Muhammed Lawal’s retirement fight at Bellator 233 didn’t exactly go as planned – all thanks to newcomer Andrew Kapel.
[autotag]Muhammed Lawal[/autotag]’s retirement fight didn’t exactly go as planned – all thanks to [autotag]Andrew Kapel[/autotag].
A relatively unknown fighter and promotional debutant, Kapel (15-6 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) entered the cage opposite an MMA legend. Prior to their Bellator 233 showdown in November 2019, Lawal (21-10 MMA, 10-7 BMMA) had announced the fight would be his last. “King Mo” had already previously retired in early 2019 but decided to come back for one more fight.
In the span of 82 seconds, Kapel ruined Lawal’s aspirations of ending his career with a victory. After Lawal caught Kapel’s kick, the longtime MMA veteran swung for a counter hook. In the exchange, Lawal’s hook missed, but Kapel’s didn’t. Kapel floored Lawal and finished the fight with some follow up blows.
After the fight, Lawal left his gloves in the center of the cage – signaling the end of a storied 11-year career.
Check out Andrew Kapel’s knockout of Muhammed Lawal in the video above.
Arlene Blencowe may have positioned herself for another crack at the title after defeating veteran Leslie Smith.
[autotag]Arlene Blencowe[/autotag] may have positioned herself for another crack at the Bellator women’s featherweight title after defeating a battle-tested veteran in her most recent outing.
Blencowe (13-7 MMA, 6-3 BMMA) was matched up with former UFC fighter Leslie Smith at Bellator 233 and was able to mix things up with her jab, leg kicks and combinations to sweep the judges’ scorecards for a unanimous decision win.
It was Blencowe’s third win a row. Her most recent loss was a split decision setback to then-champion Julia Budd in December 2017.
It was the second time she lost to Budd, but after Cris Cyborg dethroned Budd at Bellator 238 in January, Blencowe’s chances for another title shot got better.
Check out Blencowe’s Bellator 233 win over Smith in the video above.
Tyrell Fortune continued to impress in his fast rise through the heavyweight ranks when he stopped Azunna Anyanwu at Bellator 233.
[autotag]Tyrell Fortune[/autotag] continued to impress in his fast rise through the heavyweight ranks.
Undefeated at the time, Fortune (8-1 MMA, 8-1 BMMA) was matched up with Azunna Anyanwu at Bellator 233 this past November.
Fortune exercised patience early, dipping in-and-out with feints trying to bait Anyanwu in. In a rather uneventful first round, Fortune was able to use his speed to tag Anyanwu a couple of times on the counter.
In Round 2, Fortune started to put his foot on the gas pedal, eventually clipping Anyanwu with a big overhand right and putting the finishing touches on the ground to secure the stoppage.
Fortune was then matched up against UFC veteran Timothy Johnson at Bellator 239, but suffered his first loss when he was stopped in the first round in a major upset.
With all events suspended indefinitely, check out Fortune’s Bellator 233 win over Anyanwu in the video above.
At age 35, John Salter headlined his first Bellator card. He defeated Costello van Steenis in a three-round battle.
[autotag]John Salter[/autotag] has a lot of momentum behind him.
A top Bellator middleweight contender, Salter (17-4 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) has won nine of his most recent 10 fights. His lone loss came to future Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Lovato Jr. in September 2018.
Salter’s most recent fight took place at Bellator 233 in November 2019. In his first Bellator main event, Salter squared off with rising Dutch contender [autotag]Costello van Steenis[/autotag].
At the time, van Steenis was undefeated in the Bellator cage, having defeated Steve Skrzat, Kevin Fryer, Chris Honeycutt and Mike Shipman en route to his matchup vs. Salter.
Despite being eight years younger than Salter, van Steenis was a slight betting underdog. The oddsmakers were proved correct. It took him three rounds, but Salter got the job done by unanimous decision. All three judges scored the fight 29-28 in Salter’s favor.
Salter was recently scheduled to fight May 16 against Fabian Edwards at Bellator Europe 8. However, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent logistical ramifications, the promotion postponed its May events.
No rescheduled date has been announced at this time.
