Then again, UFC London’s main event fizzled as well, which leads us to the question of the day: who won a weekend that saw the two major MMA promotions run uneven shows?

There’s two ways of looking at the main event question when it comes to these two shows: on one side, you can’t plan for injuries, and Tom Aspinall suffering a fluke knee injury 15 seconds into his planned main event with Curtis Blaydes is beyond anyone’s control. Then again, the same would apply to Bellator and lightweight champ Patricky Pitbull; past that, at least Bellator viewers got a main event, even if it was a less-than-inspiring performance that saw Jason Jackson just plain smother Douglas Lima with his wrestling.

So when it comes time to really compare and contrast the cards, maybe it’s just best to throw their respective main events to the wood heap, and check out what else they had to offer.

Turns out, Bellator 283 in Tacoma, Washington offered quite a bit, while UFC London had some bright spots, but failed to match the brilliance of the promotion’s March trip to the O2 Arena.

Expectations being what they are, the UFC was unlikely ever going to catch lightning in a bottle twice, try as they might. Even beyond the main event mishap, the few bright spots at UFC London were essentially the return of the Molly and Paddy show, with both Molly McCann and Paddy Pimblett winning in spectacular fashion. McCann, in particular, managed to prove that lightning could strike twice, setting up her finish of Hannah Goldy with the same spinning back elbow that obliterated Luana Carolina in stunning fashion back in March.

There was also Nikita Krylov’s knockout of Alexander Gustafsson. Still, recognizing how far “The Mauler” has fallen in recent years takes a bit of the shine off what should regardless be considered Krylov’s most significant win to date.

Flip over to Bellator, where expectations were admittedly lower, and there were some pleasant surprises. Dalton Rosta made a statement in his long-awaited fight with Romero Cotton, setting up the finish with a perfectly-placed superman punch. Roman Faraldo lived up to his own prediction and bagged another first-round knockout. Lorenz Larkin saw his fight with Mukhamad Burkhamov end early due to an illegal elbow — it seems no promotion escaped the weekend without some sort of silliness — but Usman Nurmagomedov and Tofiq Musayev dazzled, announcing their presence as bonafide contenders in Bellator’s lightweight division.

That Musayev did so in his first fight in the promotion, absolutely crushing Sidney Outlaw with a knockout blow and likely stealing his title shot, should speak volumes. After losing champion after champion to the UFC — a steady stream of lightweight talent in Eddie Alvarez, Will Brooks, and Michael Chandler — Bellator’s 155 pound division is once again coming back around.

That right there might be the deciding factor. As entertaining as McCann and Pimblett were on Saturday, neither win can be claimed to hold much in the way of divisional relevance. Nurmagomedov and Musayev, on the other hand, appear to be neck-and-neck for a title shot, with Scott Coker even hinting during the Bellator 283 post-fight press conference that the division could see a lightweight grand prix sometime next year.

Bellator by a nose, then.

The post UFC London, Bellator 283: Who Won A Weekend That Saw Main Events Fizzle? appeared first on Cageside Press.

Colgan (5-0) finished Bryan Nuro with a right hook in the third round at Bellator 283 on Friday. His short career has seen him fight for LFA, Eagle FC, and now twice for Bellator, and the welterweight has actually taken his last two match-ups at 160 pounds.

With the fight coming on his birthday and the opponent stepping up on short notice, Coglan agreed it was his most satisfying win to date. “We’ll just go with this one. I’m very proud of this one. Three weeks ago when I got this phone call, I hadn’t trained in a week and a half,” he explained during his post-fight media appearance. “I was in good shape, I had been training for months prior to that, but when I got the call, I had torn cartilage in my rib, and I had to take some time off to rest it.”

Colgan is proud of overcoming to the injury, and of competing and performing on his birthday. Now, he’s hoping to return in the fall, sharing a card potentially with a teammate.

