Bellator 116 took place from the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California on Friday night and four tournament finalists were determined in Bellator’s season ten brackets. For MMA fans, it was a second dose of violence in one of the most entertaining Fridays in recent memory. Of the seven bouts with odds, four favorites managed to come through while three underdogs pulled off upsets. Here’s a betting recap for Bellator 116 based on the closing odds at Several Bookmakers. Favorites that won In the main event of the evening Blagoi Ivanov earned his spot in the heavyweight tournament final with a first round submission victory over Lavar Johnson. Ivanov closed as a -150 favorite (bet $150 to win $100), with the comeback on Johnson at +140 (bet $100 to win $140). Former Bellator heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov moved one step closer to recapturing that title, and started the main card off with a bang as he knocked Mighty Mo out cold with a head kick in the first round. Volkov saw a lot of action late, and wound up closing as a -380 favorite. The comeback on Mighty Mo was +340. Brandon Halsey moved on to the middleweight tournament final to face Brett Cooper with a unanimous decision over Joe Pacheco in the final preliminary bout of the evening. Halsey closed as a large -380 favorite, with Pacheco at +260 underdog. Rob Emerson made a successful debut at bantamweight, taking a unanimous decision over Joe Taimanglo in a closely contested fight where the UFC vet controlled the striking while the Guamanian did better work on the mat. Emerson closed as a very slight -135 favorite, while Taimanglo was a -105 underdog. Underdogs that won Joey Beltran picked up just the second submission win in his career, as he defeated Vladimir Matyushenko by north-south choke in the final bout of the MMA career of “The Janitor”. Although the line opened near a pick em, action came in late on Matyushenko. Beltran ended up closing at +160, and Matyushenko fell as a -170 favorite. Adam McDonough continued to show his rapid improvement and advanced to the welterweight tournament final with a second round knockout of Nathan Coy. McDonough had Coy in all kinds of trouble at the end of the first round and the fight looked like it would have been stopped, he left no doubt in the next stanza and paid out as a +200 dog for those who had confidence in him. In a shocking preliminary bout, Karo Parisyan earned his first career TKO by knocking out Ron Keslar in the second round of their welterweight bout. Parisyan was as high as +350 at one point and closed at +265, while Keslar was a -385 favorite. Parisyan should earn a spot in Bellator’s next welterweight tournament with the win.
