A night of great fights and some controversy Bellator 277 delivered and we have a new Champion at Featherweight
Bellator had a great fight card for the fans on Friday night in San Jose, we were left with a bitter taste in our mouths, with the Light Heavyweight Grand Prix final: including Nadim Volkov vs Corey Anderson, sadly ending in a No contest. due to an accidental headbutt by Anderson as he came into the guard of Nemkov in the dying moments of round 3.
While the bout lasted it was a great back and forth affair. Clearly looked like it was going in the favor of Corey Anderson, as he looked like he was beginning to really control the fight, until it abruptly ended. On the clock there was 3 seconds left to end round 3, where if it did the judges would have gone to a decision based on the first 3 rounds, however, they had to rule it a No Contest. With that, the final of the Grand Prix was left undecided along with who the One Million Dollars Prize Money goes to.
The other headline bout on the card was for the Featherweight world championship between the young Champion AJ Mckee and the Brazilian MMA legend, Patricio Pitbull. The older fighter was the underdog coming into this title bout. There was a lot of pressure on Pitbull coming into this one as in their first bout 8 months ago he was choked out by his rival in the first round after being dropped.
So coming into the rematch there were doubts and many counted Pitbull out, with some serious trash talk from AJ Mckee vowing to take the legacy of the Pitbull brothers and destroy it. Planning on fighting Patricio’’s brother after this one. There was a lot of bad blood in the build-up between these two elite fighters.
After a fantastic performance where he was patient and able to outpoint the young champion without too much hassle, actually showing Pitbull had better cardio over the stretch and it was quite clear when it went to the judges who won the bout. Thus Pitbull continued his amazing record of now 6-0 in rematches and won the Bellator Title for the 3rd time.
A cross-promotional bout between UFC and Bellator with both organizations Featherweight Champions facing off to see who is the number one Featherweight in the world. Truly this is a testament to Bellator and Scott Coker who has really raised the level of Bellator since he arrived. Making Bellator seen as big as the UFC now, especially when it comes to finances as Bellator is owned by Viacom.
The future of MMA looks bright for the Fighters with a clear choice between more than one World-class league, and being a free agent they can shop around more and see what their actual value in the marketplace is. It is something that people involved in the Sport have been protesting for years about.
