Let’s begin by doing the usual: putting the situation into context.

Toby Imada is a household name in Bellator for several reasons. He competed in the inaugural Bellator Lightweight Tournament, including a winning performance at the first-ever Bellator event. He fought all the way to the finals, and in the process, he gave us one of the most shocking submission wins of all time: his Inverted Triangle win over Jorge Masvidal ended up becoming one of the most popular MMA viral videos of 2009. Imada also fought to the finals for a second time in 2010, and lost via a controversial decision. By the time Imada stepped into the cage at Bellator 39, he was widely regarded as one of Bellator’s most popular and well-known fighters as well as one of its best fighters period.

Patricky Freire may have been a bit of an unknown coming into Bellator’s Season Four Lightweight Tournament, but he certainly put himself on the map when he TKO’d former WEC Champion “Razor” Rob McCullough. That win was the fifth (T)KO win for “Pitbull”, and extended his win-streak to four straight fights.

Then the fight began, and it was clear that both men were using the first round to feel out their opponent and get their timing right.

And Patricky Freire certainly got his timing right.

Freire caught Imada leaning down at the exact right time, and before you could blink, Freire was up and in the air, connecting with a beautiful and brutal flying knee strike. Imada’s head rocked back from the blow, and his legs went wobbly. Freire quickly followed his retreating opponent, nailing a trifecta of hard shots to finally send Imada crumpling to the mat, face-up and decidedly unconscious.

I try pretty hard not to overuse the phrase “laser precise” because I feel that that’s a very high accolade that should be reserved for the best of fighters and the best of strikes. Normally, I only use that term in reference to Anderson Silva, and I consider Silva’s striking the benchmark for that term.

With that said: Patricky Freire’s flying knee was laser-precise.

In the entire history of Toby Imada’s career, in over forty professional fights, only three men had ever TKO’d him. No one had ever properly KO’d Imada before. But this flying knee was the kind of strike that can knock out anyone, at any time, regardless of how tough their chin is. Everything was right about this strike: Imada wasn’t expectig it, Imada was ducking in, and it hit Imada full-on, full-force, and right on “the button”.

This performance, coupled with his win over Rob McCullough, leads me to believe that Patricky Freire is going to win Bellator’s Lightweight Tournament. With the kind of streak he’s been on, Freire may even have it in him to go all the way and topple Eddie Alvarez. Freire clearly deserves “Best Performance of the Night”.

And what about you, fans and friends? Who took home your unofficial end-of-night accolades?

The Matt Hughes Award for Best Display of Pure Wrestling Power: Michael Chandler, for putting Marcin Held in an Arm Triangle Choke and then breaking the best defense of that maneuver simply by powering through it. When a fighter defends an Arm Triangle by hooking his arms around his leg, he’s usually able to hold that position, with some slight adjustments, until one of three things happens: the round ends, the opponent gasses his arms out, or the opponent gives up the submission. But, pardon the pun, Held couldn’t hold that position. Chandler was just too strong, and for that sheer brute strength, he definitely deserves a spot on this list. All I could really say after seeing Held slip into unconsciousness was “wow”.

The Miracles Can Happen Award: Lloyd Woodard, for defeating the highly-regard Carey Vanier. When it came right down to it, Vanier had Woodard beat in just about every major, quantifiable category. But you can’t measure things like “heart” or “drive”, or the willingness to keep swinging for the fences and hoping something lands while walking through your opponent’s punches and losing a round in the process. Woodard worked his game, and eventually Vanier wilted under the pressure. It was another reminder in a long list of reminders that anything can happen in MMA.

The Miracles Can’t Happen Award: But while anything can happen in MMA… it usually doesn’t. That’s why Toby Imada is the one to get this reward. It would’ve been one heck of a story if Imada’s eleventh-hour replacement opponent, Josh Shockley, had shocked (again, pardon the pun) the world and bested the man who had been to the finals of a Bellator tournament on two separate occasions. But sometimes the unexpected stays unexpected, and sometimes a fighter that’s just too good on any given day of the week firmly reminds us that he’s just too good on any given day of the week.

