This fight between @criscyborg
and @arleneangerfist
has it all! 🌶#Bellator279
is LIVE on @SHOsports
pic.twitter.com/Plp9Y3huPA— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA)
April 24, 2022
Arlene
Blencowe wore various shades of red and purple on her face and
body. A gash above her left eye needed a bridge to cover the
expanse. Her nose was bloodied and battered. Yet after 20 minutes
in the cage with Cris
Cyborg at
Bellator 279, the stout 39-year-old Australian pounded her
chest and wanted more.
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Against Cyborg, generally speaking, there’s always more hurt if
that’s what you’re looking for, and Blencowe got what she wanted.
By the end of the fifth round Saturday evening at the venerable
Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Cyborg (26-2) had done more
than enough to earn a sweeping unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45,
49-45). A point deduction in the opening round was the only blemish
for the Brazilian mauler, who scored her fourth consecutive
Bellator
MMA featherweight title defense in punishing style.
Blencowe (15-9) fell short on her second attempt at winning the
Brazilian great’s Bellator featherweight title, but unlike their
encounter in 2020 she avoided getting stopped.
“Thanks to Arlene for the nice battle tonight,” said the
36-year-old Cyborg. “I’m just happy for the decision.”
She seemed to enjoy the war, too, and smiled as Blencowe absorbed
kicks and punches, tossing big throws, and showing once again that
she has not lost any heat on her fastball.
The only drama at the end was in regards to Blencowe’s fate. At the
end, after the scorecards were read, Blencowe welled up and was
consoled by her coaches.
The champion, meanwhile, was keen to look forward.
“I’m just looking for the biggest fight,” Cyborg said. “I don’t
care if it’s going to be Cat Zingano,
or Amanda
Nunes or Kayla
Harrison. I don’t know next. I just want the big fights for my
fans.”
The opening salvo in the latest million dollar Bellator tournament
also garnered deserved headlines, as Raufeon
Stots and Patrick Mix
advanced to the semifinal round later this year.
Stots cracked Juan
Archuleta with a knee to the top of the head before jumping on
top of his opponent and crashing a pair of elbows to the face,
forcing the referee to end their Bellator interim bantamweight
title contest 16 seconds into the third round.
With Sergio
Pettis injured and out of the Bellator bantamweight world grand
prix, the promotion maintained the tournament’s five-round format
by making Stots versus Archuleta for a belt.
Archuleta, who lost the title to Pettis 11 months ago, came out
fast attempting to physically dominate Stots. Both men scored and
worked through a variety of clinch and grappling exchanges.
To start the third, Stots threw a high kick as Archuleta (25-4)
moved in, changing the space between them allowing the knee to
connect. The “Spaniard” stumbled backwards and Stots gave him no
quarter.
Stots (18-1) is scheduled to defend the belt against the grand prix
winner between Leandro
Higo and Danny
Sabatello, who fight for the right June 24 at the Mohegan
Sun.
On the other side of the eight-man bracket, Mix stood a half-foot
taller than Kyoji
Horiguchi and looked every bit of it. That length and leverage
paid off most often in grappling sequences. Mix spent 80% of the
first round on Horiguchi’s back, using a body triangle to maintain
position and threaten the former Bellator bantamweight champion’s
neck on several occasions.
When Horiguchi kept Mix off of him, the Japanese fighter appeared
to sort out distance, timing and rhythm. That formula worked three
minutes into the third until Mix dove at Horiguchi’s legs and again
locked up back control.
An inadvertent head butt in Round 3 opened a cut over Mix’s right
eye, and a knee up the middle by Mix in the fourth cut Horiguchi
above his left eye.
Hoping to seal the win, Mix, 28, went after an early takedown in
the fifth round. The pair scrambled in and out of submission
attempts, and it was Mix’s submission wrestling game that earned
him the unanimous decision nod, 48-47 across the board, with the
first, third and fifth periods going to the winner on each judge’s
card. The result put Horiguchi on a two-fight skid for the first
time in his highly regarded career.
“It was tough,” said Mix, whose third straight win after his first
defeat to Archuleta in 2020. “He was well prepared. I knew he was
going to be well trained. I knew I had to go five.”
“My favorite thing is proving people wrong. I was an underdog. I
told my coaches before the fight, I’m not an underdog. I’m a dog.
I’m a dog.”
Mix faces either Magomed
Magomedov or Enrique
Barzola depending on the winner of their bout at Bellator
282.
Stepping into the Bellator cage for the first time since losing the
promotion’s flyweight belt to Juliana
Velasquez in the same building at the end of 2020, Ilima-Lei
Macfarlane did not do enough in the eyes of the judges to avoid
her second career loss.
Judges were unanimous for Kish (30-27, 29-28, 29-28). Loser of five
of her last six bouts before upsetting Bellator’s No. 1 ranked
female flyweight, Kish (8-5) had no problems grappling with
Macfarlane (11-2), in the Hawaiian’s first bout since knee surgery
last July. Kish scored on each of her four takedown attempts and
denied the three that came her way.
In Round 3, after getting clipped and briefly going down to the
canvas, Kish recovered into a double-leg that landed her in top
control, effectively stymying any chance of a late comeback by “The
Ilimanator.”
Making his first appearance outside the Octagon since 2013, another
Hawaiian favorite, Yancy
Medeiros went toe to toe with Bellator mainstay Emmanuel
Sanchez. The Hawaiian snapped a four-fight losing streak, the
longest of his career, with a compelling points victory (29-28,
30-27, 30-27) that spoiled Sanchez’s lightweight debut.
Twice a runner-up for the Bellator featherweight belt, Sanchez’s
output and forward pressure brought the most out of Medeiros, who
welcomed exchanges in the center of the cage when he wasn’t fending
off takedowns. With his friend and training partner Nate Diaz
seated cage-side, Medeiros (16-8) unleashed his jab, making the
most of a five-inch reach advantage over the shorter Sanchez
(20-8).
Fighting at welterweight for the first time in 12 years as a
professional, all-time Bellator submission leader Goiti
Yamauchi (27-5) earned his ninth with the promotion, tapping
Levan
Chokheli (10-2) at 3:49 of the opening round with a swinging
armbar from the bottom. Said the 29-year-old Brazilian, who
previously campaigned at 145 and 155 pounds, “I guarantee to you at
welterweight I will be more dangerous.” Leave it to Yamauchi to net
the lone finish on the undercard.
Lance
Gibson, Jr. (6-0) remained on the ascent, starting the night
unanimously outpointing Nainoa Dung
(4-3). Justin
Gonzales improved to 13-1, taking a split decision against
Kai
Kamaka III (9-5). Dayana
Silva (10-7) decisioned Janay
Harding (6-6). And Bobby King
outlasted Keoni Diggs
to walk away with a hard-fight split decision.