Bellator’s first ever bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky held the title for nearly 17 months, but in his first title defense at tonight’s Bellator 65, he lost the belt. Season five tournament winner Eduardo Dantas became the promotions second ever bantamweight champion with an impressive outing in front of a pro-Makovsky crowd at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The second half of the Bellator season six bantamweight quarterfinal round was concluded during tonight’s Bellator 65 event. Live from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey Marcos Galvao, Ed West, Alexis Vila and Luis Nogueira looked to join Travis Marx and Hiroshi Nakamura, who advanced to the semifinals at last week’s Bellator 64.
With the UFC having taken an extended break, Bellator has been capitalizing on this lapse with their own brand of MMA programming. Bellator 65 will feature matches across several tournament brackets, and a title bout that should make for a great night of action. So, let’s take a short look at what we have in store this Friday.
What a difference a week makes. Following last week’s Bellator 58 that featured a fight of the year candidate, Bellator 59 ended season five on an unfortunate sour note. Featuring two tournament finals and two exciting lightweight bouts on the main card, things looked promising on paper.
Bellator’s season five has been one of the greatest for the promotion and it will come to a close at this Saturday’s Bellator 58 event in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Coming off last weekend’s exciting lightweight championship main event that saw Michael Chandler defeat Eddie Alvarez, the guys on Saturday’s card have a tough act to follow.
The semi-finals for Bellator’s Bantamweight tournament continued on Saturday night at Bellator 55 which took place outdoors at the Cocopah Resort and Casino in Yuma, Arizona featuring a killer card that included Bellator Light Heavyweight champion Christian M’Pumbu in a non-title bout against Travis Wiuff.
With another weekend without a ZUFFA event Bellator will once again have the full attention of the MMA community for Saturdays Bellator 55. Making their second trip to the Grand Canyon State, Bellator 55 will be live from the Cocopah Resort and Casino Yuma, Arizona. The semi-final round of the bantamweight tournament will headline Saturday’s event but the Bellator light heavyweight champion is also on the card in non-title fight action.
A double-edged sword is “something that causes both advantages and problems” and the current tournament format by Bellator fits that description perfectly. While the tournaments are highly entertaining and place the fate of the fighters in their own hands, winning comes at a price.
