Crash Course: Bellator 47 Edition

MMA fans are in for a bit of a miniature “Perfect Storm” weekend, with both Strikeforce and Bellator putting out solid-looking shows this weekend. While Friday fight fans will be treated to Strikeforce’s “Challengers 17” event, the MTV2 crowd gets Bellator 47 live on Saturday. Once again, here’s a new edition of “Crash Course” designed to give you all the details on everything you need to know heading into this event. Let’s get started.

The Event: Bellator 47, currently scheduled for July 23 at the Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario, Canada. The event will be broadcast live on the MTV2 network starting at 9 PM ET and 8 PM CT.

Why You Should Care: It’s very rare that Bellator travels outside the United States, so this show should have a pretty unique atmosphere. Also, this event will see the second round of Bellator’s “Summer Series” Featherweight Tournament. Both semi-final fights have a huge amount of potential. And finally, you’ve also got the Bellator debut of former WEC and IFL veteran Chris Horodecki.

What to Look Forward to in the Main Event: The main attraction of this event will be the two Featherweight Tournament semi-finals, so it’s a toss-up as to which fight will get the push to “main event” status. So instead I’ll simply talk first about the one semi-final fight I’m looking forward to the most.

Pat Curran is currently 4-1 in Bellator, with his only loss being to Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez. Curran has stormed through Bellator with a series of fantastic finishes, including his recent opening-round submission win via Peruvian Necktie. Meanwhile, Ronnie Mann is 20-2 and is coming off a fantastic KO victory in his first-round performance. With this fights, we’re basically getting a finals match-up in the semi-finals.

What to Look Forward to in the Co-Main Event: The other semi-final fight features Marlon Sandro taking on Nazareno Malegarie. Both men worked hard but faced some considerable difficulty in getting to the second round: Sandro won his first-round fight by Split Decision, while it took Malegarie three rounds of getting beat on before he locked in the submission he had been searching for. Both men need to impress in this bout in order to set themselves up as something more than just a “dark horse” contender, and that’s going to bring out the best in both of them.

Why You Should Watch This Card: Entertaining fighters fight entertaining fights when matched up in interesting ways. It’s really as simple as that, but it’s a formula a lot of failed promotions seemed incapable of grasping. Thankfully, Bellator isn’t one of those promotions. All signs point towards Bellator 47 being well worth watching and perhaps even a “sleeper hit”.

Why You Shouldn’t Watch This Card: While the two semi-final fights should be good, it’s a toss-up as to how entertaining the other two fights will be. Also, this event was to have seen Patricio Freire take on Joe Warren, but that fight was cancelled. All four fights on this card have potential, but it’s by no means the strongest card Bellator has ever put together.

Closing Thoughts: This looks like it’ll be another solid night of action from one of my favorite promotions. Thanks completely to the quality of their cards, I’ve gone from not knowing about Bellator to becoming a Bellator super-fan in only a few months. There’s no way I’m missing this card.