The Lights Out Award: Patricky Freire, who knocked former WEC Champion “Razor” Rob McCullough unconscious the second his late-round punch connected. It was the epitome of a “flash KO”: one second McCullough was alert, the next second he wasn’t. It was a very, very dramatic end to a long and pretty entertaining three-round war that saw both men come close to winning several times throughout the bout. But Freire’s TKO was the cherry on top, and one of the best moments of the evening.

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?

In the main-event of the evening, former WEC lightweight champion “Razor” Rob McCullough showed an indomitable spirit where in the first-round of his bout with Patricky Freire, he was taken down and brutalized on the mat, staving off several submission attempts, having barely survived the onslaught. In the second, the former champ picked up the pace and begin landing a series of lowkicks and stinging punches that likely earned him the nod on the judges score cards—but it didn’t matter. Midway through the second-round, Freire connected on hard right hand that sent Rob crashing to the mat. Two more blows sealed the deal and declared Patricky the victor by way of knockout.

Now, Freire finds himself in the semi-finals of the season four lightweight tournament, however now Toby Imada, the two-time finalist, will be there to greet him.

Bellator recently announced the semi-final pairings, which will include the aforementioned match-up with Imada and Freire, as well as Michael Chandler squaring off with Lloyd Woodard.

Initially, both Imada and McCullough would have been the easy favorites heading into the tournament, however after Freire was able to put the whole division on notice with his dominating win, everyone will have to rethink the tournament format from here on out.

Imada was able to quickly submit Josh Shockley, who valiantly stepped up from the preliminary card to replace an overweight Ferrid Kheder, with a first-round arm bar in, which took less than two minutes of ring time.

Both Chandler and Woodard, newbies to the tournament format of the Bellator promotion, were equally impressive in their quarter-final victories.

Chandler was able to upset Polish prospect Marcin Held with a submission against the young submission specialist. As Michael, a collegiate wrestling powerhouse, was able to take Held to the mat, Marcin was able to snatch a quick knee and the end seemed imminent. With his leg hyper extended, Chandler was able to survive the hold and use his size and strength to over power the smaller Held into full mount. From there, Michael cinched up an arm-triangle, stepped to the side and almost immediately put Held to sleep for the win.

In his way to the finals will be Lloyd Woodard, who like all of the other semi-finalists, was able to finish his opponent before it went to the judes score cards. Greg Jackson product Carey Vanier proved formidable in the early goings, however early in the second-round, Llyod was able to connect on a hard right hand that sent Carey, a four-time veteran of Bellator, crashing to the mat. A few followup blows were all that were necessary to notch the TKO win.

All four competitors will be competing at Bellator 40, which is expected to take place on April 9 at the First Council Casino in Newkirk, Oklahoma. Sengoku veteran Ronnie Mann is also expected to make his organizational debut on said card, while welterweight champion Ben Askren meets UFC and Strikeforce vet Nick Thompson in a non-title bout.

So, MMA peeps, what do you think of the full card, including the semi-final match-ups? Bellator has done it again. Sound off in the comment section below.

I’ll start off as I always do: let’s put this fight into context.

Toby Imada came into his fight at Bellator 36 with a gigantic 28-15 record. Despite the fact that he had failed to win a Bellator tournament on two separate occasions, few could doubt that Imada was and still is in the middle of a major comeback. He had won twelve of his last fourteen fights, and somewhere in that time span he saw fit to give MMA fans one of the greatest submission wins of all time, an amazing Inverted Triangle Choke on Jorge Masvidal.

His originally-intended opponent, Ferrid Kheder, was a surging Judo phenom who has competed at an Olympic level. Kheder was coming into Bellator on the heels of a very messy scandal revolving around a promoter basically awarding him a win even though it was clear that he lost to former UFC veteran Hermes Franca. On a more positive note, Kheder was also coming into Bellator with a record of 18-5, and before the Franca scandal, he had won five straight and finished all five fights.

