After going head-to-head with the UFC last week, Bellator should have a bit easier time keeping eyeballs this week. While the card may not have the name value of last week’s show, light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton will be defending his belt against UFC veteran Joey Beltran in the main event. His next challenger could be decided in the co-main event, as Liam McGeary and Kelly Anundson face off in the summer series light heavyweight tournament final. WEC veteran LC Davis, who has won five of his past six, and UFC/Strikeforce veteran Ryan Couture also compete in separate Bellator 124 main card bouts. The televised portion of the card starts at 9pm ET on Spike TV, but the preliminary portion of the event can be streamed on Spike.com starting at 7pm. MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting lines for the four Bellator 124 main card bouts today at Several Bookmakers. Take a look: ——————– MAIN CARD (Spike TV, 9pm ET) Bellator Light Heavyweight Title Emanuel Newton -705 Joey Beltran +435 Light Heavyweight Tournament Final Liam McGeary -270 Kelly Anundson +190 L.C. Davis -245 Zeilton Rodrigues +175 Ryan Couture -600 John Schulz +400 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: I generally haven’t been a fan of the “Scott Coker era” in Bellator to this point. It has nothing to do with Tito and Stephan Bonnar either, as I thought that would have been the best thing he’d done on his watch… until he insisted he had no part in it. Case in point, this is a big step down from last week’s card, and that had Josh Burns on it. Emanuel Newton defending his title against Joey Beltran is not intriguing at all. Beltran has no advantages in this fight, and even clinching Newton up against the cage will be far less effective than it was early in the Rampage fight. Even worse is that Beltran is durable and Newton isn’t a big hitter, so this could very well last all five rounds. Short or long, this fight is all Newton, and the line reflects that. The light heavyweight final is slightly more competitive, but the public is heavily favoring Liam McGeary and I can see why. Kelly Anundson is a decent wrestler with a decent top game, but he’s going to be physically overmatched by McGeary, and the striking differential between these two men will be vast. McGeary does seem to be making improvements and cleaning up his game, but even if he comes in the same fighter we saw in the rest of this tournament, I think he gets the job done. Anundson is tough enough to perhaps survive the initial onslaught and maybe get some takedowns, but I just don’t see him having enough to pull the upset. It is enough to keep me away from McGeary though. Zeilton Rodrigues is from Nova Uniao, but he doesn’t exhibit many of the qualities we’ve come to expect from the camp. His takedown defense is almost non-existent, and his striking doesn’t offer much aside from some decent power. LC Davis is a solid all-around fighter, but wrestling is his primary skill which means he will be able to determine where this fight takes place. I think he’ll manage to parlay that into a decision victory. Rodrigues is dangerous from his back however, and Davis has been submitted a couple times in his career, so it won’t exactly be smooth sailing. It’s hard to think that Bellator brought Ryan Couture in, put him on a main card, and is trying to get him beat. John Schulz is aggressive, but he’s not tremendously skilled in any area, and seems to wilt a bit when faced with similarly aggressive fighters. Couture is no world-beater, but he’s got decent grappling skills, and on this level isn’t facing the kind of defensive wrestlers he saw in the UFC who could completely shut that part of his game down. I expect Couture to get a submission stoppage and for Coker to continue treating him as he did in Strikeforce with favorable matchups.
