The Octagon Report with Nicnas - May 4, 2018

After one of the most exciting Bellator cards I have watched in a while, we start looking forward to UFC 224 and another Bellator fight that is even more exciting. We will be on our tippy toes awaiting the Nunes and Pennington fight in the UFC Promotion and the Bader versus King Mo fight in the Bellator heavyweight tournament. Both of these events happen on Saturday May 12.

Before we get into the upcoming fights, let’s look at what happened last weekend in Bellator. While the card was anticipated to be overwhelming, the rating was underwhelming. This isn’t a new issue for the Bellator Promotion as they have been struggling to get ratings. The tape delays aren’t helping much either. But this latest event still drew in around 700,000 viewers for the main event. Everything else drew in around 400,000.

Let’s look more specifically at the five main card bouts. All five of them were fast and led to stoppages, which is extremely rare. The first four fights of the main card: Dillon Danis, Neiman Gracie, Rafael Lovato Jr. and Emmanuel Sanchez all ended in submission. The main fight of the night, Fedor Emelianenko versus Frank Mir, ended in only 48 seconds after Fedor TKOed Frank.

Check out the BellatorMMA 198 “Sweet Submissions” video.

Highlighting Upcoming Fights

Let’s take a quick look at some of the amazing fights lined up for UFC 224. The three fights I want to go over this week will be the bantamweight bout between Lineker, the favorite at -123, and Kelleher. The middleweight bout between Souza, slightly favored at -138, versus Gastelum. The third and final fight to be looked at this week will be the women’s bantamweight title fight between the heavily favored and current champion Amanda Nunes versus Raquel Pennington.

BANTAMWEIGHT BOUT – Lineker (-213) vs Kelleher (135 Pounds)
This fight is the 4th to last fight of the night and part of the main card. This match-up has the number 6 ranked Lineker versus the unranked Kelleher. While this might seem like an unfair match-up, it should be a decent one to watch. Do not count Brain Kelleher out just yet. He has an amazing submission rate at 42% as a pro and is still very fast and accurate, let’s not forget strong, standing up. John is more experienced and has amazing takedown accuracy as well, but he is more likely to finish by decision. This will come down to the well-rounded, killer instinct, unpredictable skills of Brian versus the very well in-shape and aggressive John.

Middleweight Bout – Souza (-138) vs Gastelum (185 Pounds)
This fight should be very fun. Both fighters at 2nd and 5th rank are very skilled and are very strong, albeit a little bit slower. Souza is a little better at the submission game than Gastelum, but he excels in the KO/TKO area. Souza is also more experienced with 12 more fights to his name.

WOMEN'S BANTAMWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT - NUNES (-525) VS PENNINGTON (135 Pounds)
This one should be fun! We have the champion Amanda Nunes defending her title against the number 2 Raquel Pennington. The Brazilian Nunes is more experienced and way better at getting the knock out. This includes a 67% KO/TKO rate compared to Pennington’s 11%. However, Pennington has proven herself to be better at taking it the distance (56% decision Pennington/ 13% decision Nunes) and slightly better at the submission game. She is a very well rounded fighter poised to take on the power house and very aggressive Nunes. What wins championships here? Defenses (patient with submissions) or Offensive (aggressive)? I guess we will have to wait to find out.

Upcoming

Data	Promotion	Event	Location
May 12	UFC	224: Nunes vs. Pennington	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
May 12	Bellator	199: Bader vs. King Mo	SAP Center at San Jose

MMA News and Highlights

• Nate Diaz may be in talks to Compete at UFC 227
• Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Tecia Torres Set For UFC Promotions Calgary Event
• Eddie Alvarez says that he will not fight until him and the UFC reach a new deal

_{Photo credits: CC0 Pixabay}

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_{Author: @nicnas
Editor: @liberty-minded}

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