Bellator 206 [On Reflection]

Bellator 206 [On Reflection]

UK viewers for so long have been denied seeing the big Bellator cards live, 24-hour delays, even a week delay in some instances, and we thought things had finally changed. But due to UK TV broadcasting regulation the woes continue, the coverage on Channel 5 was cut before the main event and went to an episode of Peppa Pig instead.

Dave Schwartz, Bellator senior vice president of  marketing and communication said

“It’s government regulation that at 6 a.m. that content was not suitable so they had to switch to children’s programming.” 

It seems incredibly naïve or short-sighted that this wasn’t picked up as a possible problem, especially with 6 fights on the main card. Even after the first fight, I thought this will badly overrun, obviously not knowing what was to come.

However, that aside Bellator gave us a decent enough night of fights.

Gegard Mousasi despite having success in his new home must wonder if he made the right move leaving the UFC. At the time he was closer to a title shot than ever before and Lyoto Machida aside he will probably run out of worthwhile opponents at middleweight. But regardless he has proved himself as one of the very best in his division, but a move to light heavyweight is likely.

Rory MacDonald has been in so many tough fights for someone so relatively young, and despite being only 29 I wonder if the decline has already set in. The Canadian faces a  quick turnaround and I have my doubts he will still be the welterweight champion at the end of the welterweight Grand Prix.

Rampage and Wanderlei was fun, but sad at the same time. It wasn’t a bad fight by any means but their time has passed, especially for Wanderlei, 4 fights hopefully concludes their rivalry.

Douglas Lima showed again how effective he is, the fight lacked thrills but Lima is criminally overlooked.

Aaron Pico labelled the best prospect ever in MMA, won again and came through his first real fight in MMA. Higo was tough and experienced and came to win. Pico gets caught a little too easy for me, something which cost him in his debut against Zach Freeman but make no mistake he is some prospect.

Main Card Results:

Gegard Mousasi (44-6-2) beat Rory MacDonald (20-5) TKO at 3:23 of round 2
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (38-13) beat Wanderlei Silva (35-14) TKO at 4:32 of round 2
Douglas Lima (30-7) beat Andrey Koreshkov (21-3) submission at 3:04 of round 5
Aaron Pico (4-1) beat Leandro Higo (18-5) KO at 3:19 of round one
Keri Taylor-Melendez (3-0) beat Dakota Zimmerman (0-1) split decision
Gaston Bolanos (4-1) beat Ysidro Gutierrez (4-3) knockout at 1:37 of round 2