The B-League Preview: Bellator 290
No, no, they're saying Bader. Not, BADer.
Bellator 290
Date: Saturday, February 4, 2023
Venue: Kia Forum
Stream/TV: - CBS (USA), Prelims on YouTube
Main Card
Broadcast: CBS, 21:00 PM ET
Heavyweight Title - Ryan “Darth” Bader vs Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko
Bader is 30-7 overall, with 12 TKOs and 3 submission wins, plus 5 TKO and 2 submission losses. He is 8-2 in Bellator, including 5-0 at heavyweight. He’s on a two fight win streak, both successful defenses of his heavyweight title.
Emelianenko is 40-6, with 16 TKO and 15 submission wins, and 5 TKO and 1 submission loss. He’s 4-2 in Bellator, all bouts ending by TKO. He’s on a two-fight, first round finish win streak, having dispatched Rampage Jackson and most recently, Tim Johnson in October 2021.
In addition to being 40-6, Fedor is also 46. His last defeat came at the hands of Bader, getting knocked out in just 35 seconds in 2019. This is allegedly Fedor’s retirement fight, which marks eleven years since he first retired. As for Bader, he’s got everything to lose, and should he lose it all, he should probably also consider retiring.
Middleweight Title - Johnny “The Human Cheat Code” Eblen vs Anatoly Tokov
Eblen is 12-0, with 2 TKO and 4 submission wins. He’s 8-0 in Bellator, where he notched those two strike-based stoppages. He’s a solid grappler with a good wrestling base, which is how he won the 185 lb title, as Gegard Mousasi, despite 20 years in MMA, still can’t defend against wrestlers.
Tokov is 31-3 with 17 TKO and 7 submission wins. His last loss came in 2016, and since then he has rattled off 7 straight wins, all inside the Bellator Circlegon, including 3 TKO and 2 subs.
Tokov feels like a throwback, in that he’s a non-Dagestani Russian with a Combat Sambo background. Seems fitting, here on Fedor’s alleged retirement fight. Tokov’s record isn’t the most impressive when you look at who his competition has fought, but outside of Mousasi, Eblen’s past opponents aren’t anything to write home about, either.
Welterweight - Sabah “The Sleek Sheik” Homasi vs “Irish” Brennan Ward
Homasi is 17-10, with 11 TKO and 3 submission wins, plus 6 TKO and 2 submission losses. He went 0-3 in UFC, getting knocked out by Tim Means, then twice within 49 days by Abdul Razak Alhassan, which just seems unfair, especially to cut someone after that. He’s 6-4 in Bellator, including a current two-fight, first round finish streak.
Ward is 16-6, boasting 11 knockouts and 2 submission wins. He has 2 knockout and 4 submission losses as well. Ward is 11-6 in Bellator, including 8 TKOs and 3 submission wins. Since his return to the cage after getting sober, Ward is on a 2-fight win streak, both second round TKO victories.
Ward and Homasi are classic bangers who wanna throw big shots and cuss at their opponents and by god, they are gonna do all of that to kick off the CBS portion of this Bellator card.
Prelims
Broadcast: YouTube, 5:55 PM ET
Welterweight - Neiman Gracie vs Dante Schiro
Gracie is 11-4, with 1 TKO and 9 submission wins. As a Gracie, he has excellent BJJ, and as a Gracie, he is bad at everything else. Last time out, he got knocked out by My Main Man Goiti Yamauchi, and there was much rejoicing.
Schiro is 9-4 with 5 TKO and 3 submission wins. His last contest saw him get choked unconscious by my personal choice for 2022 Submission of the Year, Luca Poclit’s Lucanator Choke, which I will contend is more of a Thing than a damn Buggy choke.
Both guys are grapplers, and both guys have lost to Interim champ Logan Storley. Will they attempt to fight on the ground, or will we get yet another installment of Tepid Kickboxing for 15 Inexorable Minutes?
Welterweight - Lorenz “The Monsoon” Larkin vs Mukhamed “Cherkes” Berkhamov
Larkin is 24-7, with 12 wins coming by TKO. He went 4-0 in Strikeforce, notching a win over the second saddest version of Robbie Lawler (Current Lawler is most saddest), then went 5-5 in the UFC, beating guys like Ponzinibbio, Masvidal, and Magny. He’s gone 6-2 in Bellator, and is on a 6-fight win streak, not counting the no contest in his last bout.
Berkhamov is 15-1 with 2 TKO and 10 submission wins. He has a win over Tofiq Musayev in their Oplot days, bested Jesse “JT$” Taylor in Russia and is now 1-0 in Bellator.
We’ve got a rematch because Larkin clocked Berkhamov with an illegal elbow to the back of the head. Let’s see if Lorenz can continue his winning ways, or if Mukhamed will get sweet revenge.
Featherweight - Henry “OK” Corrales vs Akhmed Magomedov
Corrales is 20-6 with 7 TKO and 6 submission wins. He’s 8-6 in Bellator, but he immediately got launched into the deep end, dropping consecutive fights to Daniel Straus, Emmanuel Sanchez, and Patricio Pitbull. He’s currently on a two-fight win streak, including a technical decision over Aiden Lee, which got called early because of an accidental eye poke.
Magomedov is 10-0, with 2 TKO and 4 submission wins. He is 1-0 in Bellator, submitting Kevin Boehm in July.