That said, there’s no names on his hit list — in fact, there’s no list. “I wouldn’t say I have a hit list or anything, at the moment. That will come for sure,” Colgan stated. That having been said, Colgan had been matched up with Justin Montalvo originally, and would like to get that fight back. “I think he’s a good striker and he’s a good fighter. I would still like that fight. I don’t know what happened to it and why it fell out, but it did. If that’s doable— if he was not able to fight because of his health then it is what it is, but if not, then I’d ideally like to see that one.”

Watch the full Bellator 283 post-fight media appearance by Archie Colgan above. More coverage of the event can be found below.

The post Bellator 283: Archie Colgan Doesn’t Have a Hit List — Yet appeared first on Cageside Press.

Bates (6-0) admits that opponent Mark Coates got in his head during the fight, which ended in a split decision in his own favor.

“I was worried, I was worried a little bit,” Bates admitted, asked about the feeling as the scores were being read. “I wasn’t worried that I wasn’t going to win, I was just disappointed in my performance. I can perform at a really high level, I know how high I can perform. And just tonight, I felt tired. I felt almost like I didn’t want to be in there. When they were reading off the cards, I didn’t know which way it was going to go. I thought I’d won, and I’m glad they saw it that way, but at the end of the day, I didn’t know.”

Much of what went wrong in the fight is the result of what occurred ahead of the fight. Or more accurately, what didn’t occur, which was training enough, the Team Bodyshop fighter admitted.

“I didn’t do nothing. This camp, I only trained for two weeks. Didn’t take it serious. I almost missed weight, horrible weight cut, not eating right,” Bates revealed. “I didn’t take this camp serious, and God was in my favor. I’ve got to stop relying on him and put in the work, because I’m super-talented, but sometimes I rely too much on my talent.”

Ironically, it was Coates who would end up missing weight for the bout. Asked why he didn’t take the camp seriously, meanwhile, Bates replied “Women, honestly. I’ve got to stay away from women and do my job. They’ll drain the life out of you if you let them.”

Watch the full Bellator 283 post-fight press appearance with Jaylon Bates above. More coverage from the event can be found below.

The post Jaylon Bates Only Trained Two Weeks for Bellator 283 Fight appeared first on Cageside Press.

The American Top Team fighter knocked out Luis Iniguez with just over a minute left in the first frame, and gave credit to his opponent for having “a concrete f*cking chin.”

“He took some big, heavy shots. Normally some of those shots put people out. A couple of those shots would have put anybody else out,” Faraldo told reporters including Cageside Press during his post-fight media appearance. “Tough dude, but I was just happy to be in there and actually in a real fight.”

What he was not happy with was his performance as a whole. “I’m really not happy with my performance at all, to be honest. To be frank, man, I was forcing a lot of shots, and I was trying to get him out in the first round instead of letting things come to me,” Faraldo observed. “Happy with the win, but not really happy with my performance at all.”

One factor in Faraldo “forcing” his shots may have been the pressure he put on himself to perform. Each subsequent performance from the 29-year old has brought with it increasingly lofty expectations.

“You see it, I did it to myself today. I kind of let the hype get to my head and i tried to— I mean I did put him out in the first round, but you could see it, everything was just loaded up on, I was forcing shots.” That means it’s time to go back to the drawing board, and stop worrying about what the media and everybody else says, Faraldo added.

Most fighters coming off a first-round finish are ecstatic, but in addition to his own self-criticism, Faraldo believes he may have broken his hand in the fight. With the last shot, potentially.

All that means there will be no callout from the ATT fighter. “I got sh*t I got to work on mentally before I do anything like that.”

Roman Faraldo is usually self-critical when it comes to his fights, he later told Cageside Press. “Definitely. I was just sitting in the back talking to my corner, everybody’s happy with my performance, but they also know, we all know what I’m capable of, and that is not it.”

Faraldo regrets calling the finish ahead of the fight, despite living up to the prediction. “I didn’t need to call it, I didn’t need to put that pressure on myself. I could have went out there and fought my fight and put him out in the first round without all the pressure. So that’s what I need to do, I need to go back to the drawing board, just go back out there and have fun, do what I do and let the fight come to me.”

