The main event of Bellator 136 is a give-round title fight between Bellator lightweight champion Will Brooks and challenger Dave Jansen. According to the current betting lines available at Several Bookmakers, Brooks is a -600 favorite (bet $600 to win $100) while Jansen is a +400 underdog (bet $100 to win $400). MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened up Brooks at -385 and Jansen at +265, and not surprisingly money has come in on the champ Brooks. I believe Brooks will defend his title and agree with him being a sizeable favorite in this spot. Here’s why. Brooks (15-1) is 7-1 in Bellator with two wins over Michael Chandler and victories over Alexander Sarnavskiy, Saad Awad and John Alessio, to name a few, with his lone loss coming to Awad when he was surprisingly KOed in just 43 seconds. The 28-year-old American comes from a wrestling background and his wrestling is very effective in MMA, but he has improved rapidly in the striking department since turning pro in 2011, knocking out a tough Chandler in his last fight. Brooks’ chin is questionable since he was KOed iin his only loss, but otherwise it’s held up so perhaps it’s not fair to take too much away from that fight considering he dominated Awad in the rematch. Brooks is currently riding a six-fight win streak and looks like one of the top-15 lightweights in the world. He is taking on a tough vet in the form of Jansen at Bellator 136, and with a dominant win people are going to start talking about him as one of the top-10 lightweights in MMA, if not top five. Jansen (20-2) won the Bellator season seven lightweight tournament. The 35-year-old American is 7-0 in Bellator with wins over the likes of Rich Hawn, Marcin Held, and Ricardo Tirloni, to name a few. Bellator picked Jansen up after he went 0-2 in the UFC with losses to Ricardo Lamas and Kamal Shalorus, and so far he’s made Bellator look like geniuses by going 7-0 in the promotion. He has improved his game rapidly since joining Bellator. At one point he was just a wrestler, but now he’s a striker, too, and he also has worked a lot on his submission game. Jansen is an underrated lightweight and could beat most of the 155lbers in Bellator, but Brooks is a tall test. He’s nine years younger than Jansen and has been more active in the last few years, and he’s fought better competition too. Jansen is a good fighter, but he appears to be over his head in this fight, and that’s why he is a big dog heading into this one. Jansen is underrated, but Brooks is quickly approaching elite status in the UFC lightweight division. He has two wins over Chandler and while there was some controversy in those fights, the fact he was able to get his hand raised twice over Chandler is extremely impressive. It seems like every time we see Brooks fight he’s better than the last time we saw him, and training at ATT I expect those improvements to show yet again in this fight. I believe the youngster Brooks can win the fight by knockout, submission, or decision, and I think he’s going to look really good in this matchup against the older Jansen. The line is high considering Jansen is a solid fighter in his own right, but Brooks should win this fight and the steed odds should came as no surprise to anyone.
