With a bantamweight championship rematch between Darrion Caldwell and Kyoji Horiguchi, light heavyweights Lyoto Machida and Chael Sonnen fighting in the co-main event, and welterweight champion Rory MacDonald taking on Neiman Gracie in the semifinals of the Welterweight Grand Prix among the featured bouts, this was easily the biggest event of the year for the company, and it certainly did not disappoint.
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SN looks at the biggest takeaways and talking points from Bellator 222:
1. Rory MacDonald defends title, defeats Neiman Gracie, sets up rematch with Douglas Lima
Seven weeks after publicly pondering his future in the cage, MacDonald earned a unanimous decision win over Gracie in the main event.
In securing a sweep of the scorecards, MacDonald not only handed Gracie the first loss of his career, but he also advanced to the finals of the Welterweight Grand Prix, where he’ll face off with two-time former champ Douglas Lima, whom he defeated for the title in January 2018.
MacDonald was technical and poised throughout. He outworked Gracie on the feet, landed successfully when in top position and defended well on the ground when the submission specialist went on the offensive. It wasn’t the type of bloody, punishing performance fans are used to from MacDonald, but it was the type of precise effort the British Columbia native predicted. The champion reminded everyone how skilled he can be inside the cage.
A date hasn’t been set yet for MacDonald-Lima 2, but you will want to tune in whenever it goes down because their first fight was outstanding, MacDonald seems to have found a balance between his faith and fighting and Lima has only gotten better. Those things make this one of the must-see fights of the year.
2. Lyoto Machida decimates Chael Sonnen, who calls it a career
Machida advanced to 2-0 under the Bellator MMA banner via a second-round technical knockout of Sonnen in the co-main event.
Sonnen started quickly, racing across the cage and looking to tie up with the karate stylist, but Machida was able to get free and started opening up with his kicks before flooring Sonnen with an outstanding flying knee late in the opening round. Although Sonnen survived, he ate the same strike early in the second and Machida got him out of there.
After the bout, Sonnen took off his gloves and announced his retirement, bringing an end to a 48-fight career that had an undeniable impact on the sport.
Whether you love him or hate him, Sonnen ushered in a new era of personalities becoming a major part of putting together fights, using his abilities on the microphone to secure matchups that his results might not have merited. He was a superstar without ever earning a major title and the guy who set the path that folks like Conor McGregor have followed.
Thank you, Chael.
3. Dillon Danis cruises to another dominant victory
Danis is a lot of things — a world champion jiu-jitsu player, a first-rate troll, a Conor McGregor acolyte, a guy with very bold fashion sense. After a first-round win over Humphrey, he’s also an unbeaten mixed martial artist (2-0).
The trash-talking Danis dominated from start to finish, meeting Humphrey in the middle and throwing hands before getting it to the floor and getting busy. After spending a large portion of the round demonstrating his ground-and-pound, Danis switched it up and went to his strength, cycling through submission setups before settling on an armbar and finishing belly-down.
The verbose 25-year-old has declared himself the best in the world — not in jiu-jitsu, but in MMA — and did so again after Friday’s victory, but the reality is he’s still raw early in his transition into the sport. It will be really interesting to see whether Bellator puts him on the traditional “build him up slowly” plan it has used with prospects in the past or if it opts to test Danis with a more established, more experienced opponent some time soon.
Either way, you can be sure “El Jefe” will have plenty to say about it.
4. Introducing Patrick Mix
If people didn’t know about Mix before he made his Bellator MMA debut Friday night, they sure do now. He made quick work of Ricky Bandejas with a first-round submission finish, pushing his record to 11-0.
The 25-year-old quickly locked up with Bandejas and looked to elevate and slam him to the canvas. While Bandejas maintained his balance, Mix was able to circle around to his back, where he promptly jumped up, locking in a body triangle and working his right arm under the chin. Though the New Jersey native looked to defend two-on-one as he was supposed to, Mix swept away the hand, sunk in the choke and drew the tap after they fell back to the canvas.
After going 11-0 as an amateur, Mix has now matched that mark in the professional ranks. The victory established him as one of the top emerging talents in the bantamweight division. This week’s Under the Radar fighter called out James Gallagher, and if the Irish upstart gets a win later this month, that wouldn’t be a bad fight to make.
5. Juan Archuleta starches Eduardo Dantas
Saying that Archuleta hasn’t lost a fight since March 2015 doesn’t quite do justice to the winning “The Spaniard” has done during that span.
Friday night, Archuleta extended his winning streak to 18 in spectacular fashion, blistering former Bellator champ Dantas with a right hand in the closing seconds of the second round. After stinging the Brazilian multiple times in the round, Archuleta rolled under a punch against the fence and countered with a right hand of his own as Dantas reset, catching him flush and sending him crashing to the canvas in a heap.
A former four-division champion under the King of the Cage banner, Archuleta is essentially the top contender at both bantamweight and featherweight and can choose his own adventure going forward. While he was hollering about challenging new champ Kyoji Horiguchi for the bantamweight title immediately following his win, Archuleta could also enter the upcoming Featherweight Grand Prix.
Whatever he decides to do, this performance cemented Archuleta as one of the top rising stars in the promotion and someone who should remain in the championship mix in multiple divisions for the foreseeable future.