Unfortunately, Kheder pulled out of his bout with Imada at literally the last second: the day of the official weigh-ins. Imada was given a new opponent and twenty-four hours to prepare for him.

But once that cage door closed, it was clear that Imada could have taken this fight on twenty-four minutes notice, possibly twenty-four seconds notice. This was the kind of performance people point to when asked why Toby Imada is regarded as one of the best fighters in Bellator, not just in its Lightweight division.

There’s really no other way to describe how Imada seamlessly transitioned to an armbar and kept it locked tight even when his opponent, Josh Shockley, attempted to power his way out of it. And because of that power-out attempt, Shockley’s arm was twisted at such an obscene angle that he screamed out in pain. That’s normally the tell-tale sign that a ligament has just been broken, so the referee waved the fight off and gave Imada the Verbal Submission victory.

And in a day and age where everyone is held under a microscope, from the referees to the promoters to the judges to the fighters themselves, there was no real outcry that the referee had halted the action too soon. And the reason for that was easy to see: before the referee stopped the fight, it was clear that Imada still had a firm lock on that arm, and was still in a dominant position to continue to pull that ligament to its breaking point.

And that’s what Toby Imada does best: you tap it (the mat) or he snaps it (your arm/leg/whatever). Imada now has twenty submission wins as a professional MMA fighter, with six wins by submission in Bellator alone. At Bellator 36, Toby Imada didn’t just live up to his hype… he added to it. And because of that, he definitely earns my “Best Performance of the Night” award.

And what about you, fans and friends? Who took home your unofficial end-of-night accolades?

After an illuminated run in Japan, where Alvarez has picked up some of the biggest wins of his career, which includes victories over the likes of former DREAM lightweight champion Joachim Hansen, former Shooto champion Tatsuya Kawajiri and current DEEP lightweight champion Katsunori Kikuno.

Not impressed?

En route to Bellator gold, he was able to submit all three of his opponents, including the heralded Toby Imada, a Jiu-Jitsu whiz who became an internet sensation with his inverted triangle choke over lightweight notable Jorge Masvidal, which garnered Imada the “Submission of the Year” on several publications, including a trophy award at the 2009 World MMA Awards, hosted by Fighters Only.

So when Alvarez, 26, heard word that Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez has called him out on numerous occasions, the Philly fighter didn’t take too kindly to it.

Eddie made the most of his opportunity when he was guest on “The MMA Hour” with Ariel Helwani, and confronted Scott Coker, the CEO of the San Jose based organization, regarding their champion.

“Scott, It seems as though your lightweight champion keeps on calling me out on every interview and I have no problem with that”, began the enigmatic lightweight.

“I’ve never said anything about the kid and I would never say anything at all. Never even approached anybody about fighting Gilbert Melendez. He just doesn’t shut up, every other interview he’s talking about fighting me ‘Oh I want to fight Eddie Alvarez, I want to fight Eddie Alvarez’ and it really makes me look bad because I see (the interview) the next day later. So Bjorn [Rebney] (Bellator Fighting Championship CEO) says it’s OK, I say it’s OK, Gilbert is telling the world that he wants to fight me. I assume you’re the only one left to agree.”

Gilbert Melendez has been on the mend, taking the rest of the year to help him recuperate from injuries sustained in back-to-back 5 round title fights against Josh Thomson, which helped him avenge his only other loss hanging out there (the first was against Mitsuhiro Ishida, which he later avenged as well), and most recently Shinya Aoki, who holds a victory over Alvarez, in April of this year. Melendez soundly defeated the DREAM lightweight champion in his first title defense, shucking off any take down attempts while raining down the hammer on his Japanese foe. He was able to come away the victor, winning every round on the judges score cards.

While talks had been in place before, a sort of more subtle meeting of the minds with the CEO’s Scott Coker and Bjorn Rebney, both parties appear to be game–the sticking matter, appears to be how co-promotion would work for both parties, considering Strikeforce’s ties with CBS, Showtime, and now M-1 Global.

