The Bellator Fighting Champiornships make their way to MTV2 this Friday at 8 p.m. (ET) for Bellator 69 from L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The undercard is scheduled to start on Spike.com an hour earlier with six preliminary bouts followed by four more on the main card. The Bellator Season Six tournaments continue as always, but the first fight on the main card between Ron Sparks and the up-and-coming Kevin Asplund is for the right to get into next season’s heavyweight tournament. Following the first loss of his career against eventual heavyweight tournament winner Eric Prindle, Sparks (8-1) hopes to redeem himself against Asplund (15-1), who is red hot and riding a 15-fight winning streak with 11 of those wins coming from a finish. This is the type of match where the announcers tell you not to blink. Sparks opened as a -170 favorite (bet $170 to win $100) according to the MMA odds with Asplund the +140 underdog (bet $100 to win $140). In the second fight of the night, the highly-anticipated matchup between “Mega Megu” Megumi Fujii (25-1) and Jessica Aguilar (13-4) pit the two perennially top-ranked ladies in a bid to fight for the top spot in the world for women lighter than 135 pounds. After losing via a controversial split decision to Zoila Gurgel, “Mega Megu” went on to win three more fights in a row in her native Japan. She now stands in front of another woman defeated amidst controversy by Ms. Gurgel in Aguilar, who is riding a four-fight winning streak herself since losing in the 115-pound women’s tournament last year. Fujii is the -175 favorite against Aguilar, the +145 underdog. Next up, we have a welterweight tournament semifinal matchup between Karl “Psycho” Amoussou (14-4-2) and the undefeated David Rickels (10-0). Amoussou (-165) has journeyed all over the MMA landscape and looks to cement his footing in an organization and finally call it home. However, Rickels (+135) will do everything in his power to stop that. With an 80 percent finish rate, Rickels will look to continue his unbeaten streak and meet Bryan Baker in the finals. In the Bellator 69 main event, the middleweight tournament ends with Maiquel Falcao (30-4-1) taking on Andreas Spang (8-1) for the right to fight Alexander Shlemenko for the now vacant Bellator middleweight title. Former champ Hector Lombard may have left large shoes to fill as he departed for the UFC, but either the favored Falcao (-345) or Spang (+265) would make a great opponent for the two-time tournament winner Shlemenko.
