Total. Domination.
The featherweight title has been defended and @criscyborg
gets her first win by submission. pic.twitter.com/qaA6PsJEe2— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet)
October 16, 2020
Cristiane
Justino is still the Bellator
MMA women’s featherweight champion and picked up her first
submission win in the process. “Cyborg” put the title she won from Julia Budd
on the line against challenger Arlene
Blencowe. Justino (23-2, 1 NC) took her opponent down midway
through Round 1 and easily gained mount. After transitioning to the
back, the Brazilian was able to unleash powerful punches. The tough
challenger survived the first round but it set the pace the fight
would follow.
Justino opened Round 2 by bloodying up Blencowe (13-8) on the feet
with an incredible flurry of punches and then took her opponent
down. Heavy shots from mount forced the Australian to give up her
back and “Cyborg” locked in a rear-naked choke at 2:36 of the
round. This marks the first submission win for the champion.
Outside of the main event, there was some late drama at
Bellator 249. The scheduled co-main event between Patricky
Freire and Jaleel
Willis was scrapped by the Mohegan Sun Commission, which did
not medically clear “Pitbull” to fight. Per Sherdog’s own Keith Shillan, Bellator will compensate both
fighters despite the late cancellation. The removal saw Ricky
Bandejas vs. Leandro
Higo bumped up to the co-main event slot as a result.
It was the grappling of Higo (20-5) that proved to be the
difference against Bandejas (13-5), as the Brazilian easily
controlled his foe on the ground. Higo took the American down early
in Round 2 and took the back, where he locked in a rear-naked choke
that forced a tap at 2:32. While it was a dominant win for Higo, it
comes with an asterisk as the fighter missed weight by three
pounds.
Heavyweights Steve
Mowry and Shawn Teed
threw down in their bout, which was elevated from the prelims to
the main card. Mowry (8-0) repeatedly tagged Teed (6-3-1) with
knees in Round 1 and had a clear striking advantage from the
get-go. A big knee up the middle would end Teed’s night at the 4:22
mark of the first round.
The main card opener saw lightweights Saad Awad and
Mandel
Nallo face off. Sadly, the fight never got into full gear as
Nallo (7-1-1, 1 NC) accidentally kneed Awad (23-13-1, 1 NC) in the
groin, which left the Bellator veteran unable to continue. The
fight was called off and declared a no-contest at 1:44 of Round
1.
In preliminary action, Andrew
Kapel (16-7) was awarded a doctor stoppage at the end of Round
2 due to a cut suffered by Joseph
Creer (7-2-1); Kemran
Lachinov (10-2) won a controversial and hard-fought unanimous
decision over Kyle
Crutchmer (6-1) with 29-28 scorecards across the board; The
ground game of Christian
Edwards (4-0) was too much for Hamza Salim
(5-4), who tapped to a rear-naed choke 1:28 into the second round;
Da’Mon
Blackshear (8-3) tapped Mike
Kimbel (3-3) with a rear-naked choke 4:14 into Round 2;
Aviv
Gozali (5-0) stayed undefeated by submitting Logan Neal
(1-1) in just 3:22 with a kimura; and despite suffering a
dislocated arm, Albert
Gonzales (2-2) defeated Kastriot
Xhema (3-5, 1 NC) via retirement after two rounds of action.