Check out John Salter’s Bellator 233 win over Costello van Steenis in the video above.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from November 2019.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best fights from November 2019: Here are the four nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s “Fight of the Month” award for November.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice.
* * * *
The Nominees
Stephen Thompson def. Vicente Luque at UFC 244
In case there were any doubters — and going in, there sure seemed to be — [autotag]Stephen Thompson[/autotag] (18-6-1 MMA, 11-2 UFC) proved he’s still very much a factor in the UFC welterweight division against [autotag]Vicente Luque[/autotag] (17-6-1 MMA, 10-2 UFC).
The two time title challenger returned to vintage “Wonderboy” form as he picked apart one of the division’s hottest fighters in Luque over the course of three rounds. The judges’ scores at New York’s Madison Square Garden were 30-26, 30-26, and 29-27 as Thompson won by unanimous decision.
[autotag]Jorge Masvidal[/autotag] (35-13 MMA, 12-6 UFC) became the UFC’s “Baddest Mother(expletive)” after defeating [autotag]Nate Diaz[/autotag] (20-12 MMA, 15-10 UFC) in their highly anticipated welterweight matchup.
Masvidal continued the most stellar run of his career, and perhaps wrapped up his claim to “Fight of the Year,” when he picked Diaz apart to claim the “BMF” belt. Unfortunately the end came in an anticlimactic matter, with “Gamebred” winning by doctor stoppage TKO in the third round after multiple cuts on Diaz’s face.
John Salter def. Costello van Steenis at Bellator 233
Prior to his encounter with [autotag]Costello van Steenis[/autotag] (12-2 MMA, 4-1 BMMA) in their middleweight main event, [autotag]John Salter[/autotag] (17-4 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) never went the distance in 20 pro mixed martial arts fights, win or lose.
Finally, that changed. Salter dominated the first two rounds in his bout with van Steenis, which was enough to win out over a later rally as he earned a unanimous decision. The judges’ scores were 29-28 across the board, putting Salter back in contention in Bellator’s 185-pound division.
Zabit Magomedsharipov def. Calvin Kattar at UFC on ESPN+ 21
[autotag]Zabit Magomedsharipov[/autotag] (18-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) was made to work for it, but the Dagestani featherweight contender picked up arguably the most important win of his UFC career against [autotag]Calvin Kattar[/autotag] (20-4 MMA, 4-2 UFC).
The matchup was rearranged from their original booking at UFC on ESPN 6 in October, with the matchup kept as a three-round affair despite headlining status. And after three entertaining rounds, it was Kattar who was in the ascendency, but Magomedsharipov who was ahead on the scorecards to take a unanimous decision.
On a night in which the president of the United States and Hollywood superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson were both in the house, New York State Athletic Commission Chief Medical Officer Nitin K. Sethi apparently decided he wanted to be the star of the show.
Masvidal and Diaz delivered as advertised through the first three rounds of their main event for the “BMF” title. Diaz, however, was cut above and below his right eye, and while Diaz has fought his way through plenty worse in his career, Sethi took a cursory glance at Diaz between rounds and decided to call off the fight, much to the chagrin of the capacity crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
It went in the books as a TKO stoppage at 5:00 of the third round, but Masvidal, for his part, made it clear he was unsatisfied with the stoppage and was ready to run things back as soon as possible.
[lawrence-related id=459344,459430]
“For a fact, you gave me the love I’ll give you the love,” Masvidal told Diaz. “I don’t like to leave the ring like this with my opponent still conscious. We have to run it back.”
Masvidal was sharp from the fight’s outset, firing heavy hands with malicious intent. What turned out to be the bout’s most important sequence occurred early in the first round. Masvidal caught Diaz with a wicked elbow off the break, then landed a sneaky head kick which dropped Diaz to the mat. Somewhere in that flurry, Diaz was busted open around his right eye.
Masvidal was cautious about going to the mat with Diaz, which enabled Diaz to recover, but he continued to outwork Diaz in the standup throughout the first and into the second.
Diaz likes to stalk his foes, use pressure, and turn up the volume. But every time it appeared Diaz was going to turn up the heat, Masvidal managed to escape and reset.