Watch the full Bellator 283 post-fight media appearance from Roman Faraldo above. More coverage from the event can be found below.

The post Roman Faraldo Not Happy with Bellator 283 Performance, Regrets Calling Finish Despite Hitting It appeared first on Cageside Press.

“If you watch my interview, that’s exactly how I planned it to be,” Musayev (20-4) said, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press shortly after his knockout of Sidney Outlaw. “So yeah, I was planning to end the fight with a knockout.”

With the win, it’s nearly a certainty that Musayev will jump the line at lightweight. Outlaw had been booked for a title fight at Bellator 283 in Tacoma, Washington, only to see champ Patricky Pitbull pull out. He then accepted the fight with Musayev, who holds a prior win over Pitbull under the RIZIN banner.

However unlikely, Musayev is hoping for not just a title shot, but a title shot at home. “I would love to fight with Pitbull back home in my home country, Azerbaijan,” he stated. “That would be awesome.”

Another standout lightweight put on a stellar performance Friday — Usman Nurmagomedov, who improved to 15-0 with a submission against Chris Gonzalez. On that front, Musayev has no plan to fight the Dagestani, a cousin of retired UFC champ Khabib.

“We have a good friendship with Usman, I respect him as a fighter, but he’s not on my plan, to fight him any time soon,” said Musayev. “My plan is just to fight Pitbull, and if Bellator can give me a chance to fight him back home in Azerbaijan, that would be awesome. And I saw in one of his [Pitbull’s] interviews, he wants a rematch, so that’s why I’m calling him out. So let’s do it.”

With over two years having passed since the pair’s first fight, how much has Tofiq Musayev evolved as a fighter? And has Patricky Pitbull grown as well? He told Cageside Press following his win on Friday that “of course after every training camp, you improve your technique, you feel better. You get more experience with every fight. So I just think it’s going to be a more exciting fight.”

Watch the full Bellator 283 post-fight press conference appearance from Tofiq Musayev above. More coverage from the event can be found below.

The post Bellator 283: Tofiq Musayev Believes Potential Second Fight with Pitbull Will Be “More Exciting” appeared first on Cageside Press.

The incident occurred midway through the opening round, and brought a halt to a fight Larkin was feeling good about.

Following the bout, Larkin (24-7, 2NC) addressed the blow, and admitted that he was “pissed off” about the outcome.

“At first I didn’t know if I hit him with a bad elbow, then I seen the replay, I was like ‘okay,'” Larkin recalled, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “But I was like, it wasn’t as hard as I wanted it to be. I knew I hit him with it, but it wasn’t what I thought [it had to be] to be stopped.”

Larkin went through the entire gamut of emotions following the bout. “I was more disappointed in myself, because I wasn’t even breathing hard. I wasn’t even tired. The wrestling, I was all for it. Even when I felt him on top, I was like, ‘I’m going to keep making you work.’ That’s what I was so pissed off about, because I felt good. I wasn’t even in the slightest bit breathing hard.”

“Then I got super pissed at him, because when we went back to the doctor’s room, it wasn’t even his head,” he continued. “It wasn’t even his head that was hurt. It’s his knee.”

Larkin overheard the conversation between Berkhamov and the doctor, which led to him questioning why the fight was called. “I’m trying to sit here and be respectful, but I was just sitting next to him, and it wasn’t even his head that’s hurting. He just said ‘oh it’s a little bit,’ but it’s his knee. Left knee.”

“Yes it sucks that I did an elbow like that, which I recognize and I am sorry for him for that, but he had nothing for me. Yes he got the takedown, but on top of me, I was like ‘I’m going to keep making this motherf*cker work, because I’m not tired,’ and I wasn’t even— I’m telling you guys, I wish that fight could have kept going, man.”

In all his training over the past week, Larkin added that his coach was way harder to grapple with than Berkhamov was during the fight. “That’s why I was so pissed off, man. I never cry. Coach, have you ever seen me f*cking cry in my life? I never cry. I just didn’t know what to do. I trained so hard, I felt so good, I felt like I could have done 15 rounds.”

