Best Of The Rest: Bellator 35

Hello once more fans and friends and welcome to another new edition of “Best of the Rest”! I really enjoy taking the time to give my detailed thoughts on a show after watching it, but after the serious discussion and debate I’ll raise in topics like “Top 5 Best Moments” and “Best Performance of the Night”, I think it’d be nice to have a tongue-in-cheek topic where I give out some other “awards”. It’s all in good fun, so don’t take any of it too seriously. So let’s dive right into this latest edition, now featuring Bellator 35.

The Cecil Peoples Award For Best Display Of Utter Blindness And Ineptitude: Oh yes, it’s the award so good that it just has to be brought back. This award is being given to the judges that fouled up what should have been a big win for Dan Hornbuckle, who should have defeated Brent Weedman. I’ll agree that the bout was pretty close, and I commend Weedman for his toughness, but there’s no other way to describe this fight other than to say that Weedman was gifted a decision win.

The Most Unexpected Yet Strangely Entertaining Fight of the Night Award: This one goes to Rick Hawn and Jim Wallhead, who basically engaged each other in a three-round brawl despite the fact that both men are very, very skilled in Judo. It was a meeting of two masters, and you’d expect that somebody would be sent flying every few minutes. That wasn’t the case at all, but strangely enough, that wasn’t such a bad thing since both men still put on a pretty entertaining performance. It’s pretty unusual that two high-level Judoka would simply abandon their best weapon and just trade leather, but it certainly wasn’t a boring fight.

The “Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t” Award: Referee Josh Rosenthal, who found himself between a rock and a hard place when he stopped the Jay Hieron/Anthony Lapsley bout even though Lapsley was probably still conscious. It was a very tricky position that the two men were in, in fact, it closely mirrored the position Urijah Faber had Takeya Mizugaki in when he choked him out. For those unaware, the referee in that fight gave Faber too much time, allowing Faber to hold in the choke several seconds after Mizugaki went limp. Rosenthal made a tough judgment call, and in all honesty, he probably saved Anthony Lapsley from Mizugaki’s fate. It was a tough call to make, but I personally think it was the right one.

The Brand New Day Award: Bellator itself, who seemed to reach a turning point at Bellator 35. As a jumping-on point for both myself and for what was probably the majority of the MTV2 audience, Bellator 35 was a big success. The commentary was pretty good, the aesthetic was nice, the fights were exciting, and you simply got a feel that this may not be the biggest promotion, but it’s got a lot of heart and the fighters want to entertain you. Bellator needed a good show to hook their audience, and it definitely worked, at least for me.

So that’s what I think, fans and friends. And remember, it’s all in good fun… mostly What about you? Any thoughts/opinions ready to be shared?