6. Kyoji Horiguchi wins bantamweight title from Darrion Caldwell
Horiguchi returned to North America and continued his incredible run of success since fighting for the UFC flyweight title. The unanimous decision in the opening bout of Friday’s main card was his 13th consecutive victory.
The Rizin standout welcomed Caldwell to Japan on New Year’s Eve and scored a third-round submission finish to secure that promotion’s bantamweight belt. Caldwell promised a different result in the rematch, but Horiguchi was the more active of the two throughout on Friday, outworking “The Wolf” for the majority of the contest despite getting taken down and being held against the fence for long stretches.
Horiguchi’s win creates an interesting situation for the promotion. He is contractually obligated to defend the title inside the Bellator cage once a year, but he will also continue to compete in Japan.
On one hand, the arrangement puts a Bellator champion in front of a larger international audience and makes a strong case for the organization having the best bantamweight in the world. On the other hand, he could take a loss overseas, which wouldn’t cost him the belt but wouldn’t exactly be what the promotion would want from one of its champions.
Regardless of what the future holds, Friday night was another outstanding effort by the 28-year-old Horiguchi, who continues to make a case for being one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
7. Adam Borics rallies, stops Aaron Pico
It was surprising to see Bellator match the highly touted Pico against undefeated rising star Borics with Pico coming off a first-round knockout loss, but for the first seven minutes or so of this bout, everything looked to be going Pico’s way.
Fighting for the first time since shifting his training to Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque, N.M., Pico used his wrestling to keep Borics grounded and nullify his dangerous striking. Midway through the second, however, the unbeaten Hungarian started stuffing Pico’s attempts. With just over a minute left in the frame, Borics landed a flying knee that put the former Olympic wrestling hopeful on the canvas. The finish came seconds later.
Even though he entered with the better record, this was still a massive moment for Borics — a fighter with with tons of potential who hasn’t garnered nearly enough attention. At the same time, it was another devastating loss for Pico, who was hyped as one of the best prospects to enter the sport but has suffered three bad knockout losses in his two-year career.
While this performance should propel Borics into the championship mix — because it’s his fourth straight win in Bellator, not because he beat Pico — the bigger question is what comes next for his opponent. The move to Jackson-Wink feels like a good one for Pico and he was wise to use his wrestling against Borics, but he still needs to develop a better feel inside the cage, a better flow with his weapons. You also have to wonder what kind of impact these major setbacks will have on the young man’s psyche.
8. Valerie Loureda shines, Heather Hardy gets stopped
The two highest-profile female competitors on Friday night’s card had very different nights.
Loureda pushed her record to 2-0 with a solid effort against late-notice opponent Larkyn Dasch. The 20-year-old Taekwondo stylist landed several hard kicks to the body and stung her surprisingly resilient opponent.
Two fights later, Hardy walked into the cage and got steamrolled by Taylor Turner, the wife of Knoxville MMA head coach Eric Turner. Almost immediately, Turner put the champion boxer on the canvas, advanced to mount and eventually forced referee Blake Grice to stop the fight following a torrent of unanswered blows.
Although there are obvious elements of Loureda’s game that need improvement, she also has obvious upside and plenty of time to blossom into a bankable addition to the Bellator MMA flyweight ranks. Hardy, on the other hand, is making it clear that her transition into mixed martial arts has come either too late in life or that she’s fighting at too high a level. Four fights in, her skills are still rudimentary at best and she has no answers once the fight hits the ground.
9. Prospects VanZandt, Kimbel, Gracie earn victories
The preliminary card included three interesting matchups that featured promising young fighters. All three came away with victories.
In the second bout of the evening, Robson Gracie Jr. picked up his second career victory, a first-round armbar finish over Oscar Vera. After that, Connecticut’s Mike Kimbel bounced back from his first career loss with a dominant effort against Sebastian Ruiz in a fight that had no business being scored a split decision.
In the first “crossover bout” of the evening, Lindsay VanZandt collected a first-round submission win over popular Japanese competitor Rena Kubota, taking the Rizin fighter to the canvas and putting her to sleep with a rear-naked choke.
All three fighters are early into their professional careers and all three show varying degrees of upside. These were all solid tests and the trio passed with flying colors, with VanZandt earning the highest grade of the group.
Bellator has historically done a good job of bringing promising, inexperienced fighters along slowly and giving them every opportunity to find success and blossom into recognizable names. All three of these athletes could earn that kind of opportunity going forward. They at least should have earned main-card opportunities with their performances Friday.
10. Remember Phil Hawes?
A few years ago, Hawes was “The Next Big Thing” — a collegiate wrestler-turned-MMA prospect who was built like a tank, trained at Jackson-Wink MMA and was projected for greatness. He rattled off four straight victories as an amateur and went 4-0 to start his professional career. Back-to-back stoppage losses to Louis Taylor and Julian Marquez brought his momentum to a screeching halt.
A little less than two years later, Hawes returned and scored a first-round stoppage win over Michael Wilcox in the first bout of the night.
Now training with Team Tiger Schulmann in New York, Hawes brutalized Wilcox over the opening five minutes, leaving him with a bloody visage and a swollen eye. The damage was enough to cause the fight to be waved off. After referee Todd Anderson determined that a punch caused the damage, Hawes was awarded the stoppage victory.
Hawes’ career has been a long, strange trip that has taken him from hyped prospect to 30-year-old on the comeback trail, and while this was just a single victory, it was a very good performance and a fresh start. It will be interesting to see if he can turn it into something more.
