Bellator 24 kicks off heavyweight, women’s tournaments
Bellator Fighting Championships is kicking off its third season on Thursday with Bellator XXIV, a card which will showcase its middleweight champion likely picking up an easy victory, as well as kicking off a heavyweight tournament, and finally giving a nearly obscure 115lb women’s division some exposure.
Hector Lombard vs Herbert Goodman
Hector Lombard has now won 18 fights in his last 19 (the sole blemish being a draw against Kyle Noke) and it doesn’t seem like he’s in terrible danger of breaking his undefeated streak here. He’s been put in against Herbert Goodman, a 16-8 former NFL player, and is being set as an 18-1 favourite.
Goodman has won six of his past seven fights, but those were against virtual unknowns. Pitting Goodman against Lombard shows the relative dearth of middleweight talent available outside of the UFC and Strikeforce, which have locked up almost all of the 185lb talent. Lombard’s last fight saw him take on Jay Silva, whom he despatched in all of six seconds, recording the fastest knockout in Bellator’s history. Look for him to destroy Goodman. But this isn’t meant to be a competitive match- it’s simply meant to lend big name spotlight to the other fights on the card.
The flyweight women’s tournament
In mixed martial arts, it tends to be the lighter weight classes that get less attention. Lightweight doesn’t command as much attention as heavyweight. It gets even worse for lower division like featherweight and bantamweight, at 145lb and 135lb respectively.
For women’s MMA, getting attention is even harder. So imagine the difficulty that a 115lb women’s division has in getting any interest generated in it. Bellator is betting they can change that though as they kick off a women’s flyweight tournament. Fortunately, they’ll have Megumi Fujii, considered the best pound-for-pound female fighter on the planet, having won every single one of her 20 pro fights, to lead the way. A virtual unknown stateside (thus far the only interest in lighter women’s weight classes is in Japan), she’ll be taking on wrestler Carla Esparza (3-0) to kick off the tournament. With Fujii’s absolutely wonderful Brazilian jiu-jitsu prowess, she’ll be comfortable off her back should Esparza use her wrestling to take her down. Esparza will have to try and maintain top control and stay away from submissions, aiming for a conservative decision victory.
Seventh-ranked Jessica Aguilar will come in as a favourite against ninth-ranked Lynn “Lights Out” Alvarez in the other fight that features two of the best non-Japanese flyweights.
With most of the quality 135lb and 145lb women’s fighters locked up by Strikeforce, it seems Bellator is trying to work around them by promoting the untapped flyweight division. This first card will be crucial to build interest and see if their strategy pays off.
Heavyweights set to square off
Another tournament which will be kicking off is the men’s heavyweight tournament. Bellator has assembled a pretty good roster for the competition, which kicks off Thursday with British stand-out Neil Grove taking on former UFC vet Eddie Sanchez. Grove fought once for the UFC, losing at UFC 95, but does hold a victory over current UFC fighter James McSweeney. He holds a black belt in Goju-ryu karate.
Sanchez on the other hand has a more impressive resume, which includes a 3-3 record in the UFC. Sanchez is a pretty durable fighter, and given the generally higher level of competition he’s faced, he should be able to take Grove here and advance to the semi-finals of the eight-man tournament.
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