SBG Prove Dominant With 10 Wins At Dublin's Bellator 217: Event Recap:
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| James Gallagher returns with a finish! |
On it's return to the Emerald Isle, Bellator MMA stacked the capital card high with talent from the widely expanding Straight Blast Gym and Saturday night's event seen an influx of SBG victories from the Prelims to the Main Card. Ahead of it's September return, Bellator 217 served as the homecoming for fan favourite James 'The Strabanimal' Gallagher in the main event slot against the experienced Steven 'Golden' Graham. The SBGi product closed the show in the opening five minutes, following suit with his teammates before him.
PRELIMS:
The curtain raiser featured George Courtney and Ian Cleary and throughout the three round affair before a late finish, both men engaged in an often tentative striking match with Courtney ultimately finding a much needed guillotine with the judges certainly leaning toward Cleary who had the better of the aforementioned exchanges before the stoppage.
SBG Concorde trainee Dylan Logan was pitted alongside Carlow native Andrew Murphy in the second contest of the evening and finished in style with an armbar after threatening on the ground. Showing some promising striking in the opening moments, Logan implemented a halting front kick before the fight ending scramble.
Our premier knockout of the evening came next with the still undefeated Chris Duncan stopping Sam Slater in the opening round after some cagey exchanges between the pair before the Scotland native scored the W.
A continental clash featuring England's Alfie Davies and Italian Daniele Scatizzi was our first fight to reach the judges scorecards with all three judges scoring the bout in favour of Davies
Cahir striker Will Fleury made his second walk for the promotion against Shaun Taylor and after some really entertaining striking exchanges with Fleury looking sharp, the former Brave FC star found a second round finish via rear-naked choke as he moved to 5-1 as a professional.
Russia's Olga Rubin remained undefeated against Dutch opponent Iony Razafiarison with a unanimous decision victory, albeit close at 29-28.
SBG product Leah McCourt may have had the most dominant preformance of the evening as she mounted Turkish rival Hatice Ozyurt early in the opening round and exacted damaging ground and pound with elbows, with Ozyurt forced to sit out the second round after a doctor stoppage.
SBG Charlestown striker Ryan 'Chaos' Curtis was almost equally dominant on his way to success dropping Luis Gonzalez on multiple occasions before a buzzer beating ground and pound win to move to 5-1.
Walter Gahadza claimed a massive head kick knockout over Ruben Crawford in the first round after coming out on top in almost all of the striking exchanges before hand.
Kickboxing champion Richard 'The Face' Kiely made good on his Bellator call as he slept opponent Mickael Bucher in the first round with a devastating overhand right, with Bucher eyeing a single leg on the official after the fact. Kiely bounces back to winning ways after a brief retirment following his Welterwight title loss to Alex Lohore at BAMMA 32.
Wiley former UFC striker Paul Redmond found himself on the winning side of the scorecards after a back and forth clash with opponent Charlie Leary with a 29-28 unanimous decision triumph finding it's way on to the seasoned Lightweight's résumé.
The featured Prelim of the night seen the hugely popular Charlie Ward, who stole the show with an incredible 34 second one punch knockout over Jamie Stephenson to move to 3-0 in the promotion with the Mountmellick native picking up three straight stoppages.
Main Card:
Richie Smullen got us underway in the main card in a clinch wrestling heavy match up with Adam Gustab with the SBG prodigy picking up a unanimous decision victory with all three judges scoring the three round contest in favour of the one time TUF contender.
Heavy hitter Kiefer 'BDK' Crosbie also showed a well adapted and evolved game for his short lived first round meeting with Daniel Olejniczak with the Dublin favourite landing well on Olejniczak before an eventual rear-naked choke victory movefd him to 2-0 in the promotion as he remained undefeated. Crosbie called for the introduction of a 165lbs division in his post-fight interview with colour commentator 'Big' John McCarthy. Expect 'BDK' to get the call for the organisation's September come back.
Bad blood was the story line heading into out co-main event of the night at SBG Naas head coach Peter 'The Showstopper' Queally met former training partner and SBGi trainee Myles Price in and Ireland vs. Ireland showdown. The narrative of this one was intense with many pointing at Price's decision to move to San Jose, California with AKA ahead of fellow former teammate Conor McGregor's UFC 229 clash with Khabib Nurmagomedov. With no touch of gloves between the pair, Myles began looking to execute his wrestling gameplan from the opening bell with Waterford's Queally landing some good elbows from the clinch. Away from the fence, Peter was landing the more damaging shots, although sometimes telegraphing his overhand right allowing Price to duck under and secure the clinch more so in the second round. A late third round takedown for Price ultimately seen him clinch a split decision in a hugely close encounter. An exciting bout which could have easily gone either way.
Looking to bounce back from his premier career loss last August, Strabane native James Gallagher received a huge ovation upon his first contest on home soil since his Bellator bow with Amhrán na bhFiann ushering him to the cage for his ninth career walk. With submission wins a plenty on his fight record heading into the cage, James was expected to utilize his Jiu-Jitsu base early and did so almost right away as he shot a takedown on Graham as he approached and had the American on his back right away. Predicting a premier round finish, Gallagher transitioned to Graham's back and from a standing position managed to lock his hands under the neck before forcing the tap to a deafening reaction from the 3Arena crowd.
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