The Bellator Summer Series returns this Friday night live from the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida with Bellator 72. You can catch the main card action live starting at 8 p.m. (ET) on MTV2 and Spike.com. The main event pits Bryan Baker against Karl Amoussou in the Welterweight Tournament Championship. Since dropping down from the middleweight division, Baker has had success at 170 pounds, defeating Carlos Alexandre Pereira and Ben Saunders by decision so far in the tourney. He enters as a -165 favorite (bet $165 to win $100) over the +135 underdog (bet $100 to win $165) Amoussou, who beat Chris Lozano and David Rickels to secure his spot in the finals. In the co-main event, UFC and Strikeforce veteran Paul “Semtex” Daley makes his promotional debut against Rudy Bears. Both welterweights enter the contest at 2-3 in their last five fights, but the bout promises to be exciting given their styles. The MMA odds have the more experienced Daley as a large -650 favorite over the +450 dog Bears. Further down the card, Emanuel Newton and Attila Vegh will step into the cage in a Light Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal bout. Both fighters are undefeated and the MMA betting lines have the fight as a Pick ’em, with both men at -115. Newton is 1-0 in Bellator and holds an 18-6 overall record in MMA while Veigh is 2-0 in the organization with an overall mark of 26-4-2. In the other Light Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal, Travis Wiuff will take on Tim Carpenter. Wiuff’s wealth of experience over the course of 81 fights, including a recent win over current BFC light heavyweight champion Christian M’Pumbu, has made him a -255 betting favorite. Carpenter, while much less experienced, is a talented grappler with a black belt in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu. He’ll step into the cage as a +205 underdog. The first fight of the main card is a rematch between welterweights Marius Zaromskis and Waachiim Spiritwolf. The pair first fought in November of 2010 under the Strikeforce banner, but an eye poke caused the bout to end in a No-Contest just six seconds in. They then fought again this past May at Bellator 68, but once again fans were dissatisfied as the bout was stopped on a cut after a competitive two rounds. Hopefully, the third time is the charm, as they look to finally settle the score. Zaromskis got the win, albeit it a controversial one, in the last meeting and enters as a -275 favorite while Spiritwolfe is a +215 underdog.
