Brian “The Professional Predator” welcomed Brazilian Rafael Carvalho to Bellator tonight by accepting roughly thirty unanswered punches to the head in the first round before the referee figured that was enough and stepped in to stop the fight.
Rogers came out looking very impressive. He appeared prepared, ready, and confident as he threw furious combinations at the newcomer. Carvalho entered Bellator on a 9 fight winning streak, but appeared to be more hesitant than such a streak would give to the typical fighter. Carvalho appeared to try to weather the storm until it could get to the ground, or until Rogers would (notoriously) gas from the bombardment he was unleashing.
Rogers hit a take down and landed in top side control where I thought Carvalho would look to keep it—but that would not be the case. Carvalho weathered the Hurricane Rogers until he saw an opening and stunned Rogers with a straight left. Carvalho then went full Schwarznegger (or Glover, or Brody, which ever human you prefer that thwarts the Predator) on Rogers and unloaded a 30-Hit-Combo that I haven’t seen since the days of Street Fighter Alpha.
Rogers, of course, felt the stoppage was too soon. But the fact of the matter is he wasn’t improving his situation (of getting repeatedly punched in the face) and he wasn’t intelligently defending himself. While he may have been fine, had some ‘fight’ left in him, and might have just been waiting it out, the referee had no choice but to stop the fight at that point; and, in my opinion it was a good stoppage. So whether you agree with the stoppage or not, let that be a lesson to all you young fans: either beat the living mess out of someone or stop getting hit in the face. “The more you know.”
Replay from Zprophet:
