Last week Bellator put the featherweights on display, as Patricio ‘Pitbull’, Fabricio Guerreiro, Justin Wilcox and Joe Taimanglo advance to the semifinals which will take place later on this season. This week the organization moves north a couple weight classes as they close out one welterweight tournament and kick off another. Douglas Lima and Ben Saunders will rematch in the finals of last season’s 170lb bracket, a fight that Lima won by impressive KO in November 2011. Season 9’s welterweight tournament will create the next challenger for champion Ben Askren after Lima, and it features some familiar faces. Brent Weedman, Rick Hawn and War Machine all have a chance for the $100,000 cheque and a title shot, and all look to be the favorites heading into their bouts. Speaking of which, MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting lines for Bellator 100 at Several Bookmakers today. Take a look: ——————– Season 8 Welterweight Tournament Final Douglas Lima -265 Ben Saunders +185 Bellator Welterweight Tournament Opening Round Fights: Luis Melo -140 Ron Keslar +100 Rick Hawn -425 Herman Terrado +305 Brent Weedman -505 Justin Baesman +335 War Machine -505 Vaughn Anderson +335 ——————– PRELIMINARY CARD Larue Burley +625 Bubba Jenkins -1275 Siala Siliga +285 Dan Charles -405 Joe Yager +250 Clifford Starks -350 Brandon Bender +130 Travis Marx -170 Zack Surdyka +285 Efrain Escudero -405 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: This is a pretty easy card to break down in my opinion. Ben Saunders can be competitive with Douglas Lima, but ‘The Phenom’ is just a bit better everywhere and also a better finisher. He deserves to be favorited here, and could be worthy of throwing in a parlay if the line doesn’t get out of hand. The welterweight tournament is set up very differently from the featherweight tournament. The 145ers had one stacked fight, and the winner of that fight was likely to win the tournament. On the other hand, there is a clear favorite in three of the four 170lb fights, and the quality of the matchups should improve with each round of the 8-man bracket. For once on a Bellator card, I actually see all of the favorites coming though, and I feel pretty confident about it too. There are some concerns as always (like Rick Hawn’s short notice and War Machine being a headcase), but in the end the guys with the “-” beside their name should come through. Luis Melo would be the biggest risk in the group, but I do believe he has the better overall skills and should pull through. Also note that Bellator will have lines released for the preliminary fights on this card as well, and those will come out later this week.
