Best Performance Of The Night: Neil Grove At Bellator 47

And once again it’s time for a “Best Performance of the Night” award, fans and friends. MMA fans were given a bit of a treat last week with Strikeforce on Friday and Bellator on Saturday. Both events were solid, with several interesting finishes. At Bellator 47, it would be the other fights that would end up impressing me the most rather than the semi-final “Summer Series” fights that I was eagerly anticipating. And the man that impressed me the most was Neil Grove, who battled back from the brink to score a brilliant TKO victory. Here’s why that performance deserves this award.

As always, let’s put everything into context.

For the longest time, I couldn’t remember where I heard the name “Zak Jensen”. Then it finally clicked: Jensen was a member of the star-filled tenth season of “The Ultimate Fighter”. Unfortunately, that season also had some of the most atrocious fights I’ve ever seen, both in TUF and in general. Jensen’s big moment on TUF came when he was accused of masturbating in a communal shower and then promptly passed out during a practice session. Jensen was also the last pick of Quinton Jackson’s “Team Rampage” and would lose his first and only TUF 10 fight in the very first round.

In short: TUF 10 wasn’t kind to Zak Jensen. Unfortunately, MMA in general wasn’t kind to Jensen either, especially at Bellator 47. With an overall record of 10-6, Jensen drew Neil Grove for his first opponent in Bellator.

Grove was “forty years young” coming into the bout, and had an overall MMA record of 10-3-1. Grove had a brief stint in the UFC, losing via first-round heel hook. Grove quickly turned it all around when he entered the Bellator cage, punching his ticket to the finals of Bellator’s first Heavyweight Tournament with a pair of fantastic TKO wins. The submission game would end up doing him in again, though, as Cole Konrad would beat Grove by first-round submission.

When the fight started, it became clear that both men wanted to go for the knock out as quickly and dramatically as possible.

Both men came out swinging for the fences, and Grove would end up getting dropped. After absorbing some heavy shots, Grove somehow managed to turn the fight around and put Jensen on his back. Grove would end up attempting a heel hook, and Bellator fans both at home and in attendance were treated to an awesome, crazy visual: Jensen and Grove blasting each other numerous times while both were trying to turn the submission to their advantage.

In the end, Grove would abandon the submission in favor of more Ground and Pound from guard. Jensen continued to try and fight back, but would end up eating several hard shots. After a final flurry, the referee would step in to save a dazed, badly messed up Jensen from any further punishment. An exhausted, jubilant Grove would make his case for a rematch with Cole Konrad in his post-fight interview.

Neil Grove is an interesting man. He’s forty years old but seems to be in the prime of his career. He has a few holes in his game, sure, but the man is very entertaining. And other than him and Cole Konrad, Bellator’s Heavyweight division is honestly lacking in talent. Cole Konrad is undoubtedly the best Heavyweight in Bellator, but there’s no denying that Neil Grove is the #2 Heavyweight. He proved just that at Bellator 47, and that’s why he deserves “Best Performance of the Night”.