Bellator 274: Gracie vs. Storley

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

This is a nice card. I’ve been waiting for Gracie, Franklin, Nallo and Bates next fights. And they are all on the same card. 

brennan ward is back, and bellator is giving him a layup. i like it

^ Yeah, looks like he's finally gotten clean and is ready to make a comeback. Just read this story, really great look at what he's been struggling with: https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2022/01/brennan-ward-opens-up-drug-addiction-bellator-retirement-rizin

Me too he was a big prospect at one time hope he can stay clean so many athletes self med, well most apparently but those who venture to the deep end the list is surprising.
I watched him back when I watched bellator not quite homegrown but close enough.

I'm a big fan of Rat Garbage (Nallo) and I hate to say it but this looks like a terrible matchup for him. I really worry that his TDD won't be enough to keep it standing and he'll be outmatched on the ground. Definitely hope I'm wrong about that

Ward vs. Bell
Brennan Ward, TKO, R1
Return of the G.O.A.T

Man they needed to get Ward on that 275 card!!

What a ******* freebie Bellator is giving montalvo. His opponent has a loss to dean Barry and was 2-8 ammy. He got that upset which was cool but that was definitely a fluke

* Edited at 01.31.2022, 3:10 PM ET *

Edwards vs. Haley
Christian Edwards, TKO, R2
Ageism I guess, picking someone who lost to ben perish not a good feeling.

Ward vs. Bell
Brennan Ward, TKO, R2
Cuz hes Irish

In all honesty, i reckon Bellator are producing the better American prospects at the moment. Seems to be a market the UFC are ignoring while they chase international with a lot more Russian and Oceanic guys. Feel like Bellator has about 50 division one wrestlers with clean hands now days ha. Not complaining, just an observation 

Gracie vs. Storley
Neiman Gracie, DEC
Neiman is a pretty decent striker and what surprises me is his ability to control grappling exchanges. BJJ specialists are usually more content to give up position here & there to find the one opening they need but Neiman just dominates everywhere. Storley shouldn't be playing that game imo and if it stays standing, I like Neiman's slick counterpunches. I think he's got this.

Edwards vs. Haley
Christian Edwards, TKO, R1
Should be a pretty quick night if Christian is able to find the never-elusive Haley. Athleticism alone wins him this by allowing him to catch Kevin before he can react.

Koreshkov vs. Rencountre
Andrey Koreshkov, DEC
Fun Fight. Koreshkov should take it.

Franklin vs. Sowma
Said Sowma, TKO, R3
Davion is round 1 or bust.

Newman vs. Herbert
Jordan Newman, TKO, R1
Watch tape on Herbert I dare you.

Samuels vs. Montalvo
Justin Montalvo, TKO, R3
BODY SHOTS!!!

Hokit vs. Macuka
Isaiah Hokit, TKO, R1
If Hokit losses to this guy.....

I agree with you that Bellator is producing the best American prospects right now. It is more than all the vision that Scott Coker has since he was in Strikeforce: at the time fighters like Michael Chandler, Tyron Woodley and Cain Velasquez made their debut or became known in the Strikeforce Challanger Series, fighters like King Mo, Miesha Tate and Justin Wilcox had an outstanding career in the Strikeforce banner (the first two mentioned were even champions within Strikeforce) and the most notable case was the fact that the Olympic judoka who would later become the main face of the WMMA (and the overall most ppv seller fighter for a couple of years) Ronda Rousey started her career at Strikeforce and it was here that she developed that aura of domination that made Dana White interested in adding female categories in the UFC.
Today Bellator has established American fighters like A.J. McKee and Austin Vanderford. And a huge number of Division One Wrestler prospects like: Dalton Rosta, Cody Law, Jordan Newman, Joey Davis, etc.
And although, as you say, the UFC has now given more impetus to Russian or Oceanian fighters, Bellator is not far behind in international prospects either. There are a couple of interesting fighters like champions Amosov and Nemkov and other top fighters like Mads Burnell, Magomed Magomedov, Aviv Gozali, Anatoly Tokov, etc. Not to mention that they always have many international fighters on their cards in

I wouldn’t really say vanderford was made by Bellator tho. He would have been in the ufc if Dana didn’t have a stick up his ass. Bellator is 1000% doing it right when it comes to wrestlers thi

There is something I never understood: Lorenz Larkin was assured of the title shot after his split decision win against Andrey Koreshkov (I remember that Coker had officially announced this long before the ranking system existed in Bellator and Lima fought Mousasi and Amosov). After that Larkin was unable to make weight against Nakamura and was inactive for much of the start of Pandemic. After a long time he came back at middleweight against Rafael Carvalho and right now he's not even top 5 in the official 185-pound rankings. I don't know if there is any reason that Larkin is no longer allowed to do 170 pounds, but it seems incredible to me that having the title shot secured, Larkin decided to change weight class and have to do the entire title run again.

He probably doesn't feel like cutting weight anymore. It's not like he missed by a small amount either, he was 3.5 lbs over the championship limit for the Nakamura bout. MW is also more ripe for the taking given some guys like Salter are still ranked.

Tbh I think Lorenz has a better chance of beating Mousasi than Amosov, Gegard's only getting older and is more willing to strike than Yaroslav.

Yeah, Austin Vanderford was in the DWCS and despite having a dominant performance he was not signed (at that time the selection process was very different from the one in 2021). And this is what allowed him to sign for Bellator (almost similar to the signing of Brendan Loughnane by PFL). I think the reason why Vanderford was not signed was precisely because of that dominant wrestling, in recent years we have seen how fighters like Usman or Covington needed streaks of more than 6 wins to establish themselves in the ranking or receive matchups that would allow them to advance towards the belt (when in other cases fighters with spectacular performances enter the ranking after 2 or 3 victories like Doo Ho Choi, Johnny Walker to mention a few). This very reason was what made Khabib's path to the championship so many bumps in the road before Abu Dhabi (that and his health issues) and fighters like Jon Fitch and Jake Shields being cut faster than fighters with bigger skids. .

You're right, Larkin has a better chance against Mousasi than against Amosov. I think the fairest thing considering that he is coming off a winning streak and that he was #1 contender in the Welterweight would be to give him the fight against Salter who is ranked #2 in the category. I'm not a big fan of Larkin Fighting Style but on merit I think he should be ranked above fighters like Fabian Edwards or Anatoly Tokov. Fabian Edwards at #4 is frankly ridiculous: the man is on a 2-fight losing streak, the first was against Costello Van Steenis who logically should be ranked above him, but he is not even in the current ranking of the category (Costello has not fought since the end of 2020, but this due to an injury in early 2021). Despite the fact that Bellator placed the rankings, it is a concept that they clearly do not handle very well or that they mold for their convenience.

Yeah bellators ranking are just to make them seem like they have depth. They just matchup ranked fighters so weird; 90% of the time they have ranked opponents fighting debutants and the 10% is guys fighting each other to get a title shot

* Edited at 02.13.2022, 3:28 PM ET *

Yea people say bellator is such a great organization yet has atleast 5 mismatches per card. It's like they're trying to get someone hurt.