Ryan
Bader made certain a true all-time great walked off into the
sunset empty-handed.
The two-time NCAA All-American successfully defended his undisputed
Bellator
MMA heavyweight championship, as he stopped the retiring
Fedor
Emelianenko with punches in the first round of their
Bellator 290 headliner on Saturday at The Forum in Inglewood,
California. In the final appearance of his incredible career,
Emelianenko (40-7, 4-3 Bellator)
succumbed to blows 2:30 into Round 1.
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Bader (31-7, 9-2 Bellator) wisely steered clear of the Russian’s
fabled overhand right and picked his spots. He backed up
Emelianenko with punches, then floored him with a glancing right
behind the ear. Bader set up shop in top position, cut loose with
ground-and-pound and eventually trapped the former Pride Fighting
Championships titleholder’s arm behind him before closing it out
with unanswered punches to the face.
In the co-main event, Johnny
Eblen kept his perfect professional record intact and retained
the undisputed Bellator middleweight championship with a clear-cut
unanimous decision over Anatoly
Tokov at 185 pounds. All three members of the cageside
judiciary struck scorecards for Eblen (13-0, 9-0 Bellator): 50-45,
49-46 and 49-46.
Repeated takedowns, soul-crushing mat returns and punishing
ground-and-pound tipped the Eblen spear. Tokov (31-3, 7-1 Bellator)
made some inroads in the second round but saw his gains offset when
the undefeated American Top Team standout decked him with a
standing elbow in the center of the cage. From there, it was all
downhill for the former Absolute Championship Berkut titleholder.
Eblen took him down with increasing ease in the fourth and fifth
rounds, punctuating his performance with a picture-perfect
belly-to-back suplex in the closing seconds of the fight.
The loss was Tokov’s first since Dec. 9, 2016 and snapped his
seven-fight winning streak.
Meanwhile, a resurgent Brennan
Ward disposed of American Top Team’s Sabah
Homasi with
a head kick and follow-up punches in the second round of their
welterweight showcase. Ward (17-6, 11-6 Bellator) drew
the curtain 1:34 into Round 2.
Homasi (17-11, 6-5 Bellator) established his foothold with a series
of kicks to the legs and knees to the head but failed to make a
dent in his counterpart’s resolve. Ward shifted gears with
takedowns, jumped to the back on multiple occasions and cut loose
with jabs and hooks once the two welterweights returned to their
feet. He floored Homasi with a stiff jab at the start of the second
round, bailed on a guillotine choke and went to work with
elbow-laced ground-and-pound, opening a significant cut on the New
Jersey native’s forehead. Ward stepped back into open space when
the finish did not present itself, dropped Homasi with a head kick
and flurried with punches on the ground until referee Blake Grice
had seen enough.
The 34-year-old Ward has rattled off three straight victories since
returning from close to a five-year absence in February 2022.
In preliminary action, Lorenz
Larkin (25-7, 7-2 Bellator) cut down Mukhamed
Berkhamov (14-1, 1-1 Bellator) with
an elbow strike 1:41 into the first round of their welterweight
pairing; Nikita
Mikhailov (9-2, 3-1 Bellator) took a unanimous decision from
Darrion
Caldwell (15-7, 12-6 Bellator) in a three-round bantamweight
tilt, drawing 29-28 scores from all three judges; Christopher
Gonzalez (8-2, 7-2 Bellator) put away Max
Rohskopf (7-2, 0-1 Bellator) with
punches 1:22 into the second round of their lightweight
encounter; Grant Neal
(8-1, 7-1 Bellator) was awarded a split verdict—28-29, 29-28,
29-28—over Karl
Albrektsson (13-5, 2-3 Bellator) in a three-round light
heavyweight clash; Diana
Avsaragova (6-0, 4-0 Bellator) eked out a split decision—29-28,
28-29, 29-28—over Alejandra
Lara (9-7, 3-6 Bellator) in a three-round women’s flyweight
affair; Henry
Corrales (21-6, 9-6 Bellator) laid claim to a unanimous
decision over Akhmed
Magomedov (9-1, 1-1 Bellator) in a three-round featherweight
confrontation, sweeping the scorecards with 29-28 marks from all
three judges; and Steve Mowry
(10-0-1, 6-0-1 Bellator) fought to a unanimous draw—28-28, 28-28,
28-28—with Ali Isaev
(9-0-1, 0-0-1 Bellator) in a three-round heavyweight scrap.