Bellator 158: London Discussion Thread

The fighters are weighed in and we're set for a solid afternoon of Bellator London fights. 

Not entirely sure when the action kicks off. It seems the main card hits at 3pm ET followed by 8 prelims. Picks lock at 11am Saturday morning. 

This show will be tape-delayed in the US.

WOW!

Let's hope they can recover the Man, because the athlete will live in memories.

Let me start by saying I don't know anything about skull fractures.  All I know is in all my time watching MMA I've never seen or heard of anything like this.

I didn't think something like this was possible from a single MMA strike.

I have to wonder if this is more due to Cyborg's skull already being weak from prior trauma (e.g. hairline fracture from other blows in training), or from Page actually having truly deadly power/precision.  Or if it's a combination of both, or if it's neither and it's just a completely freak almost impossible occurrence.

I'm skeptical that Page has deadly power but nobody else we've previously seen in MMA does.  I'm curious about Cyborg's skull and if it could have been previously "compromised" in some way.

@green why do you assume it will impact his brain function?  Either it did brain damage or it didn't, and I think we'll need to wait and hear from doctors/etc?

I see some people sugesting that his skull isn't fractured and that the injury is a frontal sinus fracture which means he will not suffer brain damage. Either way is a scary injury and hopefully we get official word on cyborg's health

The best fight in bellator 158 is ....... Manuel Garcia vs Alex Reid. LOL. This fight give me winner in this event. 

I've been watching this sport for 25 years and I've never seen an injury like Cyborg's. It is crazy that one jump knee did that much damage.

I just finished watching the event and I don't know what Jimmy was babbling about Lima not being able to be secure in getting the decision. Does he honestly think English judges are that corrupt? Lima won every round by a wide margin.

@gregory

Because of the location the knee landed (which was to the frontal lobe) and that we are talking about bone breaking through bone and making contact with a vital organ in the brain.

Cyborg is a 38 year-old journeyman who has been knocked out 11 times in his career coming into this fight, and shown clear deterioration of skills over the last few years. I really find it comical Michael Page talks about how they are just bodies and he will fight anyone...The fact that MMA fans get behind him, all I see is a coward picking on chumps ( relatively speaking ). He's been fighting in Bellator for 4 years, he has 7 straight wins under the banner... 

I remember seeing him celebrate while Santos was face first on the mat and all I could think was how sad it is MMA fans thought this was "cool" and how disrespectful this supposedly traditional martial artist Michael Page is being by throwing Pokeballs at this old guy he just kneed in the face, as if anyone expected anything other than a knockout for Page over a punch drunk, old journey man....

There's just something really distasteful about a guy like Page who brags as much as possible when he wins, taunts, showboats and yet consciously only decides to fight schlubs, he's afraid to lose, he's not confident he's just selling the fans wolf tickets.

yeah, Cyborg was not that big of a wun.

Bellator's 170 division is the deepest division in the history of all sports. That's the only way I can possibly explain a guy with 7 straight wins in the division, all of them displays of distruction, has all the star power a fighter could need yet hasn't faced a top 10 guy (I'm not even talking about title shot eliminator or title shot, God forbid, you need at least 25 straight wins to have a chance at one of those).

In all seriousness though, if Page won like that in the UFC he'd be fast-tracked to a title shot and in Bellator he somehow hasn't got even remotely close to the bigger fights yet? That's by design. Any other guy would've been calling out the big names after his second first round knockout, Page hasn't even muttered the name Koreshov in any of his interviews, post-fight speeches or anywhere. **** it, call out Paul Bradley for all I care, just take a ******* step up in competition or quit acting like you're god's gift the MMA.

The more Page wins and showboats, the more I can't wait for the day he steps up in competition and fingers crossed gets the humbling he desperately needs.

Page needs to be fighting the likes of Paul Daley or Doug Lima. Bellator needs to give him real competition.