Watch the full Bellator 283 post-fight press conference appearance by Lorenz Larkin above. More coverage from the event can be found below.

The post Lorenz Larkin “Pissed Off” Over Early Ending, No Contest at Bellator 283 appeared first on Cageside Press.

The fight had been a long time coming, booked anywhere between two to four times, depending on who you asked. In the end, it was American Top Team’s Rosta (7-0) getting the final word in the rivalry — and he’s now turning his attention to the fight he was originally anticipating.

“I want John Salter next. I was actually supposed to get John Salter this fight, but he got injured or something,” Rosta said following his win in Tacoma, WA on Friday, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “I would never accuse him of him of pulling out of fights because he’s scared like Romero, he’s a veteran and a very good fighter, so if he was injured, he was injured. So hopefully John Salter, if he’s healthy, I respect him, he’s a great fighter, I would love to test myself against him to see where I am. Get the win there and keep moving up. But I would really love to step across the cage from him.”

Salter is ranked #4 in the middleweight division at the moment, while Dalton Rosta himself sits at #8. Given the win over #7-ranked Cotton, however, coupled with #6-ranked Lorenz Larkin returning to welterweight, Rosta is likely to find himself moving up a few spots this week.

If there were any surprises to come out of Rosta vs. Cotton on Friday, it might have been that Cotton lasted as long as he did. A three-time NCAA Division II champion, Romero Cotton was out-wrestled by Rosta, and out-struck by him as well.

“He has a freaking hard head, that’s all I can say,” Rosta said regarding Cotton’s durability. “A couple of those shots should have knocked him out. That superman punch that I hit him with, I hit him clean on the jaw, you can see it on the replay, and he didn’t go out from that one. But that one obviously buzzed him because the next one put him out flat.”

There were times during the fight where Cotton appeared to be on his way out, in particular a few instances when he turned away from his opponent. To Rosta, it’s a sign of Romero Cotton’s lack of experience.

“I know exactly what you’re talking about, he turned away a few times, but I just think that’s inexperience, and I just think that’s just him showing how green he is on the feet,” Rosta explained. “I was joking earlier about AKA [American Kickboxing Academy, where Cotton trains]. I think they have great coaches there, but I don’t think they analyze the small details that need to be refined to take a fighter at the level that they’re at, some of those fighters that don’t come in top level already, and turn them into top level. But at ATT, we have that, I think that’s the difference at the end of the day.”

Watch the full Bellator 283 post-fight press conference appearance with Dalton Rosta above. More coverage from the event can be found below.

The post Bellator 283: Dalton Rosta Looking to Test Himself, Wants John Salter Next appeared first on Cageside Press.

Smothering wrestling and relentless takedowns saw former champion Douglas Lima spend most of the fight on his back, outside of some inspired leg kicks early in the opening round.

Jackson (16-4) has now won six straight, all by decision, many of which have not been close. That streak includes names like Paul Daley, Neiman Gracie, Benson Henderson, and now a three-time champ in Lima.

Touching on his performance Saturday, Jackson told media outlets including Cageside Press during his post-fight interview that he “just did what I had to, and did the strategy that I know to beat him, and didn’t want to risk it, because the level that we’re fighting at, anything can happen. You see it all the time.”

Now, it’s on the bigger things. The money fight, which for Jackson is a title fight.

“If they come at me with a fight and it’s not the belt, they’d better have a lot of money to give to me,” Jackson exclaimed. “Right now, I want the money fight, which is the title. And I want to be the champ. So I’m willing to hold off. I did it last year, and nothing came through, but I’m willing to do it again. Because I’m willing to be the champ, I want to be the champ, I’m going to be the champ.”

At the moment, it appears champion Yaroslav Amosov is due to return and enter into a title unification bout with interim champ Logan Storley, who happens to be a teammate of Jackson. One other fight, should the title not be forthcoming, would make sense to Jackson, and that’s Michael “Venom” Page. Page is ranked ahead of Jackson in Bellator’s welterweight division, but is currently moonlighting in bare-knuckle boxing.

