Best Performance Of The Night: Christian M'Pumbu At Bellator 45

It’s that time once again, fans and friends. Another major MMA event has come and gone, and it’s time for my unofficial “Best Performance of the Night” award. And while Bellator 45 was a good event, one fighter’s performance stood out very clearly from all the rest. Here’s why Christian M’Pumbu took home “Best Performance of the Night” for his thrilling three-round performance against Richard Hale.

Let’s begin this series as we always do, fans and friends: let’s put the fight into context.

Heading into Bellator 45, French-born Christian M’Pumbu had lost only three times in his seven-year career, with only one stoppage (a submission). M’Pumbu had also won seven of his last eight fights, with five (T)KO’s and one submission. Debuting at Bellator 38, M’Pumbu blasted his way to the top of the Light Heavyweight heap by scoring a pair of back-to-back TKO’s, first over Chris Davis and then over Tim Carpenter.

His opponent, Richard Hale, had also only lost three times up until Bellator 45. Hale walked into Bellator 45 with a four-fight win-streak and having won six of his last seven, with four stoppages. He made history in his Bellator debut, choking Nik Fekete unconscious with a brilliant Inverted Triangle. He then faced the very tough DJ Linderman and took him to a three-round decision, winning a hard-fought war by Split Decision. Hale’s gutsy performances and serious submission skills made him a very worthy adversary to M’Pumbu’s hard fists and unique fighting style.

And then the fight began, and several things became very evident.

First and foremost, it was clear that Hale’s skills were still developing as a striker. He just couldn’t get going against M’Pumbu, and M’Pumbu never seemed to be in any particular danger of getting the first (T)KO loss on his record. M’Pumbu’s clever style kept Hale at bay and caused him to land only a few damaging shots. And as the discrepancy between both men’s striking abilities became more and more pronounced, M’Pumbu would begin to attack frequently and hurt Hale often.

It then became apparent that Richard Hale has quite a formidable chin. He took a whole lot of damage, but he just kept coming. But therein lied his main problem: like Tim Carpenter, Hale was following and not “stalking” M’Pumbu. He was moving forward to try and press the action, but in reality he was falling deeper and deeper into M’Pumbu’s trap.

And finally, the trap sprang.

With one vicious hook, Richard Hale went down hard. M’Pumbu didn’t charge in immediately, thinking it was a flash knockout. But it wasn’t, and Hale had several precious seconds to regain his facilities before M’Pumbu pounced. Those seconds allowed Hale to hang tough for so long that some fans complained of a late stoppage when all was said and done. In the end, M’Pumbu would launch salvo after salvo and finally get the TKO win.

There are several reasons why M’Pumbu deserves this award, but it all boils down to one: the man is a monster. He doesn’t come in at 205, he weighed in at Bellator 45 at an incredible 199, but he still finds ways to take his opponents and just dominate them. It may not look like it at first glance, but you can’t honestly accuse him of being afraid to engage if his last five wins have all been by TKO. M’Pumbu isn’t just here to stay, he stands poised to be a serious force in all of Bellator and not just their Light Heavyweight division. And that’s why Christian M’Pumbu takes “Best Performance of the Night” for Bellator 45.