kantowrestler

Yeah, that is what I just said. He is a competitive fighter and wants to hold onto that title. Just because he womps everyone doesn't mean he is going to throw his title away.

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The Emoticon Guy

mattandbenny

Predictions...

Lombard v Vitale
Fun fight, Vitale should pose more of a threat than his past 2 super-fights in Silva and Goodman. I'm a massive Lombard fan, if he was in the UFC i think he'd be near the top of the division. Lombard should keep it standing en route to a comfortable UD win i think.
Lombard by Unanimous Decision

Freire v Chandler
This is my favorite fight on the card by a mile, it has the potential to be explosive. I really like both guys, their both gonna be great lightweights in 5 years time. My instinct here says Freire, i think Chandler will have some success with take downs early on, but Freire has good jitz and can get back up, and i like him by a late TKO win.
Freire by 3rd round TKO

Shlemenko v Cooper
This is another fun fight thats guaranteed fireworks (and half a dozen spinning punches/kicks!). Both guys like to bang and i think this has got knockout written all over it. I can see this being an upset, Cooper is very underrated and has mean stand up, and i can see him smashing his way to the S5 middleweight tourney.
Cooper by 2nd round KO

Morrison v Goldsby
Dont really have a lot of interest for this fight. They've lost 22 fights between them and i think whoever wins will be exiting the S5 bantamweight tourney in the 1st round. Goldsby has no business being in Bellator, but he is a tough SOB, so i got Morrison winning a decision.
Morrison by Unanimous Decision

Undercard
Sam Oropeza is the highlight of the undercard for me, i've seen him a couple of times and he's a good prospect. Dont know the dude he's fighting but i'll take Oropeza.
Oropeza by 1st round TKO

Leone v Lentz should be a competative fight, but i'll take Leone to stop the rot.
Leone by Unanimous Decision

Only other bout of any interest is Jay Silva, but i have no lcue who his opponent is so ill say...
Jay Silva by 1st round KO

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Fine Wine

How does the champions clause exactly work Kanto? He must lose his title in the Cage or he cannot leave Bellator? They don't sign their fighters to a given amount of fights per contract?

I'm interested because Lombard, Alvarez and potentially Askren down the road are all guys who will need to leave Bellator to really establisb their legacy yet none of them look to be losing anytime soon in Bellator.

SmackyBear

Bellator's "championship" clause.

If you're a champion during your contract, it's a three fight extension. So it takes a long time to leave the company and if you're already the champ, losing a title fight doesn't get you out.

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Fine Wine

Legend, thx.

Do you know when both Eddie Alvarez and Lombards current contracts expire? (Thought I remember Alvarez just signed a new one recently....).

SmackyBear

No problem.

Eddie Alvarez:

That story is from yesterday, after Alvarez had six fights for them, so Eddie will be able to leave after three more fights.

Though he doesn't seem to be in a hurry to leave in that interview or others. But he does want his next contract to have the possibility to pay him millions of dollars, which would probably be hard for Bellator to do.


For Hector Lombard, I haven't seen anything quite as clear cut, recently anyway. This is from after his season one championship win:

That was after three fights with Bellator, and he's fought for them four times since then. But I'm guessing his initial deal was a six fight deal (like it looks like Alvarez's deal was) and it automatically re-upped for three more when it was over. That would put him at two fights left now. It's possible he resigned with them at some point, but I would have thought that would have been reported.

Lombard has constantly said he only wants to fight the best and called out people in other promotions, so I'm guessing he wants out.

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Fine Wine

Thanks Smacky, I would give you more rep if I could but have to share it around first!

Legend.

Hopefully Lombard does leave after 2 more fights and hopefully that final one is against Falcoa now he has been cut by the UFC. He would be the perfect replacement for Lombard.

Eddie as you say, doesn't seem overly interested to get a move on.

Other guys like Ben Askren I think should stay at Bellator a while longer anyway, they still have a lot to learn before they should think about mixing it up with the best in the UFC.

mattandbenny

Of the bellator fighters, the ones i think could go to the ufc and do well are: Makovsky, Warren, Alvarez, Hieron, Pitbull and Lombard.

The rest, such as Konrad, Askren, Hawn, Hale, Chandler & Patricky Freire i think would all do best sticking with Bellator and developing their game a bit more.

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Fine Wine

Yeh, I probably haven't seen as much Bellator as you boys, so thx for the comments. Can't get it downunder, so have to watch it online.

SmackyBear

No problem.

I'd like them both to move on as well. I feel kind of like a dick saying that, like I'm rooting for the poor (Bellator) to get poorer at the expense of the rich's (UFC) pocket. But it's hard not to want to see guys I think are really good get a shot to face the top of their division.

That isn't happening in Bellator. It wasn't happening even before Zuffa bought SF, since SF nixed all the ideas of co-promotion with them, like Melendez-Alvarez, and co-promotion certainly isn't happening now.

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