Ryan Bader dominates Matt Mitrione to advance to Bellator Grand Prix final
In a battle of former UFC talents, Ryan Bader dominated Matt Mitrione at Bellator 207 Friday at Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun to advance to January’s Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament finals to crown a new champion.
Bader, the promotion’s light heavyweight champion, took a unanimous decision by scores of 30-25, 30-24, and 30-25.
Bader’s wrestling and pure dominance on the mat negated anything Mitrione tried to do, leading to, at one point, ten minutes of time without getting any offense in.
In the opening round, Bader, outweighed by roughly 25 pounds, was dominant, grounding Mitrione early and using his wrestling to control him. He leveraged that to land hard left hands that Mitrione had no answer for, easily winning a 10-8 round on this writer’s scorecard.
In the second round, Mitrione threw hands trying to hurt Bader, but Bader took him down within seconds and went to work again with more of the same. He locked on a kimura midway through the round that almost got Mitrione to tap, but he was able to defend enough to barely survive. Mitrione was exhausted at the end of the round, arguably another 10-8.
The third round started the same way: with Bader easily getting a takedown, but the crowd was less and less enthusiastic. Bader tired a bit, but didn’t let Mitrione escape, pounding him on the mat and using his wrestling to outclass his opponent for another 10-8.
The promotion returns Saturday night at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY, with the other Heavyweight Grand Prix semi-final featuring Chael Sonnen vs. Fedor Emelianenko. Starting at 9 PM Eastern, we’ll have live coverage of that show courtesy of Paul Fontaine. Like tonight, the show can be seen on Paramount Network and DAZN.
In the co-main event, Sergei Kharitonov defeated Roy Nelson by knockout with one second left to go in the first round afer he unloaded a barrage of unanswered punches that ended wih Nelson Flair flopping. Kharitonov got a point taken in the first round after he kneed Nelson in the head while he was kneeling.
On the undercard:
- Lorenz Larkin took a unanimous decision win over Ion Pascu (29-28 x3) to earn the alternate position in the Welterweight Grand Prix.
- Corey Browning scored a minor upset with a second round TKO of Kevin “Baby Slice” Ferguson Jr. in an entertaining fight.
- Mandel Nallo defeated Carrington Banks with a second round knockout of the year candidate, a standing knee to Banks’ chin that had him out on his feet.