[lawrence-related id=459532,459479]
Diaz is a cardio machine known for coming on in the late rounds. While Masvidal also won the third round, the round was also Diaz’s best, as he started to show signs he was getting it together, landing effective combos.
That built the anticipation for the championship rounds, but that’s when the doctor decided it was a good idea to step in and end the fight.
“The Rock” came in and placed the specially made “BMF” belt around Masvidal’s waist, and while Masvidal accepted it, he made it clear he wants a rematch. Diaz, for his part, let everyone know he’s down.
“I’m going back for this mother(expletive), right back,” Diaz said. “Let me heal this up and go again.”
Rayden Overbay had been bullied in the past, but at Bellator 233, it was nothing but love.
THACKERVILLE, Okla. – The past few months have been a rollercoaster ride for 12-year-old Rayden Overbay.
It would be difficult for anyone, regardless of age, to deal with the challenges Rayden deals with on a day-to-day basis. Dealing with ADHD, ADD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, diabetes and deafness in one ear, Rayden’s plate is full.
Being bullied and beaten by his classmates turned an already tough situation into a nightmare. That’s when Rayden went viral.
In October, Rayden was interjected into the international conversation on bullying when videos of him being punched in a school bathroom and jumped by numerous classmates outside the school swept across the internet. The videos touched and aggravated viewers all over the world. Rayden’s parents began receiving messages of support and help offerings from all walks of life.
While many people had good intentions, Rayden’s father, Danny Overbay, told MMA Junkie it became difficult for him to decipher who was genuinely trying to help out his son and who was in it to help themselves.
“We had several people reach out to us like, ‘Hey we want to represent you. We want to do this. We want to do that,'” Danny Overbay said. “After going through some of the Facebook (posts) and stuff and looking at those people reaching out, they were just doing it for numbers of kids. ‘How many kids I got to help today,’ or whatever – just to get their name bigger.”
Despite the attention, Overbay said he wasn’t trying to make his child’s situation into a publicity stunt. All he wanted to do was find solutions for the problems at hand.
Enter Bellator heavyweight [autotag]Justin Wren[/autotag].
Wren reached out to the family and offered help without any strings attached. All Wren wanted to do, according to Overbay, was offer to be Rayden’s friend. The gesture came across as genuine and went a long way with the Overbay family.
“What made us choose Justin so much and what he’s got going is he personally reached out to me through Facebook Messenger and left me a few short messages about how he wanted to be a part of my son’s life,” Overbay said. “And he just wanted to help out and step up and give him the friend he needed who wasn’t his dad. And that to me means a lot.
“… He took a bad situation, and he’s made it nothing but positive. That’s for (Rayden), for his little brother, for me, for his mom. It just touches me as a dad to know Justin and I fall from the same tree when it comes to the path Rayden’s on.”
Rayden had been bullied heavily in the past, but at this past Friday’s Bellator 233 event in Thackerville, Okla., it was nothing but love. Alongside Wren and fellow Bellator fighters [autotag]Rafael Lovato Jr.[/autotag] and [autotag]Gerald Harris[/autotag], Rayden was a special guest at Friday’s event. Rayden and his newfound Bellator friends even got to be introduced by Michael C. Williams and be on the big screens at WinStar World Casino and Resort.
Wren’s charitable ventures have been documented in the past. A rising UFC heavyweight, Wren walked away from MMA after struggles with drugs, alcohol and mental health. He eventually turned his life around and made it his mission to help out the Pygmy people of the Congo in Africa. He started a nonprofit organization, Fight for the Forgotten, which helps provide clean drinking water to the tribes.
Wren, who admitted he was picked on throughout his youth, said his organization now expands to another “forgotten” group: bullied children.
“Taking up the cause ‘Stand with Rayden,’ I was in the same shoes as him – so was his dad, and even Rafael,” Wren said. “Growing up, (we’d) gotten bullied. Our mission for Fight for the Forgotten has expanded beyond just the Pygmy people who were suppressed and the most bullied group on the planet. But now also here Stateside, we’ve been working on a bully-prevention curriculum for well over a year now.
