Nurmagomedov's and Tokov's victories, Sidelnikov's knockout and Minakov's finger fracture: what was the Bellator tournament in Moscow memorable for

The first Bellator tournament in Russia was rightfully considered one of the most anticipated events of the fall in mixed martial arts. This status was largely ensured by the holding of the 47th fight in the career of Fedor Emelianenko, who was returning to the cage after a 21-month break. But on the card of the Moscow show there were many fights worthy of the attention of MMA fans. First of all, we are talking about fights with the participation of star Vitaly Minakov, Anatoly Tokov and Usman Nurmagomedov, each of which is included in the elite of their weight categories.

It cannot be said that Bellator's first visit to Russia was without rough edges. So, initially there were 12 battles in the program, but in the end their number was reduced to ten. First, the battle of Vladimir Tokov with Aimar Gui was canceled, and then a similar fate befell a purely Russian duel between the representative of Eagles MMA Haji Rabadanov and Alexander Belykh. According to Khabib Nurmagomedov, the opponent of his ward passed a positive test for coronavirus.

However, even in their absence, the preliminary card turned out to be bright and rich. Largely because domestic fighters took part in each of the fights. However, not everyone succeeded in achieving success. In the first match of the evening, Alexander Osetrov could not cope with the Briton Aiden Lee and suffered the third defeat in his career. In the middle of the first round, the Russian got involved in a dangerous exchange, missed a series of punches and ended up on the floor, which his opponent took advantage of. He instantly threw a strangler from behind, from which it was not destined to get out.

Nevertheless, Aleksey Shurkevich quickly lifted the spirits of the Russian fans.

The battle with Hrachik Bozinyan began very actively.

Both did not beat around the bush, making a real massacre in the rack.

At first, the Armenian looked very good and at times chased his opponent around the cage, but then he missed the hardest blow from the right and fell to the canvas.

The pupil of Alexander Shlemenko demonstrated his skills in ground and pound for more than a minute, finally forcing the referee to intervene.

“Ambition?

Subscribe first (with Bellator. -

).

The agreement was (calculated) for one fight.

Give me a contract.

I'll show you the spectacle.

I guarantee you, ”Shurkevich said.

Nikita Mikhailov and Brian Moore were the first to complete the entire distance. The clash between Fyodor Emelianenko's pupil and Conor McGregor's teammate was one of the most curious in the preliminary program, but it turned out to be not the most striking. The domestic fighter was noted for a series of spectacular throws, and on the ground he mainly dominated, thrusting powerful blows into the opponent's head. Because of this, by the end of the first round, he had several cuts.

However, Mikhailov did not manage to spend all 15 minutes exactly. Perhaps it was due to the long downtime due to injuries and visa problems. By the end of the second segment, he was noticeably tired and could not create serious problems for Moore, although he was on top, and in the third he almost lost. Nikita tried to reach the rare painful one - "Suloev's stretch", but he made a mistake and threw the Irishman behind his back, after which he was forced to defend himself first from a strangler, and then from the lever of the elbow. In the end, he still survived, scoring his first victory since April 2019.

Irina Alekseeva and Darina Mazdyuk from Russia made their debuts at Bellator with varying degrees of success. The first defeated Stephanie Page by unanimous decision, and the second lost to Katarzhina Sadura by knockout. However, the main event of the prelims was the triumphant return to the cage of Kirill Sidelnikov, who left no chance for Rab Truesdale. A representative of the Fedor Team effortlessly pulled the Scotsman to the ground, and in the stalls unleashed a flurry of punches on him. The enemy was forced to surrender after 121 seconds.

The main program of the show was opened by a duel between Anatoly Tokov and Sharaf Davlatmurodov. She was curious if only because outside the cage, the rivals were on good terms and with great reluctance agreed to fight each other. In this regard, there was a risk of repeating the plot of the battle between Magomed Ankalaev and Nikita Krylov. Then the Russian and the Ukrainian clearly did not want to harm each other's health, so they did not act with full force. As a result, the confrontation turned out to be not as bright as the audience expected.

This is not to say that this time the opponents felt sorry for each other, but they swayed for quite a long time, not forcing the course of the battle. A solid part of the first round took place at the grid, where the more physically powerful Davlatmurodov dominated, while Tokov looked more confident in the stand. The Russian was a little more accurate, and over time he began to increasingly turn to his wrestling skills. However, if the passes to the legs periodically turned out to be successful, then it was not possible to create serious problems on the ground.

On the eve of the third round, there could well be an equal score on the cards of the judges, as a result of which it was extremely important for each of the opponents to conduct it as successfully as possible. But even in this segment, none of the fighters had a clear advantage. Is that with the exception of the ending, during which Davlatmurodov made his way behind Tokov's back and almost carried out a choke. As a result, the winner was determined by a split decision of the judges, most of them preferred Anatoly. The Russian won the jubilee, 30th time in his career and extended his successful streak to six fights.

The battle between Usman Nurmagomedov and Patrick Pietila promised to be as one-sided as possible.

The Finnish fighter with a record of 11-8 could hardly be considered a worthy opponent for Khabib's cousin, which was immediately confirmed in the cage.

The Russian demonstrated an easy takedown and demonstrated a real master class on the ground.

Victory by the strangler was only a matter of time.

At the end of the battle, Nurmagomedov expressed surprise that the Bellator matchmakers arranged for him to meet with such a weak opponent and said that he was ready to fight the strongest representatives of the lightweight division.

“I think I'm already in the top 10.

To bring such a rival to my homeland ... I wanted to give a normal show.

Give me one of the top 10 next time.

Otherwise, there is too much hate, ”said Nurmagomedov Jr.

At the show in Moscow, most of Nurmagomedov's team appeared in T-shirts with the image of the late Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.

Usman himself and Javier Mendes, the head of the American Kickboxing Academy, wore them.

Only Khabib, who came out in clothes from Reebok, did not follow their example.

The second most important match at the tournament was the fight between Vitaly Minakov and Said Souma, which at first rather resembled a meeting of fighters of different weight categories.

The Russian significantly surpassed the opponent in size and literally drove him around the cage throughout the first round.

In the end, it seemed at all that the ex-Bellator champion would win a second early victory in a row.

Having missed another blow, the native of Suriname landed on the canvas, but still managed to endure the gong.

However, in the second segment, the initiative suddenly shifted to the written underdog. Minakov missed a low-kick on his left leg and limped, which indicated serious injury. The logical decision was to change the stance, thereby reducing the risk of worsening the injury. However, Vitaly did not resort to such tricks and continued to work as the first number, while Souma did not stop attacking the injured limb of his former sparring partner. A hematoma developed, and Vitaly himself slowed down a lot and started to miss a lot.

It seemed that in such a difficult situation Minakov should have turned to his wrestling skills, but he stubbornly continued to work on his feet.

Thus, giving Souma more and more chances to win.

And in the end this led to extremely negative consequences.

In one of the episodes, Vitaly broke his finger, and the attempt to straighten it was unsuccessful.

The referee examined the hand of the former Bellator champion and decided to end the battle.

It is all the more remarkable that a minute later the doctor who arrived in time set his finger to Minakov, who expressed his readiness to continue fighting.

But it was too late.

Vitaly suffered his second career defeat and missed the opportunity to return to the Bellator heavyweight elite.