Fight Facts: Bellator ‘Newcastle’
Here's your recap of round three between @PatrickyPitbull and @RyanScope1.
— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) February 10, 2019
Who do you think won tonight at #BellatorNewcastle? pic.twitter.com/Lam95zrohj
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TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR MMA FIGHTS: 2,263
TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR MMA EVENTS: 215
Bellator MMA on Saturday launched its European Series with a successful outing in Newcastle, England. Bellator “Newcastle” featured a plethora of first-round finishes, a historic win for a member of a prominent brother team and a dazzling number of consecutive stoppages.
EUROTRIP: Bellator “Newcastle” was the first event of a European Series from Bellator MMA that does not adhere to the traditional event numbering scheme. The promotion has done something similar in the past with the Bellator Monster Energy Fight Series, starting in 2014. In that series, it has held six events at NASCAR races to date, all short cards consisting of four fights or fewer.
INCREDIBLE TREND: Bellator 214, which preceded this effort, ended up featuring 12 first-round finishes, the most in promotional history. This event had nine, tying Bellator 199 for the third-most in company history. The 21 combined first-round stoppages are the most ever for back-to-back Bellator events.
THE HITS KEPT COMING: Bellator 214 started with nine consecutive stoppages, good for the second-most stoppages in a row to start an event. Bellator 157 started with 15 straight stoppages and ended with a split decision.
NINESTEIN: With nine straight finishes, Bellator 214 tied Bellator 144 for the third-longest finish streak at an event in company history. Bellator 138 had 10 straight stoppages, while Bellator 157 had 15.
HE’S EVERYWHERE: Appearing for the 21st time inside the Bellator cage, Patricky Freire tied David Rickels for the most bouts in Bellator history.
BULLY FOR YOU!: When he defeated Ryan Scope by a contentious split decision, Freire earned his 14th win with Bellator, tying Rickels for the third-most wins in company history. They trail Michael Chandler (16) and Freire’s younger brother, Patricio Freire (16).
TWO BROTHERS. IN A VAN. AND THEN A METEOR HIT.: With Freire’s win, the “Pitbull” brothers now hold a combined 30 victories under the Bellator banner. It ranks as the most wins for a brother tandem in single major promotion, followed by the Nogueira brothers in Pride Fighting Championships (25), the Miller brothers in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (24) and the Diaz brothers in the UFC (21).
LEARNING EXPERIENCE: In his previous four bouts combined, Aaron Chalmers had fought for 5:37 in the cage. His bout with Corey Browning nearly doubled that, as he competed for 10:20 in a losing effort. Prior to this bout, Chalmers had never competed beyond 2:09.
NOT A HAIL MARY: In tapping Chalmers with a heel hook in the third round, Browning became the first fighter in Bellator history to secure the maneuver after the second round. All but two of the other heel hooks performed in Bellator came in the first round.
BUNGLED IT ALL UP: Closing as a +525 underdog, Chris Bungard upset Terry Brazier (-750) with a first-round submission. The win was the biggest betting upset since Browning (+650) upset Kevin Ferguson Jr. (-1000) at Bellator 207.
NEW SENSATION: Fabian Edwards, the younger brother of ranked UFC welterweight Leon Edwards, reached the scorecards for the first time in his career. Improving his record to 6-0 with a decision win over Lee Chadwick, Edwards had never fought beyond 44 seconds of Round 2 in any of his previous bouts.
DOUBLE-A VICTORY: Forcing the doctors to intervene and call a stop to the fight, Arunas Andriuskevicus finished James Mulheron due to cuts. Across his 15 wins, 14 have come by stoppage.
IN SEQUENCE: After picking up his 30th career victory with a decision over Abner Lloveras, Jim Wallhead has now knocked out 11 opponents, submitted 10 others and won on the scorecards nine times.
USE YOUR ELBOWS: In an unaired preliminary bout, Mindaugus Gerve defeated Tony Mustard when the latter injured his hand. It was the first time in Bellator history a fight has ended from a hand injury, this after 13 previous injury TKO stoppages.
NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into Bellator Newcastle, four fighters -- Chalmers, Ranjeet Baria, Richard Kallos and Milad Ahady -- had never been defeated, Scope had never lost on the scorecards (11 fights) and Brazier had never been submitted (11 fights).
Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012, and writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on Twitter at @jaypettry.
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