Bellator 169 recap: King Mo dominant in bland victory in promotion’s Ireland debut

Bellator MMA debuted in Dublin, Ireland, Friday in front of a packed house and a fairly rabid crowd…at least until the main event.

The fights all went pretty much as expected although the show was not nearly as entertaining as last week’s event in Florence, Italy. The event was part of a joint promotion with UK company BAMMA with the four fight main card airing via tape delay on Spike TV.

The main event was a boring three round heavyweight fight between Bellator stalwart King Mo and Japan’s Satoshi Ishii. Mo handily won all three rounds but never came close to finishing the Olympic medalist.

Ishii seemed very unwilling to engage the entire fight, despite Mo taunting him on several occasions and having his hands down for most of the fight. He was able to take him down seven times, but did virtually no damage on the ground. Mo was doing pretty well standing but just when it seemed he would have Ishii hurt, he’d take him down and just lie on top of him. 

The announcers were pushing Mo as a top contender for either the heavyweight or light heavyweight title. He did lose a close decision to Phil Davis and the heavyweight title is currently vacant so either of those is a definitive possibility. 

The biggest star to the local crowd was featured in the co-main event as featherweight James Gallagher, a training partner of UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, even got to the lights-out treatment during his ring introductions as he put his unbeaten record on the line against American Anthony Taylor.

Taylor and Gallagher had been sniping at each other all week via social media and had a confrontation at the weigh-ins. With just a 1-1 pro record for Taylor, this was clearly designed to be a showcase fight for Gallagher. However, the fight was much closer than anyone anticipated and I had it even at 19-19 going into the third.

In the final round, Gallagher took over. He had been softening up Taylor with leg kicks the whole fight and then took his back standing. He got on a body lock and was able to drag him to the mat. At that point, he quickly slapped on a rear naked choke for his fourth submission win in five career fights.

Gallagher cut a good promo after the fight where said this was his country and that’s what happens to people who disrespect him in his country. He’s just 20 years old and definitely has star potential but he had too much trouble with a guy he should’ve beaten easily and they need to be careful with him going forward. 

The opener saw journeyman featherweight Brian Moore of Ireland take on Bellator vet Daniel Weichel.

Weichel dominated Moore en route to a first round submission win and then called out division champion Daniel Straus, who has been out over a year due to injury. Weichel has now won seve of his eight Bellator fights and has definitely earned a shot at the belt. 

The second fight featured a pair of women’s bantamweights who both came into the fight with unbeaten records. Local product Sinead Kavanagh was the local favorite and she dominated her 18-year-old opponent, Greece’s Elina Kallionidou, en route to a decision victory. Either of the first two rounds could’ve gone 10-8 and I had it 30-26 for Kavanagh.

This was Bellator’s final event of 2016 and they return in January with Bellator 170 from Los Angeles, one of the biggest shows in company history. Chael Sonnen and Tito Ortiz will square off in a light heavyweight bout on January 21 with Phil Daley and Brennan Ward in the co-main.

Bellator 169 full results:

• King Mo (20-5) won a unanimous decision over Satoshi Ishii (14-7-1) on scores of 30-27 x 3 (heavyweights)
• James Gallagher (5-0) submitted Anthony Taylor (1-2) with a rear naked choke at 1:52 of the third round (featherweight)
• Sinead Kavanagh (4-0) won a unanimous decision over Elina Kallionidou (5-1) on scores of 30-27, 30-25 and 30-26 (women’s bantamweights)
• Daniel Weichel (38-9) submitted Brian Moore (9-5) with an arm triangle at 4:44 (featherweights)
• Cameron Else (4-3) won via KO over Ireland’s Dylan Tuke (3-1) in 20 seconds (Spike.com)