Corey
Anderson made a successful Bellator
MMA debut against Melvin
Manhoef in the headliner of
Bellator 251.
Anderson (14-5) immediately took down Manhoef (32-15-1, 2 NC) and
pummeled “No Mercy” with punches on the ground. This cycle was
repeated in Round 2, but “Overtime” was
able to land several huge elbows that forced the referee to
step in at 2:34.
The co-main event saw heavyweights Tyrell
Fortune and Said Sowma
face off. Fortune (9-1, 1 NC) was able to get back into the win
column after suffering his first defeat earlier this year. However,
Sowma (6-2) made the bout a competitive one and was the more active
fighter later on. After 15 minutes of action, all three judges
scored the bout 29-28 Fortune.
Middleweight prospect Austin
Vanderford stayed undefeated against Vinicius
de Jesus. The one-sided affair lasted a full 15 minutes as
Vanderford (10-0) was able to outgrapple de Jesus (9-4). Vanderford
took a unanimous decision victory earning scores of 30-26, 30-27
and 30-27.
The main card opened up with a welterweight bout between Derek
Anderson and Killys
Mota. Anderson (17-3, 1 NC) snapped a six-fight decision streak
by knocking out Mota (12-2) with
a beautifully-timed soccer kick at 4:27 of Round 2. While there
was some initial confusion on whether it was legal or not, the KO
stood after instant replay was consulted.
In preliminary action, Georgi
Karakhanyan (30-11-1) won a close split decision (28-29, 29-28,
29-28) over Bryce Logan
(12-5); Alex
Polizzi (7-1) suffered the first loss of his career losing a
unanimous decision to fellow light heavyweight prospect Julius
Anglickas (9-1), who earned 30-27 scorecards across the board;
Janay
Harding (6-5) picked up three 30-27 scorecards in a unanimous
decision win over Jessy Miele
(9-5) at featherweight; Ali Zebian
(5-2) outworked Piankhi
Zimmerman (5-5-1) to earn a unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27,
30-27) in their lightweight bout; Jaylon
Bates won a dominant decision (30-25, 30-27, 30-27) over
Joseph
Supino in what was the debut bout for both bantamweights; and
Sumiko
Inaba made a successful pro debut by
picking up a last-second Round 1 TKO win over fellow flyweight
Jessica
Ruiz (0-2).