Featherweight finals top Bellator 68

Marlon Sandro.jpg

(Marlon Sandro)

The big fights may be over for Bellator’s season 6 (Alvarez/Aoki,Chandler/Gono) but that puts more emphasis on the tournaments with BFC 68holding the finals at featherweight and one semifinal at bantamweight.  BFC 68 takes place at Caesar’s Hotel andCasino in Atlantic City, NJ with an undercard webcast on Spike.com and a maincard televised on MTV2.

Daniel StrausMarlon Sandro and Daniel Straus both had strong performances in thefeatherweight quarterfinals and semifinals with Straus picking up decisionsover Jeremy Spoon and Mike Corey while Sandro submitted Roberto Vargas beforewinning a decision over Alexandre Bezerra. That being said Sandro seems to have the edge based on his experience inSengoku where he was the champion briefly. Sandro’s losses have only been to current BFC champion Pat Curran, HatsuHioki defending the Sengoku title, and Michihiro Omigawa (a fight originallyruled a majority draw).  Straus’ soleloss in the last three years was in the finals of season 4 to Patricio Freirewhich broke a twelve-fight win streak (which he followed with three more wins),the problem compared to Sandro is those opponents were not as well-known.  Straus has shown a good defense on the groundwhile preferring mostly to slug it out on the feet, the downside being some ofhis fights have been rather close when his opponent also like slugging on thefeet like Sandro.  On the ground Sandrois a black belt in BJJ while Straus is “one of the greatest Ohio high schoolwrestlers to never win a state title”.

Travis MarxMarcos Galvao on topNot much is known about Travis Marx other than he fights out of Jackson’s MMAand has a record of 19-3-1, now he faces Marcos Galvao in the semifinals of thebantamweight tournament.  In Marx’s BFCdebut in the quarterfinals he kept turning defense into offense as he wouldescape a submission attempt by Masakatsu Ueda and scramble or transition into amore dominant position, all while out-scoring Ueda on the feet.  Galvao on the other hand is a WEC vet withvictories over former WEC champion Chase Beebe and in his most recent fight arather one-sided decision over Ed West. This fight is likely to mostly take place on the feet but if it does goto the ground could be the most exciting of the night.

Marius ZaromskisWaachiim SpiritwolfAlthough Marius Zaromskis is a great fighter his career makes DREAM lookbad.  After winning the DREAM titleZaromskis picked up two losses and a “no contest” in Strikeforce, defended theDREAM title, lost a fight in Score Fighting Series, picked up a decision inDREAM, and most recently KO’d Bruno Carvalho in unusual fashion inNovember.  Waachim Spiritwolf also had arocky recent record with a loss and “no contest” in Strikeforce, a win inBellator, and two losses in smaller shows as is most recent five fights.  These two could be the most exciting fight ofthe night but from a news angle the weakest matchmaking of the main card.

Seth PetruzelliRounding out the main card UFC vets Seth Petruzelli and Carmelo Marrero squareoff.  Marrero was last seen in XFCdefeating Scott Barrett Petruzelli defeated Ricco Rodriguez at Bellator 48.

Undercard:

FW: Jeff Lentz vs. Eddie Fyvie
175: Jesus Martinez vs. Aung La Nsang
MW: Gregory Milliard vs. Francois Ambang
BW: Claudio Ledesma vs. Anthony Leone
LW: Marcin Held vs. Derrick Kennington
LW: Jacob Kirwan vs. Don Carlo-Clauss

Main card:

WW: Marius Zaromskis vs. Waachim Spiritwolf
230: Seth Petruzelli vs. Carmelo Marrero
BW tournament semifinal: Marcos Galvao vs. Travis Marx
FW tournament final: Marlon Sandro vs. Daniel Straus

Don Carlo-ClaussDon Carlo-Clauss

Aung La NsangAung La Nsang

Eddie Fyvie on topEddie Fyvie on top