At Bellator 44 last night, there were a lot of highlight reel moments, but none more than the fifteen-minute war between Brett Cooper and Alexander Shlemenko. The two men met in a pivotal middleweight qualifying bout for the upcoming middleweight tournament, which is said to kickoff sometime this summer. Both are all too familiar with the tournament format and were hoping for an impressive showing, and thought only one man left the cage the winner, both put on memorable performances. ...

The middleweight match-up pitting Alexander Shlemenko against Brett Cooper had all the promises of being a slobber knocker of a bout. Both men are familiar with each other's styles, as they have trained together in the past. Cooper moved up to the middleweight class full time following an impressive showing against Matt Major under the Bellator banner while Alexander won the season two middleweight tournament, pocketed $100k and earned his shot at the title against champion Hector Lombard. Though he came up short in his bid to become champion, Shlemenko did much to improve his image when tonight he defeated Cooper over the course of a riveting three-round affair. ...

Bellator's welterweight semifinals take place May 20 and the match-ups have been officially announced with Ryan Thomas (13-4) getting a second chance against Ben Askren (4-0). ...

“African Assassin” Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou has signed to be “Babalu” Renato Sobral’s (30-8) new opponent, and welterweight Patrick Speight (7-1) will face Brett Cooper (6-3) at Affliction: Day of Reckoning 24 January in Anaheim, CA, the organization announced Thursday. Sokoudjou, Fighters.com's tenth-ranked light heavyweight, was recently released from the UFC after his second-round TKO loss to ninth-ranked "Banha" Luis Arthur Cane (7-1) at UFC 89 in October. Sobral last fought at Strikeforce: Destruction in November, winning Bobby Southworth’s (9-5) light heavyweight title with a referee stoppage due to a cut. Speight suffered his first career loss in October via unanimous decision to Alex Cisne (4-1) at King of the Cage. Cooper KO’d Dusty Arden (10-6-1) in round two in June. ...

Six more bouts were made official Monday for Affliction Day of Reckoning 24 January in Anaheim. “Babalu” Renato Sobral (29-8) will fight “The Law” Matt Lindland (21-5). “Minotoro” Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (14-3) will fight “Janitor” Vladimir Matyushenko (21-3). “Headhunter” Paul Buentello (26-9) will face “Baby Fedor” Kiril Sidelnikov (3-1). “Machine” Mark Hominick (14-7) will face LC Davis (9-1). “Thorobred” Jay Hieron (13-4) will fight Jason High (6-0). Albert Rios (6-2) will face “Tigre” Antonio Duarte (7-1). Brett Cooper will also fight, although no opponent was named. ...

Affliction Veep Tom Atencio told SI.com Thursday that light heavyweight "Babalu" Renato Sobral (29-7) has been matched versus Xtreme Couture fighter Mike Whitehead (20-5) for the apparel-company-turned-promoter's debut 19 July in Anaheim, outside of Los Angeles. Whitehead was dismissed from the UFC after losing a unanimous decision to Fighters.com's fourth-ranked 205-pounder “The Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine (13-3-1) in February 2006, his only official appearance in the big show. Since that loss, Whitehead has wracked up 11 straight wins, nine by stoppage, in several promotions, including a four-fight stint in the IFL. Sobral is 2-1 since challenging then-champ and sixth-ranked “Iceman” Chuck Liddell (21-5) for the UFC title in August 2006. He was dismissed from the big show after holding an anaconda choke several seconds after David Heath (7-3) obviously tapped out, then bragging about it. Atencio also added the following fights to the official card: Savant Young (9-7) v "The Machine" Mark Hominick (15-8) Ray Lazama (5-5) v Justin Levens (9-8) JJ Ambrose (9-1) v Patrick Speight (6-0) "Quicksand" Mike Pyle (15-5-1) v Brett Cooper (7-4) ...