BELLATOR MMA 273: BADER VS. MOLDAVSKY MAIN CARD:
C-Ryan Bader (29-7, 1 NC) defeated IC-Valentin Moldavsky (11-2) via unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 48-47)
Ryan Bader defends his heavyweight title: ““Obviously, it was a really close fight and at the end there I’m like man that’s a toss up. I felt like I did more damage but it felt so good considering the last fight was a fight I lost. But it was a back and forth, even fight the whole five rounds. It’s just anticlimactic to go out there and have a exciting heavyweight championship five-rounder with a tough dude in Arizona. I wanted that bad!
I’m never too confident, going to judges you know. It’s the first time in my life that I was hoping that they weren’t scoring for the wrestling. I was rocking him pretty good with my punches and I was seeing everything clearly. I underestimated his clenching, his body lock, he kept stepping in front of me with this weird move and he’s stronger than I thought. I’ve never been picked up like before…but I just told myself to keep getting up and then keep with the strikes. At the end there he was just holding on and I landed 20 unanswered elbows to his head. Those can’t be ignored and so when he went to the score cards, I said who knows now…”
#6-Benson Henderson (29-11) defeated #7-Islam Mamedov (20-2-1) via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Benson Henderson following the win in front of his hometown: “Fighting in front of my adopted hometown Phoenix, AZ, it’s amazing. Last time I didn’t give Arizona a very good show. This time, I thought I had a better performance so win or lose I knew that I could live with that. Just having a good performance, not a great performance but having a good performance, as opposed to having a bad performance, win or lose you always feel good after great performances. We’re seeking perfection. If you write a book, all these journalists, all these moviemakers, they want to make them part of a movie then make an amazing movie. If you want to, then you have to do your absolute best out there and that’s why I’m always after a better performance.”
“Tonight, getting my hand raised is awesome. This was the first time I fought in front of my sons, my two oldest sons. My 6 year-old and my 4-year-old. Tonight was a great night, but they’re not all great nights so I’m learning to definitely appreciate the good ones when I have them.”
“I felt that I did enough to deserve to get my hand raised, but you just never know. Like Burt Watson always says, if you leave it to the judges, they’re going to make you cry. He is absolutely right. So, I definitely don’t ever want to leave it to the judges. When someone says split decision I’m like oh no, my boys are in the ring…but it was a good night, so I was thankful for it.”
Henry Corrales (20-6) defeated Aiden Lee (10-6) via unanimous technical decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27) – (accidental eye poke)
Henry Corrales following his victory: “That’s definitely not the way I wanted to end it here in Phoenix. The fans deserve more and that’s nothing against him, it’s just kind of a late finish and this was the final fight on my contract. This was my 15th fight with BELLATOR and my 20th win, so there’s a lot riding on this fight. I needed to go out there and put on a good performance…I tried.”
I didn’t feel like I really poked him to be honest with you and the replay was showing that it just didn’t look as serious as he was playing it off to be, but it’s the eye, so only he knows how much that hurt. He was super upset after and I was like hey big dog I didn’t poke you on purpose. I mean this is a fist fight! But, he was walking away from the cage after and he was acting disappointed the the fight was stopped but while the fight was going on he wasn’t really fighting. His demeanor was off and he was kind of whimpering on shots and it’s like dude you weren’t really going, you were just acting.”
Sabah Homasi (16-10) defeated Jaleel Willis (15-4) via submission (arm-triangle) at 1:42 of round one
Sabah Homasi following his submission win: “It’s one of the kicks I threw I just kicked hard man. I expect this after every fight but just a little swelling. It’s the same stuff after every fight man from all my kicks.”
“You know I just I take whatever they give me. I had his back, I thought I was going to get the rear naked. I don’t like to exert too much energy on something, so if I don’t have it I’m not going to force it. I’m going to take something that’s there, so I let it go and I set up a little trap. It’s something that I’ve transitioned with very well from the back to that trick, so it was there and I took it.”
“He was saying something to me earlier and if he’s saying something to me he should say it like a man. Say it with your damn chest, don’t whisper it. I forgot what he said, but I told him he was going to feel real power tonight and that was it and then obviously quick fight. I’m healthy, I’m in great shape, going to get back in the gym and whenever BELLATOR lets me know I’ll give my manager the green light.”
PRELIMINARY CARD:
Enrique Barzola (17-5-2) defeated Darrion Caldwell (15-6) via TKO (strikes) at 3:01 of round three
Chris Gonzalez (7-1) defeated Saad Awad (24-14, 1 NC) via KO (punches) at :36 of round one
Dalton Rosta (6-0) defeated Duane Johnson (6-3) via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Nikita Mikhailov (9-1) defeated Blaine Shutt (8-6) via TKO (punches) at 3:23 of round three
Lucas Brennan (6-0) defeated Ben Lugo (5-5) via submission (arm-triangle choke) at 2:27 of round one
Sullivan Cauley (3-0) defeated Ben Parrish (5-2) via TKO (punches) at 4:35 of round one