“When this happened, it was just serendipitous or synchronicity. It was supposed to happen – how do we turn this really bad thing into something really good and positive for Rayden, his brother Brock, his family, the community?”
Lovato, Bellator’s middleweight champion, lives in Oklahoma, as does Rayden. The 36-year-old fighter plans on training Rayden and his brother Brock in MMA starting in early 2020.
“It was right in our backyard, so it was even more responsibility to jump in, and I’m looking forward to having Rayden and his brother Brock join my martial arts academy very soon,” Lovato said. “… We can’t wait to have Rayden on the mats and learning the martial arts lifestyle – empowering him through martial arts and just continue the work that Justin started and keep spreading the love in martial arts throughout for all the kids.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up in Rayden’s name. The money raised will go toward providing Rayden with a new home, so he no longer has to live with his grandparents. Additionally, it will help pay for Rayden’s medical bills and more.
What does another big weekend of MMA action mean for the rankings? We walk you through it all in this week’s rankings report.
It was another eventful weekend in the MMA world. Consider the highlights:
[autotag]Zabit Magomedsharipov[/autotag] continued his climb up the 145-pound ladder with a win over Calvin Kattar in the main event of UFC on ESPN+ 21.
[autotag]Alexander Volkov[/autotag] returned to action, as the former Bellator champion decisioned Greg Hardy in the UFC Moscow co-feature.
[autotag]Arlene Blencowe[/autotag] proved she’s still a factor in the Bellator featherweight division with her impressive unanimous-decision victory over Leslie Smith.
So what does this all mean for the weekly USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings? Let MMA Junkie’s John Morgan and “Gorgeous” George Garcia walk you through the changes in the video above.
Christian Edwards hasn’t fully wrapped his head around the virality of his vicious Bellator 233 head kick.
It’s common practice for 21-year-olds celebrate their birthday by taking shots. Bellator light heavyweight [autotag]Christian Edwards[/autotag], however, elected to commemorate his by handing out a huge one.
In his second professional bout at Friday’s Bellator 233, Edwards (2-0 MMA, 2-0 BMMA), who turned 21 on Nov. 5, sent shockwaves through the MMA world when he head-kicked Cesar Bennett into the shadow realm just 16 seconds into the opening round.
No follow-up shots were necessary, as an unconscious Bennett turned stiff upon impact. His head crashed against the canvas as he toppled backwards.
The knockout appeared everywhere from WorldStar HipHop to SportsCenter and beyond. With one swift punt to the jaw, Edwards achieved internet virality.
Four days later, Edwards still hasn’t fully grasped the scope of his highlight-reel finish. However, the JacksonWink product fully appreciates all of the support he’s received. The recognition is a representation of his hard work and how far he’s come to get to where he is.
“It’s a pretty humbling feeling,” Edwards told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “I didn’t really come from much. I grew up struggling a little bit. So it’s nice to actually be recognized for something for a chance. It’s nice. I like it a lot and I think I can get used to this.”
[lawrence-related id=461126,421326]
In his two pro fights, both of which have taken place in Bellator, Edwards has racked up finish victories in a combined 70 seconds. Regardless of whether it’s a quick finish or a hard-fought decision, Edwards’ main goal is to win. That said, Edwards admitted quick stoppages add value to his name.
“I definitely think (they) increase my value as a fighter. Now that I’m 2-0. Both first-round finishes. Both in less than a minute. I think it increases my value as a fighter.”
Edwards hopes Bellator will feel comfortable with allowing him to branch outside of competing strictly in his home state of Oklahoma going forward. With more events for him to potentially compete on, Edwards feels confident the frequency of his fights will increase, too.
“I guess I’d be okay with one more fight in Oklahoma because that is my home state and I love it,” Edwards said. “But after one more, I want to fight somewhere else. I want to travel the world a little bit. Maybe fight wherever they have cards coming up – maybe Hawaii.”
“Ideally, me as a fighter, I want to fight at least three or four times a year,” Edwards continued. “We’ll see what the future holds, but hopefully that’s in the not-so-distant future. We’ll see.”
