Bellator 92 went down tonight in Temecula, California, and overall it was a fun card that saw two favorites win, while two underdogs cashed. Here’s a betting recap for the event based on closing MMA odds: BELLATOR BETTING FAVORITES THAT WON In the main event of the evening, Frodo Khasbulaev defeated Marlon Sandro via third-round TKO to advance to the Bellator featherweight finals. It was a dominating performance by Khasbulaev, who took a nasty groin shot in the first round yet was able to continue and make it through to the third and finish the tough Sandro. Khasbulaev closed as a -130 favorite (bet $130 to win $100), while Sandro closed as a +120 underdog (bet $100 to win $120). In a Bellator middleweight semifinal, Brett Cooper came back from being down two rounds to knock out Dan Cramer in the third and move on to the finals. In the first round, Cramer took Cooper’s back and had his way with him and the second round was all Cramer too, but Cooper fought hard for the finish and earned the win in the third. It was an unreal comeback by Cooper, who was easily down 20-18 and possibly 20-17 on the scorecards before turning on his engine in the third and going for the kill. Cooper closed as a favorite -185, while Cramer was a +170 underdog. BELLATOR BETTING UNDERDOGS THAT WON In the other middleweight semifinal, Doug Marshall cashed as a huge +310 underdog as he defeated Sultan Aliev via controversial split decision, the judges scoring it 29-28, 29-28, 27-30 in favor of Marshall. It appeared as though Aliev deserved to win the first and third rounds 10-9, but his inactivity on the ground combined with some strange standups from referee Herb Dean resulted in Marshall getting enough chances in the standup to outpoint Aliev in the judges’ eyes and win the fight. Marshall closed as a +310 underdog, while Aliev was a -340 favorite. In the first fight of the main card, Mike Richman defeated Alexandre “Popo” Bezerra via controversial split decision to move on to the featherweight semifinals. The fight was extremely close, with Adam Martin and Luca Fury of MMAOddsbreaker.com scoring it a 28-28 draw with a 10-8 round for “Popo” in the first after he had Richman in back mount for the entire round and 10-9, 10-9 for Richman in the second and third rounds for his superior striking. But the judges ultimately chose not to award a 10-8 round and went with Richman. Bezerra closed as a -150 favorite, while Richman cashed as a +140 underdog. OTHER MMA BETTING ODDS AND ENDS FROM THE DAY The UFC 158 pre-fight media conference call went down today, and co-headliner Nick Diaz stole the show. Diaz was the star of the call as he swore and moaned about topics such as the state of MMA, the way UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has treated him, and even complained about a soccer mom in California who allegedly rolled down her car window and told him, “I hope GSP beats your ass!” Diaz is currently at +400 for the fight against St-Pierre next week, while St-Pierre is a -500 favorite.
