Bellator’s ninth season keeps moving right along, as the featherweight tournament finalists will be decided on Friday, October 11th at Bellator 103. The odds on tournament favorite, Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire, made short work of his first round foe, Diego Nunes, with an emphatic KO that solidified him not only as one of Bellator’s top 145ers, but one of the best in all of MMA. Fabricio Guerreiro, Justin Wilcox and Joe Taimanglo also punched their tickets to the semifinals on the same card, and each man is looking to upset Pitbull either in this round, or in the tournament final, but it will be a tall order. Also on this card, former lightweight tournament winner David Rickels takes on JJ Ambrose, and Mikhail Zayats goes head-to-head with former UFC veteran Aaron Rosa in the light heavyweight division. Today, MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting lines for Bellator 103’s main card at Several Bookmakers. Take a look: ——————– Featherweight Tournament Semifinal Patricio Freire -750 Fabricio Guerreiro +450 Featherweight Tournament Semifinal Justin Wilcox -425 Joe Taimanglo +305 David Rickels -505 JJ Ambrose +335 Mikhail Zayats -505 Aaron Rosa +335 ——————– Brad’s Analysis: I don’t think I’ve talked to a single person about this card who thinks that the favorites won’t roll here. Patricio ‘Pitbull’ is simply head and shoulders above everyone in Bellator’s featherweight division not named Pat Curran, and each fight between now and a Curran rematch is just time for him to fine tune his skills. Fabricio Guerreiro is a fine prospect, but he’s outmatched badly in every aspect of this fight. Justin Wilcox was a solid lightweight in Strikeforce, and he’s facing a man in Joe Taimanglo who really belongs at bantamweight. Wilcox has huge physical advantages in this bout to go along with his grappling edge. Even on the feet, the best Taimanglo can hope is that things are a wash. The one mitigating factor in this fight is how badly beaten up Wilcox is from his quarterfinal against Akop Stepanyan. Even the weight cut shouldn’t be as much trouble this time, as Wilcox took his first round bout on only seven days notice. David Rickels is a fighter that Bellator brass seems to be high on, and this bounce back fight from his shellacking at the hands of Michael Chandler is a great indication of that. Although Rickels has come to favor his hands more and more, his grappling is his best attribute, and Bellator has given him a fighter in JJ Ambrose who likes to grapple, but simply isn’t as effective on the ground as Rickels. Another fight, like the ‘Pitbull’ bout, where the favorite has every advantage. Finally, the only bout where I can smell a hint of an upset is in the Zayats/Rosa bout. Both men have been knocked out multiple times before, but it has taken a lot more to put Rosa down. Zayats is the far better grappler here but his wrestling isn’t great, and if this gets stuck on the feet, I can see either man going down. Still, Zayats is the more diverse striker, while Rosa relies on more of a straight-forward brawling style. If you’re thinking of a chalk parlay on this card, this might be the fight to leave out.
