Bellator 109 took place tonight and the event featured four exciting fights, including an awesome finish in the main event of the evening. Overall, three betting favorites cashed out while one decent-sized underdog hit. Here’s a betting recap for Bellator 109 based on the closing results at Several Bookmakers: Bellator 109 Favorites That Won In the main event of the evening, Alexander Shlemenko defeated Doug Marshall via first-round KO (body shot) to retain the Bellator middleweight championship. Shlemenko dominated the fight in both the grappling and striking realms and proved beyond a doubt he is the best middleweight in Bellator. Shlemenko cashed as a -275 favorite (bet $275 to win $100), while Marshall fell as a +250 dog (bet $100 to win $250). In a welterweight bout, Rick Hawn defeated Ron Keslar via third-round TKO (punches) to earn a chance to face off against Douglas Lima for the vacant Bellator welterweight championship. Hawn was down on the scorecard in the first due to Keslar’s wrestling, but he started to turn things on in the second with his jab and in the third he really turned things on and won via vicious one-punch KO. Hawn closed as a -570 fav, while Keslar closed at +480. In a lightweight matchup, Terry Etim defeated Patrick Cenoble unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-26) after three rounds of positional dominance. Etim used takedowns in all three rounds to get the fight to the floor and he threatened at numerous instances with submissions. In fact, I gave Etim a 10-8 card in the first round for his deep back control on Cenoble and numerous attempts to finish the fight with neck cranks and rear-naked chokes. Etim scored as a -420 fav, while Cenoble was a +375 underdog. Bellator 109 Underdogs That Won In the lightweight tournament finals, Will Brooks dominated Alexander “Tiger” Sarnavskiy via three-round unanimous decision. Brooks used his wrestling to take Tiger down at will and beat him up on the ground, and in the third round Brooks showed he’s not here to screw around as he gave a beatdown to Tiger and won the round 10-8, in my opinion. With the win, Brooks earned a shot at the Bellator lightweight title. Brooks cashed out as a +135 dog, while Sarnavskiy was a -145 fav.