Corrales clearly has more experience, especially at a higher level, but he’s also 10 years older, and age isn’t very kind to the lighter weight classes.
Heavyweight - Steve Mowry vs Ali Isaev
Mowry is 10-0 with 4 TKO and 6 submission wins. He’s 6-0 in Bellator, not counting the no contest due to an eye poke under one minute into the fight. His opponents haven’t been the greatest, but he’s dispatched them all with his incredible height.
Isaev is 9-0 with 4 TKO wins. He went 5-0 in PFL, winning the 2019 title with a 4th round KO over Jared Rosholt. He has not competed at all since then, pulling out of multiple fights in the 2021 and 2022 PFL seasons.
Isaev has beat better people than Mowry, but he’s also been inactive for over three years. Plus, it’s my dude, Tall Steve, gotta go with Tall Steve at all times.
Lightweight - Chris “CG” Gonzalez vs Max “Rated R” Rohskopf
Gonzalez is 7-2, with 2 TKO and 1 submission win. He’s 6-2 in Bellator, most recently losing to Usman Nurmagomedov by choke in July.
Rohskopf is 7-1 with 1 TKO and 5 submission wins. He went 0-1 in the UFC, losing by retirement against Austin Hubbard, and by refusing to get off the stool for the third round, he was instantly served his walking papers. He went 2-0 in Cage Warriors in 2021, but hasn’t fought since then, partly due to that pesky Covid-19, and also various other hurdles to prevent a fight from taking place.
Rohskopf’s most notable win on his record is Zach Zane, and Zane is only notable because he’s just A Guy who shows up to get beat. Gonzalez has defeated folks like Saad Awad and Roger Huerta, both of which would be far more impressive if they had occurred about 10 years ago.
Light Heavyweight - Grant “The Truth” Neal vs “King” Karl Albrektsson
Neal is 7-1, with 1 TKO and 3 submission wins. He’s 6-1 in Bellator, losing only to Alex Polizzi by split decision. He bounced back from that defeat with a win over Christian Edwards in April. Most notably, he beat Tyree Fortune by rear naked choke. Two lesser-known brothers of more impressive fighters, duking it out, as Moosin, God of Martial Arts intended!
Albrektsson is 13-4, with 6 TKO and 3 submission wins. He went 3-2 in Rizin, beating Vadim Nemkov, but he did get punched out by Jiri Prochazka. He’s 2-2 in Bellator, including a win over Viktor Nemkov, but he also got TKO’d by Phil Davis by taking elbows from back mount.
Neal is not a Nemkov, so it seems unlikely for Albrektsson to win here.
Flyweight - Diana “Pantera” Avsaragova vs Alejandra “Azul” Lara
Avsaragova is 5-0, with 1 TKO and 1 submission win. She is 3-0 in Bellator, most recently besting the severely undersized Kyara Batara last March.
Lara is 9-6, with 4 TKO and 3 submission wins. She is 3-5 in Bellator, including a pair of split decision losses. She’s lost her last 3, and hasn’t notched a victory since December 2019.
Lara may be on a bad skid, but those losses are mostly to top level competition.
Bantamweight - Darrion “The Wolf” Caldwell vs Nikita Mikhailov
Caldwell is 14-6 with 2 TKO and 5 submission wins. He’s 11-5 in Bellator, with 5 submission wins. He’s currently on a 3-fight losing skid.
Mikhailov is 9-2, with 3 TKO wins. He’s 2-1 in Bellator.
Both guys have lost to Enrique Barzola in their last sorties. Caldwell shouldn’t be in too much trouble, though, as Mikhailov doesn’t appear to be a danger to choke him out when Darrion sticks his neck somewhere it doesn’t belong, as is his penchant.
Bantamweight - Jaylon “New Breed” Bates vs Jornel “A1” Lugo
Bates is 6-0, all fights inside the Bellator Circlegon, and he’s notched 4 submission wins. Are any of these people people you have ever heard of? Look, man, why you gotta ask questions nobody wants the answer to?
Lugo is 8-1 with 1 TKO and 2 submission wins. He’s 5-1 in Bellator, most recently losing to Danny Sabatello. He does, however, have a win over current TikTok food review megastar Keith Lee (Not the big wrestler, the little fighter)
I have heard of these men and I have seen them fight, yet I cannot recall their techniques or tendencies. The memories no longer stick firm in my brain, but simply wash away like the tide.
Featherweight - Isaiah “The Central Valley Gangster” Hokit vs Peter “Wasabi” Ishiguro
Hokit is 2-1, losing his Bellator debut by 10-second KO, but he rebounded with a first round RNC over “Headtaker” Macuka, and then a second round TKO against Matias Nader.
Ishiguro is 2-1, and 1-1 in Bellator. He’s on a one-fight win streak, but that came back in 2019.
Unsure why Ishiguro has not fought in so long, but I don’t like his chances against Hokit, who has looked very solid, minus that early setback in his pro debut.
Welterweight - Ethan Hughes vs Yusu Karakaya
Hughes is 3-0 with 2 TKOs and 1 submission win. He’s 1-0 in Bellator, grounding and pounding Mahmoud Fawzy Sebie in his promotional debut in November 2021.
Karakaya is 1-0, submitting Ali Damak in his only fight in 2019.
Both guys have very little in terms of experience or recent fight history. As always, the Bellator Prelim Ritual Sacrifice Hour must find new blood to satiate the ever-hungry gods of violence and destruction.