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Johnny Eblen is the new Bellator Middleweight Champion.
In a stunning performance, undefeated 30-year-old Gegard Mousasi outclassed on both feet and floor to sweep the judges’ scorecards and win a lopsided unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45) on Friday Night in the Bellator 282 Main Event.
For Eblen (12:0) victory was never in question. The American middleweight was able to prove a point by dropping Mousasi (49-8-2) with a hard volley of punches in the opening round, nearly sending the legend home early.
Mousasi survived to the horn, but the momentum never returned in his favor. Eblen landed takedown after takedown, sticking to Mousasi like glue to the mat. He also paired Mousasi with a combo attack when action regained feet, leaving the former two-time champion unable to get out of first gear.
In a remarkable twist of fate, it was a sight similar to April 2010 when one of Eblen’s head coaches at ATT – Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal – shocked the MMA world by using his wrestling to anger Mousasi and slip away the Strikeforce light heavyweight title by decision.
“It feels right. This whole week felt right,” said an enthusiastic Eblen as Lawal celebrated. “I didn’t feel like anything was bigger than me. I was just in the right place all the time. That feels right. I don’t know what I’m doing right, but damn, that feels good.”
Eblen is now 8-0 in the Bellator cage while Mousasi fell to 7-2 in promotion.
In the night’s co-main event, Danny Sabatello made good on his words, dominating Leandro Higo with his own relentless wrestling attack to win a lopsided unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46) and advance into a semifinal match against Bellator interim bantamweight champion Raufeon Stots in the promotion’s ongoing 135-pound Grand Prix.
Sabatello (13-1) posted takedowns in all five rounds and bullied Higo (21-5) with ground-and-pound and constant mat pressure for much of the fight. Higo’s best moments came in Round 2 when he reversed Sabatello’s ground control, using a Kimura hold to grab the brash American’s back and sink in a body triangle. Higo elbowed and punched Sabatello for the remainder of the round and even threatened a rear naked choke, but Sabatello survived and went straight back to work in round 3.
By the end, Higo was exhausted and Sabatello was landing takedowns at will, backing up the mountains of trash talk he threw in Higo’s way ahead of time while he was lustfully booed by the crowd at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
“I was told if I swear in my post-fight interview I could get a fine,” Sabatello said to a chorus of jeers. “So it’s a good thing I don’t give a fuck! I just slapped an absolute animal, and none of you guys are going to give a shit! you want to do something Come here now and do something.”
Stots then entered the cage and clipped his own promo before engaging in a tense staredown with his opponent in the semi-final round.
“He’s fucking shit! That was awful! That was abominable!” Stots roared to tremendous applause. “God damn. All you can do is wrestle, bro. Oh my god. Hey, I want to congratulate Danny Sabatello, because you got an ass panting.”
Elsewhere in the bracket, it wasn’t easy, but Magomed Magomedov also slammed his ticket to the semifinals – and he did so by becoming the first man to defeat UFC veteran Enrique Barzola. In a wild back and forth, Magomedov (19-2) finally guillotined Barzola (18-6-2) in the fourth round to advance into a matchup against Patchy Mix.
Magomedov and Barzola fought tooth and nail throughout the competition, with Magomedov doing much of his best work on his feet and Barzola repeatedly trying to get the action on the ground. Barzola secured his first five takedown attempts in each of the first 10 minutes and took the Russian back several times, but Magomedov kept escaping, hitting the Peruvian with vicious left hands and turning attacks.
As the rounds progressed, Magomedov began to decipher Barzola’s timing in his takedown attempts, which eventually led to the target sequence. It was a beauty – in one fluid motion, Magomedov slithered into a slick guillotine choke on another takedown attempt and pushed with all his might to lure out the first tapout of Barzola’s career. The official end of the competition came at 1:27 in Round 4.
“I knew he would wrestle with me. After the second round, I said to my corners, ‘I’m going to catch him now.’ You saw what happened,” said Magomedov.
In the main card’s opening bout, Brennan Ward continued his fierce comeback tour with a second-round TKO from Kassius Kayne.
Ward (16-6) made his second appearance since his five-year layoff due to battles with drug addiction, bursting into flames, tagging Kayne (12-8) with hard punches and dragging him to the mat repeatedly throughout the opening frame. Ward continued that blistering pace into Round 2, rocking Kayne with a series of powerful shots along the fence before convincing referee Marc Goddard to step in and end the contest after landing a massive right hand to Kayne’s body.
It was another example of Ward’s way of killing or being killed. The 33-year-old Connecticut native has yet to make a judge’s score in his 18 career fights with Bellator.
“People are like, ‘Oh, he’s on the main map, he’s on the main map. There are world champions on the undercard,’” Ward said. “I’m on the main card because I fucking finished my meal. That’s what I do.”
The full Bellator 282 results can be viewed below.
main card
- Johnny Eblen defeated. Gegard Mousasi by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
- Defeated Danny Sabatello. Leandro Higo by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46)
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Defeated Magomed Magomedov. Enrique Barzola via submission (guillotine choke) at 1:27 of Round 4
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Brennan Ward defeated. Kassius Kayne via TKO (punches) at 1:11 of Round 2
Provisional Map (MMA fight replay)