Straus captures tournament championship, Galvao moves to finals of Season 6 Bantamweight Tournament from Caesars Atlantic City, Zaromskis and Held prove victorious with impressive wins

Daniel Straus.jpg

(Daniel Straus)

From Bellator Fighting Championships:

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ. (May 11, 2012) —The Bellator Featherweight title has a new challenger as Daniel Straus becamethe Bellator Season 6 Featherweight Tournament Champion with a dominatingvictory over Marlon Sandro. In additional tournament action, Marcos Galvao willmove on to the finals of the Bellator Season 6 Bantamweight Tournament whileMarius Zaromskis and Marcin Held picked up victories at Bellator 68 fromCaesars Atlantic City in New Jersey LIVE on MTV2 and in HD on EPIX.

"Daniel Straus was able to break through with a huge win in a loadedfeatherweight tournament and earn his shot at the world title," BellatorChairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney said. "Marcin Held was able to continuehis assault on the legs of his opponents with another submission victory andMarcos Galvao continues to impress with another close fought victory overTravis Marx."

Two of the top featherweights in the world met inside the Bellator cage asMarlon Sandro and Daniel Straus fought with the winner claiming the BellatorSeason 6 Featherweight Tournament Championship and a $100,000 payday. Known forhis aggressive striking and exceptional cardio, Straus showed early on why hemade it to the finals of the Featherweight Tournament. While Sandro appearedhesitant at times, Straus was constantly moving forward and pushing the actionfor the duration of the fight. Landing the crisper strikes, Straus found a wayto control Sandro while both striking and in the clinch. After threeentertaining rounds, a new tournament champion was crowned as Daniel Strauswalked away with the unanimous decision victory.

"I’m going to keep improving, I’m going to get better," said Straus."I have to go back to the drawing board and prepare for my titleshot."

With the unanimous decision win, Daniel Straus becomes the Bellator Season 6Featherweight Tournament Champion and earns the biggest victory of his career.His record improves to 20-4 while his opponent, Marlon Sandro, loses for justthe fourth time in 26 contests.

For Marcos Galvao and Travis Marx, a victory in the semifinals of the BellatorSeason 6 Bantamweight Tournament would bring them one step closer to anopportunity to face Bellator Bantamweight World Champion Eduardo"Dudu" Dantas. Marx showed occasional moments of dominance; however,Galvao appeared to be in control for most of the fight. Galvao, who clearly hadthe advantage in the stand-up, landed combinations of punches, kicks to thebody and knees. Although Marx attempted to press Galvao against the cage andsecure a takedown, Galvao was able to stuff all but one. After three intense,action-packed rounds, the cageside judges scored the fight in favor of MarcosGalvao.

"It’s been my dream since I was a kid," said Galvao. "I know I’mgoing to win this tournament."

With the victory, Marcos Galvao will now move to the final round of theBellator Season 6 Bantamweight Tournament and face the winner of the LuisNogueira vs. Hiroshi Nakamura later this year. His record improves to 12-5.Travis Marx loses for just the fourth time in his professional career as hisrecord falls to 19-4.

Following his last fight inside the Bellator cage, a split decision victoryover Phillipe Nover at Bellator 59, 20-year-old Polish lightweight Marcin Heldlooked to make a greater impression Friday night against New Jersey’s own,Derrick Kennington. The fight started with Kennington moving forward, lookingto keep the fight standing. After landing a kick to the body of Held,Kennington was forced to defend a takedown, but Held quickly latched on toKennington’s leg and secured a leg lock. Kennington was forced to tap at 2:08of the first round.

"I wanted to fight standing up, but my opponent was better than methere," said Held. "I tried my strength, which was the leg lock, andit worked."

With the submission win, Marcin Held earned his second straight victory in theBellator cage and improved his record to 13-2 in his emerging career.Kennington, dropped to 6-3 in his Bellator debut.

In the first televised fight of the evening, Lithuanian welterweight MariusZaromskis made his highly-anticipated Bellator debut opposite hard-hittingBellator veteran, Waachiim Spiritwolf. In the first round, Spiritwolf was ableto utilize the clinch as he pinned Zaromskis against the cage. A Zaromskiselbow opened a deep cut near the right eye of Spiritwolf that would later proveto be pivotal. The second round appeared more one-sided for Spiritwolf than thefirst. After landing a series of punches to the jaw of Zaromskis, Spiritwolfbegan to unload on his hurt opponent but was unable to put him away. However,between the second and third round, the ringside physician stopped the fight,citing the cut near the eye of Spiritwolf.

With the doctor stoppage victory, Marius Zaromskis earned his first win underthe Bellator banner and improved to 17-6 overall. Waachim Spiritwolf fell to9-10-1 in a hard-fought performance.

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter@BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator