Bellator 158: Douglas Lima deflates Paul Daley’s dreams as MMA company makes strong UK bow

While the Ultimate Fighting Championship - fresh off its sale for a staggering four billion dollars - is the undisputed king of mixed martial arts, there remain several other promotions keeping their heads above water. Bellator is arguably the strongest of the chasing pack, and on Saturday they followed the UFC in making their UK debut.

Though their original card fell apart thanks to Josh Koscheck withdrawing injured from his grudge bout with Britain’s Paul Daley and the unfortunate passing away of Kimbo Slice, Bellator 158 succeeded in delivering the type of card that would please ardent fight fans and tempt casual observers who got their hands on a ticket or watched on delay via Channel Five to keep tabs on the company and some of their top fighters.

Daley was moved up to main event billing, now up against Brazil’s Douglas Lima in a fight which would determine a challenger for welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov, one day after the Russian’s reign reached the one year mark.

Unfortunately for the partisan crowd here in England, former champion Lima moved closer to regaining that title with a polished performance in an exciting main event, getting the better of the first two hard-hitting rounds before using several well-timed takedowns to ground Daley and his hopes of landing the stoppage he needed in the third and final five-minute period.

Despite the home hope’s failed quest in the card’s headliner, Bellator 158 succeeded as a standalone event and as a way of preventing a big moment for the company turning into a nightmare voyage. It’s fair to say that a second Bellator show here in the United Kingdom would probably do improved business.

The main card kicked off with 19-year-old Northern Irishman James Gallagher extending his fledgling MMA record to 4-0 with a three-round unanimous decision at a catchweight over Mike Cutting (6-6). Highly-rated prospect Gallagher had won all of his first three bouts in the opening round via submission, but had to settle for a one-sided distance exhibition against a man who was happy to spend half the time backpedalling away from his opponent. Gallagher gave an emotional post-fight interview inside the cage after his win, as his promising career continues to gather momentum and publicity.

Next up was crowd favourite welterweight Michael ‘Venom’ Page - or MVP for short - who weathered a tough first round against Brazil’s Cyborg Santos before landing his seventh KO and 10th finish inside the distance in 11 unbeaten bouts via a fantastic low-flying knee to his lunging opponent. From his entrance through his fights to his post-bout interviews, MVP is magnetism personified and his profile is only going to keep growing.

Many in attendance used the next bout, a light-heavyweight contest between Lukasz Klinger of Poland and French-Canadian Francis Carmont as a chance to catch their breath. Carmont didn’t allow this for very long, however - with MMA legend Georges St-Pierre in his corner, the 34-year-old controlled the fight for four minutes before slapping on a D’Arce choke for the tap-out.

In the chief support bout, heavyweights Matt Mitrione and Oli Thompson traded audible blows for the entirety of their bruising opening round. American Mitrione got the better of those first five minutes and, after a slow start from both in the next round as they understandably searched for a second wind, Eastbourne’s Thompson wasn’t able to find it first and succumbed to a barrage of rights and lefts as Mitrione improved his record to 11-5 with his 10th career knockout.

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In prelim results…

London’s own Michael Shipman drew at least a hundred or so fans into the O2 for the very first fight, some three and a half hours before the main card began. He didn’t disappoint, either - quickly overwhelming Dom Clark with strikes before tapping him out in round one with an anaconda choke to move to 9-1. ‘Italian Stallion’ Pietro Menga’s unbeaten record extended to 13 in sudden fashion, knocking Spencer Hewitt out cold with a vicious short left after just 41 seconds.

Liverpool’s unbeaten Dean Gartnett just about protected his ‘0’ in an enjoyable and bloody three-rounder against Luiz Tosta which was ruled a majority draw by the judges. It then took Jason Radcliffe just 14 seconds to stop Jack Mason with a wicked pair of knees to the head.

Chase Morton gained a degree of fame as the ‘singing martial artist’ on The Voice. So much so that he actually sang his way down to the ring, providing the lyrics to his own entrance music. His voicebox was eventually on the wrong end of a rear-naked choke in a third-round defeat to Nathaniel Wood.

Danny Mitchell tapped out CJ Meeks towards the end of their first round with the rarely-seen ‘Twister’ head-and-arm-vice submission, before dedicating the win to his father who passed away shortly after ‘The Cheesecake Monster’ last fought at the O2. Heavyweights James Mulheron and Neil Grove then brought the gradually-filling arena to their collective feet in a super-physical big man slugfest. Mulheron’s low centre of gravity and relative youth (aged 28 to Grove’s 45) proved decisive in a unanimous decision victory.

Alex Reid was involved in the final prelim bout on display - yes, he of Celebrity Big Brother and Katie Price fame - but was comfortably defeated via unanimous decision by fellow fortysomething Manuel Garcia of Oviedo, Spain. The bout wasn’t particularly enjoyable, meaning that six of eight preliminary contests delivered the goods - and the two that didn’t featured crossover TV personalities.