Bellator 124 took place tonight at Compuware Arena in Plymouth Township, Michigan, and the card turned out to be a blast to watch as the two main featured bouts each ended in a bang. In total, all four betting favorites won based on the closing odds at Several Bookmakers. Here’s a quick recap for each fight. Favorites That Won In the main event of the evening, Emanuel Newton defeated Joey Beltran via third-round KO (spinning back fist). Newton was looking quite poor for nearly 15 minutes as Beltran was constantly walking forward and hurting the champion with a number of strikes, but Newton threw out his signature spinning back fist when Beltran was coming in and he knocked out Beltran for a stunning victory. Newton scored as a -705 favorite (bet $705 to win $100) while Beltran lost as a +570 underdog (bet $100 to win $570). In the co-main event of the evening, Liam McGeary defeated Kelly Anundson via first-round submission (inverted triangle) to win the Bellator light heavyweight tournament. Early in the fight, McGeary hurt Anundson with a knee but Anundson was able to recover and get a takedown. He as working from side control but McGeary multiple times got his arm trapped in an Americana from the bottom, which is rarely seen in MMA. Anundson withered in pain but was able to sneak out of the sub attempts and then land some nasty elbows from side control to hurt McGeary. But with the fight looking like it was going in Anundson’s favor, McGeary showed just how dangerous he is as he locked on an inverted triangle and finished the fight with seconds to go in the first round. It was an awesome submission from McGeary and he earned himself a title shot against Newton with it. McGeary cashed as a -290 favorite while Anundson lost as a +260 dog. In a bantamweight bout, LC Davis defeated Zeilton Rodrigues via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3). Davis, a WEC veteran, used his wrestling chops to keep taking Rodrigues down, where he held top position for enough of the 15 minutes to win a clear-cut decision on the judges’ cards. Davis cashed as a -200 favorite while Rodrigues lost at +185. In the opening main card bout, Ryan Couture defeated Tom Bagnasco via first-round submission (rear-naked choke). Couture used his wrestling to take Bagnasco to the floor, where he sunk in a choke and easily earned a tapout win over a clearly overmatched opponent. Couture scored as a massive -1350 favorite, while Bagnasco lost as a +650 underdog.
