Welterweight Tournament gets off to Grinding Start a Bellator 74
At last night’s Bellator 74, the opening round of the welterweight tournament saw three of the four welterweight tournament bouts go the distance in grinding fashion. The four welterweight tournament bouts made of the Bellator 74 main card, which took place at the Caesar’s Atlantic City in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The lone welterweight fight to end in a finish saw Bellator newcomer Michail Tsarev defeat Tim Welch by way of second round submission. Welch could not solve the style of the Russian and despite coming out aggressive he never got anything started. Tsarev is known for his submission ground game and in the second round he displayed that ground game and scored a rear naked choke.
Opening the Bellator 74 main card was another Russian Andrey Koreshkov, as he also advanced to the semifinals with a unanimous decision win over Jordan Smith. The win was Koreshkov’s third inside the Bellator cage and kept his unbeaten record intact. Smith put Koreshkov in a few bad spots in the opening round but once he escaped he was never in trouble again.
The Bellator 74 co-main event saw the former Dream champion Marius Zaromskis and Nordine Taleb go back and forth for 15 minutes. Each fighter was making their third Bellator appearance and for Zaromskis is was by far the best he’s looked with the promotion. The closest of the four tournament bouts was still anyone fight to fight as the final minutes ticked off the clock. When the judges scores were read off they saw it for Zaromskis, handing Taleb only his second career defeat.
The Bellator 74 main event saw the promotions first ever welterweight champion Lyman Good deliver a one-sided decision win against the always dangerous Jim Wallhead. Good won every single round but did loss a point in the final round (with 3 seconds left) for a low blow. The former champion continually closed the distance and had Wallhead against the cage. He’s now one step closer to getting “his” belt back.
Match ups for the welterweight tournament semifinals have yet to be announced but look for Bellator to make that announcement shortly.
Prior to the main card there were six preliminary bouts that streamed live on Spike.com:
Will Martinez defeated Casey Johnson by 1st rd. Submission (rear-naked choke)
Michelle Ould defeated Munah Holland by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Alexandre “Popo” Bezerra defeated Matt McCook by 1st rd. Submission (rear-naked choke)
Phillipe Nover defeated Derrick Kennington by 1st rd. Technical Submission (rear-naked choke)
Brylan Van Artsdalen defeated Jay Haas by 1st rd. Submission (guillotine choke)
Claudio Ledesma defeated Kenny Foster by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
The Bellator 74 event opened the promotions seventh season, which will be their last one before moving over from MTV2 to Spike in 2013.
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