#bellator288

In a year full of bag fumblers, Corey Anderson somehow fumbles the bag the hardest. Amazing stuff. 

Nemkov is your long awaited Bellator LHW Grand Prix winner meaning he is still your Bellator Light Heavyweight champion and now has $1 million. After that first fight where he got absolutely dominated by Anderson before the headbutt that ultimately ended the fight, Nemkov went down to ATT to work his wrestling and it paid huge dividends. Anderson shot like 15+ times in this fight for the takedown and got none of them. Nemkov kept this a kickboxing match all throughout. He reminds me a lot of Ankalaev in that he’s really a jack of all trades as opposed to a master. Like he’s a competent striker but the fact that he’s fast is what makes his striking work. It’s rudimentary, but it’s sound. The jab/double jab-cross was on full display tonight as Corey got caught at range repeatedly as he struggled to find entries into shots. The leg kick was also an effective tool for Nemkov as it kept Anderson off his front foot. Nemkov even managed to score a HL knockdown with a spinning wheel kick at the end of the first that had Anderson shook.

But this is the issue Bellator runs in to when you pick up fighters who are making their MMA debut or are like 3-0 when they sign long term deals and spend like 2 years developing them. Not everyone is going to turn out to be Michael Chandler. Faraldo is a big 170lber but he doesn’t seem to be very adept as a grappler or wrestler. At least not defensively. And his cage craft has done him no favors. Levan Chokheli is having no problems putting him on the fence. He finally hurts Chokheli with some space, dropping him momentarily but ends up grabbing the fence as Chokheli desparately takes him down and getting a point taken.

Bellator 288 prelims kicking off now