third round in spite of a badly bruised and swollen left eye.
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Brooke Mayo
“I can see, I can see,” Mayo contested repeatedly.
The three rounds ended up following similar storylines: On the feet, Mayo’s sloppy front and head kicks kept exposing her face to Arteaga’s hard hands. Mayo’s takedown attempts, however, were overwhelmingly successful, and her offensive ground game was clearly sharp. All the while, a sharp Arteaga remained cool through the submission attempts, managing to come out on top of all of them before landing her own shots.
In spite of what seemed like an even score heading into the third and final round, Arteaga’s straight shots found a home in Mayo’s face, landing clean until Mayo’s increasingly swollen left eye had the doctor entering the cage and ultimately calling an end to the cotest.
With the win, Arteaga snaps back from a controversial split-decision loss to Anastasia Yankova last September, while Mayo kicks off her professional MMA career on a losing note.
Mauricio Alonso spoils Josh Koscheck’s return
Josh Koscheck’s comeback after nearly two years away turned out to be a quick one, and not in the way he might have liked. A rough welcome for Koscheck (17-11 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) in his first Bellator fight turned out to be a showcase for Mauricio Alonso (13-7 MMA, 1-1 BMMA), who hurt Koscheck with punches late in the first before putting him away with hammerfists on the floor.
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Mauricio Alonso and Josh Koscheck
Koscheck never seemed to get comfortable on the feet in this fight, yet he also never really committed to getting it to the floor. Alonso rocked him several times with early flurries as Koscheck lunged in with punches, trying to get inside the bigger man’s reach.
A straight right midway through the round sent Koscheck reeling, and a follow-up uppercut left him clutching his eye. Alonso moved in for the finish then, at which point Koscheck dropped to the mat and covered up, prompting the intervention of referee John McCarthy, who moved in and called it off at the 4:42 mark of Round 1.
The TKO victory is Alonso’s third in a row overall, but his first in two tries with Bellator. Koscheck’s losing streak hits six straight fights, all but the most recent in the UFC.
Official Bellator 172 results include:
MAIN CARD
- Patricky Freire def. Josh Thomson via knockout (punches) – Round 2, 0:40
- Cheick Kongo def. Oli Thompson via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-25, 30-25)
- Anatoly Tokov def. Francisco France via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 2:24
- Veta Arteaga def. Brooke Mayo via TKO (doctor stoppage) – Round 3, 4:04
- Mauricio Alonso def. Josh Koscheck via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:42
PRELIMINARY CARD
- Juan Cardenas vs. Luis Vargas
- Dominic Sumner vs. Abraham Vaesau
- Jeremy Murphy vs. Matthew Ramirez
- Anthony Do vs. Bobby Escalante
- Nikko Jackson def. Cesar Gonzalez via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
- J.J. Okanovich def. Zach Andrews via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 2:26
- James Terry def. J.C. Llamas via unanimous technical decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Gaston Bolanos def. Abner Perez via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:53
- Diego Herzog vs. Martin Sano declared a majority draw (28-27, 28-28, 28-28)
- Justin Tenedora def. Roque Reyes via submission (face crank) – Round 2, 4:59
For complete coverage of Bellator 172, check out the MMA Events section of the site.
Filed under: Bellator, News, Videos