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CURRAN WINS LIGHTWEIGHT TOURNEY IN BELLATOR
Thursday, June 10, 2010 - by Damon Martin - MMAWeekly.com
He was an underdog when the Bellator Fighting
Championships lightweight tournament started, but now Pat Curran is
$100,000 richer and gets a shot at Eddie Alvarez later this year after
defeating Toby Imada on Thursday night.
The young fighter
first brought to prominence as a fighter on the TapouT reality show and
nicknamed "Paddy Mike" by the crew, has grown up a lot in the last few
weeks. Curran first hit the main stage when he defeated earlier
tournament favorite Roger Huerta in his semifinal match-up, before
moving on to face Imada this week.
Toby Imada, last year's
lightweight runner-up, held his own in the fight, but struggled to get
Curran to the mat or keep him there on the few occasions he could get
the Indian based fighter down. The fighters traded big shots early and
often, making every round a tough call for the judges.
The
third round may have been the only decisive round with Curran tagging
Imada with a big left hook that opened Imada up, and a steady stream of
blood began flowing over his eye. The round continued with more back
and forth, but Imada looked like the more damaged fighter when it was
over.
The judges scorecards all read 29-28, but two judges saw
the fight go Pat Curran's way and he was declared the winner by split
decision, and is now the season 2 Bellator lightweight champion. Curran
will now enjoy a little down time before being scheduled for a shot at
current Bellator champion and top ten lightweight, Eddie Alvarez, later
this year.
Top rated women's star Megumi Fujii wasted no time
showing her dominance in her Bellator debut, as she outworked and just
out fought Sarah Schneider, before getting a third round stoppage by
TKO. The Japanese based Fujii worked her takedowns flawlessly
throughout the fight, moving in and out of Schneider's guard.
In
the third round, after a quick takedown from Fujii, she worked back to
mount yet again and this time just began to reign down shots on
Schneider and she had no answer, as the referee stepped in to stop the
fight. Fujii will now await the start of the first ever Bellator
women's tournament, in which she will be a heavy favorite to take home
the gold when it's over.
The final fight on the televised card
saw Mike Hayes win a fairly uninspired fight against Steve Banks by
unanimous decision. Neither fighter looked overly aggressive during the
bout, but in the end Hayes was able to work enough striking to pick up
the win.
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