“First of all, I have tremendous respect for you. I think you’re a great fighter, great champion of Bellator and I followed your career over in Japan when you were fighting over there and these things are sometimes a little complicated”, stated the cautious Coker.

“It’s not just the fight, of course we would love to make the fight, but there’s so many details to be worked out between the promotions to make it happen. Bjorn did call me and I did talk to him and this was probably two months ago. I said look, Gilbert has a broken hand at the time so let’s just table this until the future, but after the KJ Noons/Nick Diaz fight, we can readdress this. We’ve been open to co-promotions with every league so that’s not the issue. The issue is how does it work on a business level between our two leagues and if we can work that out, we would love to have it.”

So, MMA peeps, what do you make of this? Would you like to see Melendez in action against Alvarez? Who do you take in this match up? Sound off in the comment section below.

Eddie Alvarez, the reigning and defending Bellator lightweight champion and DREAM veteran, will be facing UFC veteran and now-internet-sensation, Roger Huerta at Bellator 33.

The news was first reported during the broadcast of tonight’s Bellator 25 card, which was headlined by 185-pound champion Hector Lombard against former NFL player Herbert Goodman, in a non-title affair.

Pat Curran, the 155-pound season 2 lightweight tournament champion, earned the right to face current champion Eddie Alvarez while beating the aforementioned Huerta and Toby Imada along the way to the finals. However, a shoulder injury will sideline Pat Curran for the unforeseeable future, and in the interim steps in Huerta.

Roger made headlines recently as he was featured in a video popularized my TMZ, vindicating a woman who had been knocked out by a much larger african american male. Huerta approached the man, and one thing lead to another, and the video later showed said assailant on his back, bloodied and unconsciousness.

Eddie Alvarez rose to fame with his run through DREAM’s inaugural lightweight tournament. And with win’s over the likes of Tatsuya Kawajiri, Joachim Hansen, and Katsunori Kikuno anchoring his résumé, Alvarez has made himself a formidable opponent as well here in the states, and is widely recognized as a top-5 lightweight.

So, is this the fight fan’s would more like to see, or we’re we all banking on a title fight between Curran and Alvarez, more so, over this non-title affair?

Curran got the judges’ decision by scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 28-29. Many fans were furious over the decision saying that Imada should have won. Fighters.com and MMA Gospel Radio scored the fight 29-28 for Imada.

Imada seemed to control the first two rounds by dictating where the action took place, using kicks to the body and the legs of Curran and getting off faster and landing cleaner shots than his opponent.

Fighters.com did not feel Curran took over the fight until round three where he seemed to finally find his range and won the effective striking portion of the awful ten-point must system.

Imada was visibly upset at the loss but when the fight is left in the hands of the judges, you have to expect that anything can happen. Especially when most of the judges we have today all come from the world of boxing and don’t seem to fully understand or value leg kicks and ring generalship MMA style.

With this victory Curran has earned himself a title shot against Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez (18-2) who was there to watch the fight.

“It was a tough fight, it could’ve gone either way,” Alvarez said. “That’s what happens when you leave it to the judges. I’m impressed and looking forward to fighting him.”

Also on the card was Fujii who many consider to be one of the top pound-for-pound women in the sport. She is a jiu jitsu and judo black belt so it comes as no surprise that a majority of her wins have come via submission. This fight however saw her beat a game Sarah Schneider (4-5) vie har very first TKO.

Megumi pushed the action with strikes and takedowns but Sarah did a great job keeping her from advancing positions by using tie-ups on the ground.

However the constant pressure by Fujii eventually wore Sarah down and in the third round she took her down and this time was able to work to full mount where she unleashed punches until he ref was forced to step in and stop the fight.

Now that she has this fight under her belt she can look forward to Bellator’s first woman’s tournament scheduled to take place later this summer. A tournament where she will be favored come August 12 when the 115 pound tournament starts off.

