Bellator 44 Preview

     Bellator Season 4 nears it's end with my most anticipated Bellator card.  Bellator 44 takes place at Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Headlined by my #7 ranked Middleweight in the world and Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard, who takeson veteran Falaniko Vitale in a non-title affair.  Also on the card is the Lightweight Tournament Final which finds Patricky Friere taking on Michael Chandler.  Lyman Good was set to take on Dan Hornbuckle which would of been a great addition to this card but an injury to Good forced the fight to be canceled, hopefully this fight gets booked again down the road.  In it's place on the main card is a  bantamweight tournament qualifier match between Bryan Goldsby and Antony Morrison.  Rounding out the card is Alexander Shlemenko taking on Brett Cooper.


Main Event
Hector Lombard vs Falaniko Vitale
On perhaps the biggest non UFC winning streak since Fedor Emelienenko Lombard is unbeaten in 22 straight bouts.  Vitale, making his Bellator debut has won 3 in a row with all 3 being finishes and has an overall record of  29-9.  Vitale is always game having been in the cage against some pretty tough opponents and having 2 UFC fights should want to get this down to the mat and avoid Shango's power but even on the ground he shouldn't be out of danger.

My Prediction Lombard TKO 2nd Round- I think Vitale could be baited into a stand up fight that Lombard should be able to win.

Lightweight Tournament Final
Patricky Freire vs Michael Chandler
Freire got to the finals by beating Toby Imada and Rob McCullough by KO and has won 5 in a row overall.  Chandler got here by beating Lloyd Woodard and Macin Held.  Freire got to the finals in a more impressive fashion (and against tougher opponents in my opinion) but we shouldn't count Chandler out he could use his superior wrestling and grind out a win here.

My Prediction Freire TKO 2nd Round-  I've made it pretty clear throughout this tournament that I'm a big Freire fan but I just think he has more ways to win this fight and will do so with a TKO.

Alexander Smelenko vs Brett Cooper
Smelenko the winner of the Season 2 Middleweight tournament returns to Bellator after having lost to Hector Lombard brings a career record of 38-7 with an impressive 24 KO's.  Cooper has won 2 in a row both by KO and brings a career record of 13-6.  I see this being a pretty entertaining stand up war with Schlemenko the more technical Cooper will probably want to turn this into a slug fest and get it over quick.

My Prediction Shlemenko TKO 2nd Round- Shlemenko should be able to withstand the early barrage from Cooper and finish him off in the 2nd.


Bryan Goldsby vs Anthony Morrison 
The winner will see him self entered in bantamweight tournament.  Morrison enters this bout with a career 16-10 but has come up short in his last 3 outings.  Goldsby looks to get above .500 as he has a career record of 13-13.

My Prediction Morrison TKO 2nd Round

Tweet