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By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist
BELLATOR 91
FEBRUARY 28, 2013
LIVE FROM RIO RANCHO, NEW MEXICO
FIGHT ONE: DAVID RICKELS VS. JASON FISCHER (LIGHTWEIGHT SEMIFINALS
- Rickels defeated Fischer on November 30 2012 at Bellator 82. Rickels handed /Fischer his only professional defeat.
ROUND ONE: Jason Herzog is the third man in the cage. Although David Rickels is so manly you could say he's the fourth man in the cage. Not saying you should, just that you could. Rickels comes out with the kicks, Fischer is trying to establish the jab. Rickels lands a nice right hand off of a partially blocked head kick. Fisched is having some success with his jab, and is using it to set up an uppercut. Rickels eats a big right hook to the jaw. He felt that one. Fischer presses forward and puts Rickels on the cage, but Rickels uses his size to turn and disengage. Fischer is getting to the clinch well enough, but not trying to get takedowns. Big uppercut by Rickels. Fischer clinches and puts Rickels on the fence. Rickels turns and releases. 10-9 Rickels
ROUND TWO: Rickels puts Fischer on the cage. Fischer turns. Rickels reverses. Rickels lands a knee, turns, and Fischer hits a walkoff right hand before getting back to the middle. Rickels ducks under a punch and shoots a double leg takedown. Fischer has rubber guard. Rickels is keeping his body tight against Fischer. Fischer is being smooshed, but is looking for a triangle armbar nonetheless. Rickels got out. No damage. Rickels working the ribs from inside closed guard. Rickels passes to half now, and continues on the ribs. Rickels tries to get mount, but a nice sweep from Fischer who winds up on top. Rickels with open hand slaps from the bottom to the ears of Fischer. Rickels' guard is wide open. Fischer is utterly incapable of doing any damage. Rickels gets up, and we're back to standing. Rickels steps in with a right and a left. The building is so quiet you can hear individual conversations. From five miles away. Fischer working a single against the cage s the round ends. Bad round, to the surprise of not me. 20-18 Rickels
ROUND THREE: Rickels lands an outside leg kick, and there seemed to be a clash of heads. Rickels is bleeding like crazy from over his left eye. The commentators missed the headache. Scramble against the cage. Rickels is landing big left hands, and just shoves Fischer onto his back. Closed guard up against the fence. Rickels gets on top, looking for a kimura. He steps overs Fischer to north south, and loses the kimura. Rickels on top, in rubber guard. Closed guard now. Big hammerfists from the top by Rickels. Rickels working for mount. He's got it. He's looking for an arm triangle, but that stoopid old cage got in the way. Fischer is trying to keep Rickels chest to chest. He held on for a while, but Rickels got free and is landing big lefts. Fischer gives up his back with 1:15 left. Rickels goes for the rear naked choke, but he isn' across the jaw and quickly gave it up. Big right hands to Fischer's face. Fischer gives up his back again and Rickels continues to pound away. Rickels dives for an armbar. Fischer is doing everything he can to roll out. Rickels loses it with 5 seconds away. 10-8, 30-26 Rickels
WINNER: David Rickels by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
STAR RATING: (**-) I've already forgotten 98 percent... Wait, make it 100% of that fight. One thing, it is absolutely idiotic to score that fight 29-28. Jason Fischer didn't win one second of that fight. Well, he might've, but I already forgot that fight.
FIGHT TWO: WILL BROOKS VS. SAAD AWAD (LIGHTWEIGHT SEMIFINALS
ROUND ONE: Jason Herzog is pulling double duty. Both fighters trade leg kicks early. Brooks gets stuffed on a takedown. Awad clinches, and lands a could huge punches to the jaw of Brooks. Brooks is hurt. Awad is charging, landing a dozen huge hammer fists to the
WINNER: Saad Awad by KO at 0:43 of round one
STAR RATING: (**+) It's a damn shame Jason Herzog, Sean Wheelock, and Jimmy Smith don't know what the hell the back of the head is. Brooks ate fifteen shots to the back of the head while turtled, but whatever. The only rules that matter involve weed, anyhow.
