Bellator returns to Spike TV for its tenth season this Friday, as Bellator 110 kicks off both the light heavyweight and featherweight tournaments. With some of the organization’s most notable fighters featured on this card it should be an excellent way to get back into the MMA consciousness. While the light heavyweight tournament features the bigger names, it has drawn criticism for only being a four-man bracket geared towards a ‘Rampage’ Jackson versus ‘King Mo’ final, although it’s yet to be seen if it will actually play out that way. As usual, Bellator’s lighter divisions provide more depth and a more intriguing overall tournament as the featherweight bracket features established fighters like Diego Nunes and Mike Richman as well as prospects Goiti Yamauchi and Scott Cleve. Today, MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the lines for Bellator 110 at Several Bookmakers. Check them out: ——————– MAIN CARD (Spike TV, 9pm ET) Quinton Jackson -565 Christian M’Pumbu +375 Muhammed Lawal -350 Mikhail Zayats +250 Diego Nunes -305 Matt Bessette +225 Mike Richman -260 Desmond Green +180 Daniel Weichel -140 Scott Cleve +100 ——————– PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com, 7pm ET) Goiti Yamauchi -380 Will Martinez +260 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: As far as winnable match-ups for a fading 35-year-old ‘Rampage’ go, Bellator has done a fantastic job here. Most people forget that he was on his way to losing the first round to Joey Beltran in his Bellator debut because he erased those memories with an impressive knockout. Luckily, Christian M’Pumbu isn’t the same type of grinding round-winner that Beltran was, and he’s also older than Jackson in addition to being incredibly inactive since winning the Bellator light heavyweight tournament in 2011. The former UFC champion should have a striking edge here, and even if that fails he can resort to his wrestling, where M’Pumbu is still incredibly deficient. The other light heavyweight semi-final is a bit trickier. Lawal still retains a great deal of respect from the overall MMA betting community, but I can’t think of a fighter who warrants the type of respect he gets less. Yes, he has a solid wrestling game, but nothing to really back it up with. He could win this fight with his wrestling, but if he gets stranded on the feet like against Emanuel Newton, it could turn out poorly for him as well. With it only being three rounds, I’ll be picking Lawal, but I think this is dog or pass. In the featherweight tournament, Diego Nunes should beat Matt Bessette in every area. Nunes has only lost to top 10 featherweights, and he’s not on the downside of his career yet. Bessette is a solid fighter, but being from Hartford and being booked to fight in Uncasville against Nunes seems like Bellator is using him more as a local draw to sell tickets than a fighter really capable of going deep in this tournament. Dez Green’s record tricked a lot of people when he came into Bellator, as he had a win over Henry Martinez on the regional scene, but he still has a ton of maturing to do as a fighter. Mike Richman is a good enough wrestler to keep this standing and a vastly superior striker who should win this fight. The only question is whether he’ll add another clip to his highlight reel or not. Cleve and Weichel provide the closest opening round fight on paper. Cleve is a solid striker, but also has a pretty decent grappling base to back those strikes up with. Weichel is dangerous wherever the fight goes, but at his best in when submission grappling. Weichel is also very fun to watch, so hopefully that holds true in this bout. Where I think this fight turns is that Weichel doesn’t have the best striking defense or chin, so Cleve may be able to get through with some hard shots. This is definitely a difficult bout to call though. Finally, I’m sure Spike and Bellator will find some time to get this fight on the main card as I expect it to end pretty quickly, and it should be fairly emphatic in Yamauchi’s favor. He is an extremely skilled grappler and a very good overall MMA prospect who Bellator seems quite high on thus far. In Will Martinez, he’s facing an opponent who prefers to grapple, which suits Yamauchi’s game perfectly and should lead to a submission finish.