“Absolutely because if I’m fighting him [Page], I’m not going backwards, I’m going forwards,” noted Jackson in agreeing to the possibility of a fight with MVP. “So if the money is right, I’m there. It’s alright with me, so let’s go.”

Watch the full Bellator 283 post-fight press conference with Jason Jackson above. More coverage from the event can be found below.

The post Bellator 283: Jason Jackson Wants Money Fight, And That Means the Title appeared first on Cageside Press.

Thanks to that guillotine submission, Arteaga (7-4) may have set herself up for something big moving forward. With two consecutive wins under her belt, the former Bellator title challenger has now fought out her current deal.

Agreeing that the fight was the biggest of her career — “Yeah, I would say yes” — Arteaga expressed her excitement for what comes next. “It was my last fight on my contract, so I’m excited for my future.”

Among her goals, another shot at Bellator’s flyweight title, something she mentioned during her in-cage interview following the win. To get to that title shot, Arteaga believes that keys are “just staying active, staying consistent, getting better. I’m not overlooking anybody in this division. I know every girl is tough at this level. So I’ve just got to do me, improve on things, and also get better at the things I’m already good at.”

As for the guillotine that put away Porto, it’s a favorite technique of hers, she told Cageside Press following the fight. “It is, I love that guillotine. I hit it a lot at the gym, that’s kind of what I’m known for. That’s my submission.”

Watch the full Bellator 283 post-fight press scrum with Veta Arteaga above. More coverage from the event can be found below.

The post Veta Arteaga “Excited for My Future” After Fighting Out Contract at Bellator 283 appeared first on Cageside Press.

The cousin of Khabib Nurmagomedov, who now serves as his coach, has been making waves since his arrival in the promotion.

Securing a submission win over Chris Gonzalez, Nurmagomedov sounded ready to go again after the fight.

“I had a very good camp, and no injuries, thank God,” he told media outlets including Cageside Press, “and if Bellator offers me a fight next week, I’m ready to take it.”

Nurmagomedov called for a title fight following his win at Bellator 283. While champion Patricky Pitbull appears focused on a rematch with Tofiq Musayev, who also had an impressive win Friday, nothing is set in stone. Asked how a hypothetical match-up between himself and Pitbull would go, Nurmagomedov admitted he hadn’t followed the Brazilian too closely.

“I honestly, I haven’t watched his fights that much, but if they offer me this fight, I’m going to watch every single one of them,” he stated. “I’m going to make a strategy, me and my team.”

Nurmagomedov is hoping for a date in the Fall, however. “I heard that there is going to be an event in October, if they offer me this fight in October, I would love to take it and go. As far as how it’s going to go, I’m just going to go out there and be myself, as always.”

The idea that Nurmagomedov doesn’t watch the champion is perhaps less surprising than it seems. He later indicated that he only recently took notice of the top fighters in his division, period.

“Just recently I started watching the fighters in the top 15. Whenever they fight, I kind of take a look at it,” Nurmagomedov explained. “But to just sit there, go on their Sherdog page, analyze their career, and go back and watch their fights, I’ve never done that.”

Former featherweight champion A.J. McKee could be destined for the lightweight division in the near future; asked if that was a fight that would interest him, Nurmagomedov was open to it, but predicted the former featherweight champ would struggle in the weight class.

“I fought on the same card with him when he won a million dollars, and I’ve watched his fights before. I have to give him respect because he’s a former champ, but hey, 155 is a different jungle,” Nurmagomedov stated. Like himself, McKee started his career on a brilliant unbeaten streak, making it to 18-0 and winning a title before suffering his first defeat. “If he wants to come up and fight in my division, welcome. Because this division is full of very talented and skillful guys, and I think he’s going to have trouble having success in this division.”

“But if they match me with him, no problem,” he added. “I’m ready.”

Watch the full Bellator 283 post-fight press scrum with Usman Nurmagomedov above.

The post Bellator 283: Usman Nurmagomedov Predicts A.J. McKee Will Struggle at Lightweight appeared first on Cageside Press.