Fighters.com and MMA Gospel Radio want to know how you scored the Curran vs. Imada fight and your thoughts on the woman’s tournament.

The talk of this fight taking place all started when Melendez appeared on “Inside MMA” on HDNet. Melendez recently beat Shinya Aoki (19-5), a man many believed to be a top three fighter in the lightweight division. Now Melendez believes the fight between him and Alvarez could be for the number one ranking.

“I think he’s an amazing fighter, and that’s why I call out Eddie Alvarez,” Melendez said. “Let’s unify those titles. I’d love to fight that guy and test myself. I think if I could beat him, I could be No. 1 and vice versa.”

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney jumped behind Melendez seeing the chance for a major fight that indeed would have major implications in the divisional hierarchy.

“I will do everything I can to get Gilbert what he asked for,” Rebney stated. “Gilbert wants the fight, Eddie wants the fight, and I want the fight. All we have to do is get Scott Coker on board, and together, we can make this happen. Eddie wants to fight the best, and Gilbert wants to fight the best, and there is no reason why any promoter or network should stand in the way of that.”

Scott Coker agreed that they need to put this fight together for the benefit of the fans and since Bellator and Strikeforce have already worked together it should not be hard to make come to terms.

“We’ve lent them three or four fighters already, and we had a brief conversation about (loaning) Roger Huerta, but the terms, conditioning, time just weren’t right,” Coker said. “But we’d love to work with them.”

This all hinges on Eddie winning his first title defense this fall when he will fight the winner of Toby Imada (26-14) versus Pat Curran (11-3).

Eddie Alvarez may just be the most underrated fighter in all of MMA. He keeps knocking down everything put in front of him and Fighters.com feels it is time he gets the recognition he deserves.

Recognition that would come from a cross-promotional super-fight fans have been waiting to see. When Pride FC was still around talk always surrounded Pride champs versus UFC champs. The fans and media alike wanted this to happen and we never truly got to see it unfold. Now these fights are starting to take place with fights like the aforementioned Aoki versus Melendez.

Fighters.com believes that if anything can save the inevitable sinking ship that has become Strikeforce it will be fights like this. Scott Coker needs to continue to work with Dream and Bellator in order to give fans match-ups that will not only put butts in the seats but also bring in the viewers. Something they have not been able to do their last two events.

Fighters.com hopes for the sake of the sport we get to see this fight at the beginning of next year. Stay tuned for further updates.

The winners of these fights will face each other in the Season Two finals in June with the winner earning the right to face Fighters.com third-ranked and Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez (17-2) in a title fight.

Rebney made the announcement today at a presser at the Wang Theatre, where he was joined by Curran and Alvarez, whose much-anticipated Bellator Super Fight with former UFC contender “The Dentist” Josh Neer (27-9-1) headlines the May 6th Boston card.

“As a fan, I can’t wait for our May 6th show in Boston,” Rebney said.  “Alvarez vs. Neer should be explosive, with Eddie making his first appearance in the U.S. since he won our lightweight title last summer.  Huerta vs. Curran just got really interesting coming off of Pat’s one punch KO of previously undefeated Mike Ricci. Toby’s world class submission wrestling vs. Carey’s world class wresting should be a great fight as well.”

The fallout from recent lightweight fights has the rankings in a mess right now and leaves Alvarez in a position to take the number one spot after the consensus one and two both lost. “The Prodigy” BJ Penn (15-6-1) lost his title at UFC 112 while second-ranked “Tobikan Judan” Shinya Aoki (19-5) lost in his American debut on the Strikeforce: Nashville card.

Fighters.com believes that Alavarez is one of the most overlooked fighters in the lightweight division. His only two losses come at the hands of Aoki in 2008 and “The Goat” Nick Thompson (38-11-1) back in 2007.

Bellator has been putting together tough fights in this highly anticipated season and fans are flocking to the tournament format to recapture some of the nostalgia from the early days of the UFC and of Pride Fighting Championships.