FIGHT THREE: CHRISTIAN M'PUMBU VS. ATTILA VEGH (FOR BELLATOR LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND ONE: Jason Herzog is the referee yet again.Lots of respect early. Read that to mean a full minute of feinting, and the New Mexico crowd is already booing. Maybe that has to do with the full 45 minutes between the Rickels "fight" and this fight. 90 seconds in Vegh drops M'Pumbu with a straight right. Vegh dives on top of him by M'Pumbu somehow reverses and gets top position. Vegh with Dusty elbows from the bottom. M'Pumbu is starting to get his senses back, and he's got Vegh shoved up against the fence. Vegh uses the cage to get to his feet, but he's got to be careful with his neck as M'Pumbu has a front face lock that could turn into a guillotine. M'Pumbu disengages with 1:45 left. Back to the middle of the cage. Back to the circling and feinting. And booing. Vegh ties up M'Pumbu after he missed on a big right hand, and wind up tripping M'Pumbu. Vegh on top as the round ends. 10-9 Vegh
ROUND TWO: Vegh steps in behind a leg kick and starts winging haymakers four inches away from the face of a recklessly retreating M'Pumbu. In case I sound disdainful; I am. M'Pumbu is feinting so often I think he thinks he's Rashad Evans against Nogueira. I avoided the displeasure of writing up Machida vs. Henderson and Evans Nogueira. This is my penance. Vegh is landing a shot here and there before M'Pumbu gets on his bike. Vegh gets on top of M'Pumbu and continues to do absolutely nothing. M'Pumbu with good wrist control. Vegh is rolling for a kneebar, but yeah, sure. M'Pumbu is staying composed and stands up. Nice left hand from M'Pumbu. M'Pumbu dives down, his leg out of trouble. Full mount now, that was too easy. Vegh rolls and gives his back. M'Pumbu won't get the rear naked choke in. I'm not a lucky guy. 10-9 M'Pumbu. 19-19
ROUND THREE: Vegh is being the aggressor, coming forward. M'Pumbu flicks jab feint after jab feint. Vegh drops M'Pumbu with a short uppercut. Vegh on top. M'Pumbu makes sure to keep the action to a minimum, chest to chest. Vegh briefly had his left arm caught in a triangle armbar, but he powered out of it. Vegh would be wise to get out of here and get back to standing. Vegh lands a short elbow. Vegh is on top in a modified north south. M'Pumbu spins, and it's, well, who cares, it's really bad. I totally forgot about Hale - Volkov until Twitter reminded me about it. I think it's that bad. Vegh explodes and gets mount. Vegh does nothing, and gets told by Jason Herzog to start working. Not ot KEEP working, but to START working. Vegh with left elbows, and M'Pumbu is cut open. It's a bad cut, but not in a bad spot. 29-28 Vegh
ROUND FOUR: This is going to be a short paragraph. 50 seconds in and Vegh gets a takedown. It looked more like Vegh charged in and M'Pumbu fell on his ass before his feet would move.
BREAKING NEWS: DANA WHITE JUST CUT ATTILA VEGH AND CHRISTIAN M'PUMBU
Wow. That's huge news, man. Dana signed these guys during the middle of a Bellator fight, just to cut them on principle. And neither of them are on weed. Oh, back to standing or something. Vegh with a big-gish right hand. Vegh with another big right, and a knee. Vegh lands a left, multiple rights, and a knee. M'Pumbu dives forward with a double on the fence, in a desperate attempt to stay inside of Vegh's range. After 90 seconds of sleep apnea curing death, Herzog separated them. 30 seconds left. M'Pumbu with the weakest shot of all time and gets stuffed, predictably. 10-9 Vegh, 29-27
ROUND FIVE: Touch of gloves to begin the round, and the crowd boos immediately. M'Pumbu needs a finish. As does this fight. M'Pumbu. Punch, feint, kick, circle, feint, feint, pawing, flick weak jab, weak shot stuffed, clinch, false sense of desperation, boooooo. 10-9 Vegh
WINNER: Attila Vegh by unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46, 50-45)
STAR RATING: You're kidding, right? (0*) The two worst fights of the last 3 months were the Bellator Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight championship fights. Bellator should cut every fighter on their roster in these two divisions.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Bellator_Events/article_16093.shtml
Rob Broughton Mike Brown Junie Browning Paul Buentello Josh Burkman
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