Bellator 95 took place tonight at Revel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and overall it was a very exciting event that produced a number of exciting finishes and back-and-forth brawls. From a betting perspective, three favorites won, while one underdog cashed. Here’s a betting recap for the event based on the closing MMA odds: BELLATOR BETTING FAVORITES THAT WON In the main event of the evening, Bellator featherweight champion Pat Curran defended his title against Shahbulat Shamhalaev with a beautiful guillotine choke that put Shamhalaev to sleep and which forced the referee to stop the bout due to a technical submission. It was a tremendous victory for Curran, who proved once again that he is one of the top featherweights out there. Curran cashed as a -193 favorite (bet $193 to win $100), while Shamhalaev failed to win as a +178 underdog (bet $178 to win $100). In the finals of the Bellator Season 8 Featherweight Tournament, Frodo Khasbulaev was able to outpoint Mike Richman and win a competitive decision, with the judges all scoring it 30-27 in favor of Khasbulaev. It was a back-and-forth war between the two strikers, who showed that they both very badly wanted to win the tournament by slugging it out for 15 minutes straight. Khasbulaev closed as a -270 favorite, while the comeback on Richman closed at +248. And in the opening bout of the main card, Rick Hawn knocked out Karo Parisyan in the second round of their welterweight bout. The first round was very competitive and Parisyan arguably won it, but the second round was all Hawn and he managed to find Parisyan’s chin and find him off in devastating fashion. Hawn closed as a massive -600 favorite, which the comeback on Parisyan was +500. BELLATOR BETTING UNDERDOGS THAT WON The lone underdog to cash was Doug Marshall, who won the Bellator Season 8 Middleweight Tournament with a spectacular knockout over Brett Cooper. The fight was definitely going Cooper’s way for the first few minutes as he kept getting the takedowns, but Marshall was eventually able to get back to his feet and “The Rhino” showed how devastating he is with a brutal knockout via punches. Marshall cashed at +260, while Cooper was a -290 favorite to win. Also of note were the great preliminary fights which produced a bevy of finishes. Overall it was one of Bellator’s better events of the year and expect the promotion to ramp up the intensity even more this summer with the next Bellator Summer Series, which starts in June.
