Bellator 206 Main Card Preview

Welterweight Champion Rory MacDonald Will Challenge Middleweight Champion Gegard Mousasi On September 29 And This Is Arguably The Biggest Fight In Bellator History

Fan favorite Rory MacDonald jump up to 185lbs to make his much-anticipated middleweight debut and become a two-weight world champion. MacDonald boasts wins over the likes of current UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, Demian Maia, BJ Penn, Nate Diaz, and the list goes on and on. His impressive fighting style wins over fans across the world, and if you’ve never watched him fight, then watch MacDonald v Lawler 2, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest fights of all time, you can thank me later. With 7 KO/TKOs and seven submissions to his name, MacDonald can finish this fight from anywhere.

However, a certain Gegard Mousasi may disagree with this statement as he has finished 37 of his 44 wins with an epic 25 TKO/KOs to his name. Coming off a dominant 1st round knockout of Rafael Carvalho at Bellator 200, with 52 fights to his name, the kickboxing phenom walks into this fight as the champion while being named the favorite. Gegard Mousasi is one of the only fighters in mixed martial arts to be able to combat Macdonald’s resume, picking up wins over Dan Henderson, Chris Weidman, Vitor Belfort, Ilir Latifi and (yes, the massive UFC heavyweight beast) Mark Hunt. That is set to be a great standup fight with whoever emerges victorious will be able to set their name in stone in MMA as a legend of the sport. It is impossible to argue that this fight isn’t a super fight when these two titans of MMA collide on the 29th of September, you will not want to miss it. This is going to be massive.

Secondly, light heavyweight gods turned heavyweight monsters are set to square off for the fourth time, this is, of course, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Vs. Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva IV. The rivalry dates back 15 years to the days of Pride, with scores currently sit at 2-1 to Silva with Jackson hoping to tie the scores sensationally. With Silva flirting with the idea of retirement, Jackson’s opinion on the matter was that he wanted to “retire Wanderlei once and for all,” clearly showing no love lost over the years between the two. Both fighters bring a style of wild brawling to the cage with both fighters continually seeking the killer blow to finish their opponent. Don’t expect this one to go the distance as a finish is inevitable but the question is: who will land the killer shot first?

Saturday’s main card also hosts the start of the exciting new Welterweight Grand Prix with the opening round being an intriguing third fight between Douglas Lima and Andrey Koreshkov. It’s one a piece in the rivalry between these two extremely high leveled fighters as the Brazilian two-time welterweight world champion Douglas Lima hopes to smash through Koreshkov and end this trilogy with no doubt. Brutal striking and incredible jiu-jitsu has gained Lima a #4 spot in the welterweight rankings, in his last fight against Rory Macdonald at Bellator 192, despite losing, he put on an incredible display of leg kicks which led to Macdonald had to be carried out of the cage after the fight, claiming it was “the worst pain he’d ever felt”. However, don’t sleep on Koreshkov’s stand up skills or he’ll put you to sleep as his insanely quick hands have slept twelve of his 21 opponents. This 5 round fight is being tipped as an impressive opener to the Grand Prix with the eagerly anticipated trilogy certainly having the potential to steal the fight of the night from the main event.

The second fight of the main card consists of the exhilarating featherweight prospect Aaron Pico fighting the vastly experienced Leandro Higo. Former wrestling world champion Pico is competing in his fifth MMA bout and is riding a massive wave of momentum after his last three fights have all ended in huge knockouts. Pico is clearly comparable to a bantamweight version of UFC middleweight Yoel Romero with his one-shot knockout power and world-class wrestling.

It is easy to overlook Leandro Higo in this fight with Pico currently riding the hype train towards the featherweight title; however, Leandro Higo hopes to derail this train in style. Being brought up on a Brazilian jiu-jitsu background, Higo has ten submissions to his name, so it is likely that Higo will attempt to take down Pico and implement his ground game. It’s certain this bout could end in a number of ways but it is impossible to state which way it could stop as Pico’s only loss was on his debut by submission so on Saturday night we will indeed find out if Pico has improved his ground game.

Opening the main card, a fascinating women’s flyweight bout between debutant Dakota Zimmerman and highly skilled striker Keri Melendez is set to take place and show how entertaining the women’s flyweight division can be. Melendez hopes to welcome Zimmerman to Bellator by stopping her in quick fashion, but underdog Zimmerman may have other ideas. Also, Bellator 206 sees featherweights Gaston Bolanos and Ysidro Gutierrez looking to steal the show. Both fighters are early in their professional career and are going to be eager to make an impression on the record audience Bellator is expecting on Saturday night after securing deals with DAZN TV and Channel 5 in the UK. Be sure not to sleep on this fight as it is going to kick off a truly awesome night of main card fights.

Bellator 206 is set to take place at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., tomorrow night (Sat., Sept. 29, 2018).

Published on September 28, 2018 at 3:17 pm
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