BELLATOR 40 PREDICTIONS & DISCUSSION

Bellator 40 takes place tonight with televised fights on MTV2 beginning at 9:00 pm eastern time.  Prelims start an hour or so earlier. Watching the fights? Embed your picks and discuss the fights here!

Threads for individual featured bouts:
Ben Askren vs Nick Thompson (94% picking Askren, 6% picking Thompson)
Brent Weedman vs Jay Hieron  (95% picking Hieron, 5% picking Weedman)
Mike Chandler vs Lloyd Woodard  (70% picking Chandler, 30% picking Woodard)

Embedding all your picks at once:
1) Go to your Bellator 40 picks page (on the homepage, look for the view/share picks button)
2) Copy the embed link
3) Paste it here, with the little "img" button while writing your post




Good luck on your predictions.  Prelim and main card results will be entered as they happen... avoid Tapology if you don't want spoilers.   No posting links to illegal fight streams!

Story of the fight...



I've got Pitbull in the final... but not very confident in that prediction. Chandler is tenacious.

that was a heck of a slam...i'm picking Pitbull heard his ground game is decent and most likely is going to need it

Im going with Hieron on this next fight. He'll have the wrestling advantage against the striker.

Hieron just beat Weedman. Hawn vs Hieron in the finals. what a match up.

http://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/bouts/bellator-40-brent-weedman-vs-jay-the-thoroughbred-hieron

In the second live televised bout on MTV2 for Bellator 40, Brent Weedman took on Jay Hieron in a welterweight tournament semi-final matchup. Weedman came into the bout on a ten fight win streak, while Hieron was riding an eight fight win streak.

In one of the opening exchanges of the bout, Weedman nailed Hieron with a left hand and Hieron fell stumbling onto his back. Weedman dove on top, made his way to full mount and then lost position as he attempted to take Hieron's back. Hieron put Weedman into deep trouble with a D'Arce choke attempt but let the choke attempt go after a few tense moments. Hieron worked on top from half-guard, again probing for a choke until Weedman regained full guard. Weedman delivered an upkick and Hieron moved right through it, briefly looking for a guillotine and again letting the choke go to focus on positioning. Back up standing with thirty seconds left in the opening round and Hieron snuck in a knee in the clinch and a left hand before the round ended.

Weedman came forward throwing some funky strikes early in round two while Hieron looked to counter. Weedman landed on some of his strikes and a small mouse began to form over the right eye of Hieron. Weedman stuffed a lazy double-leg takedown attempt. The pace of the fight slowed down somewhat in the second half of the round. Hieron threw a superman punch while pushing with his back leg off of the cage, a flashy move that led to a nice combination but without much force. The mostly kickboxing-oriented round ended without either fighter putting a definitive stamp on it.

Weedman attacked aggressively in round three, landing on Hieron but being taken down in the process. Weedman latched on a guillotine and then transitioned into what looked like an anaconda choke, forcing Hieron to scramble and spin his way to safety, losing position and back to the feet. Hieron connected on another push-off-the-fence superman punch and connected with perhaps his best combination of the fight. Weedman however continued to back Hieron down, keeping on the offensive. A nice leg kick from Weedman tripped Hieron, and Weedman got on top of his turtled opponent. Weedman made his way to side control and then to full mount. Hieron escaped with 35 seconds remaining, into Weedman's guard and without enough time to set up much offense.

The judges scored the bout 29-28 unanimously in favor of the winner, Jay Hieron, in what was a very close bout. Speaking to Jimmy Smith in the post-fight interview, Hieron commented, "He came to fight, he was a tough guy, and that's what I want... I'm coming baby, The Thoroughbred is coming."

I had it 29-28 for Weedman in a very close fight, thought that he did enough to deserve the win.

I see Askren getting ready to take Thompson down.

Askren is incredible. He doesn't have a full MMA game but his grappling abilities are just crazy. He makes it look so effortless, almost like he has no idea what he's doing, sliding around like a maniac. Yet somehow he just has control over his body and positioning like nobody else.  ***.

Thompson is gonna lose.

http://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/bouts/bellator-40-ben-funky-askren-vs-nick-the-goat-thompson

In the main event of Bellator 40, welterweight champion Ben Askren took on Nick Thompson in a non-title fight. Askren came into the bout undefeated at 7-0, while Thompson was on a three-fight losing streak.

Askren threw a head kick to begin, caught by Thompson and pushed to the ground. Askren, showing his incredible scrambling ability, maneuvered his way to top position easily and made his way to side control. Askren threw hammerfists from a variety of positions, constantly moving and maintaining advantageous position. Thompson managed to wall walk back to his feet in the closing seconds of the round, yet Askren had no difficulty in pulling him back down.

Askren timed his first punch in round two to dart in low, grab a bodylock, and trip Thompson. Askren stood up and in a hesitant move, semi-stomped his foot between Thompson's legs, and essentially putting himself into danger for a leg-lock. Undeterred, Askren scrambled his way to full mount, then to Thompson's back and nearly had a rear-naked choke. Thompson remained as active as he could off of his back but found it almost impossible to escape Askren's positional superiority. Askren spun his way out of another tricky position, directly into side control to end the round.

Askren needed only a few moments in round three before he pulled Thompson back to the ground. Effortlessly escaping guard and any other position he desired, Askren gave Thompson no room to work at all. Askren's ability to fluidly move from position to position, despite possessing an incomplete MMA game, was brilliant despite not fully pleasing to the crowd. Askren remained a step ahead nearly every moment up until the final seconds, where he fell to his back and left an opening for Thompson to dive in with a big right hand and another couple of punches.

The judges scored the bout 30-26, 30-27, and 30-27 for Ben Askren, the winner by unanimous decision. Speaking to Jimmy Smith in the post-fight interview, Askren commented, "It felt great, I would have liked to finish and I know the fans are on my ass about it... I watched Jay Hieron and I wasn't impressed, he doesn't have anything for me... let's do it."

Wonder if Hieron or Hawn have anything for Askren.

Hawn is the more interesting matchup, just because it's a different style and Hawn will have interesting takedown defense.  However I'm not sure if Hawn will get by Hieron in the finals...

Askren is very special though. Not sure I've really ever seen a guy able to move like that on the ground.

I had Weedman 29-28 as well Gregory. Bellator's WW division looks awfully weak now. Askren easily beast Hawn and Hieron IMO.

Chandler vs Pitbull is gonna be sweeeet. Idk who the heck I'm gonna pick to win that.

Picked all the winners on the main card.  Too bad there were only 3 fights.

Does Chandler remind anyone else of Matt Hughes? He even sorta looks like him.

The predictions leader from Bellator 40:




The full leaderboard has everyone's ranking, so if you made the top 250 you can find your rank here:
http://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/bellator-40/predictions-leaderboard

@Danno I think Chandler is a better wrestler than Hughes, better takedowns, quicker punches and setups for his double-leg.  But of course Hughes has legendary heart, will to win, intangibles... stuff that Chandler may not have.

I always seem to smoke the Bellator predictions,  but suck at everything else.

as they say, better to have smoked bellator than never to have smoked at all.

I did pretty well myself.