Bellator 301: Wintrust Arena; Chicago, Illinois
They may have truly saved the best for last overall. Bellator 301’s main card ended where two-divisions flipped. But the welterweight one saved a record belonging to Khabib Nurmagomedov. As the title changes hands from Yaroslav Amosov in his second-defense to Jason Jackson we can learn some things right off the bat.
First and foremost is that slow and steady do win the race sometimes. Jackson’s climb to the top was a slow one. And his third-round knockout at 2:08 ended a streak of six-straight decision wins. The KILLCLIFF-MMA fighter used his 3 1/2 inch reach perfectly. And his wrestling defense stood up to a tough task in stopping all 13-takedown attempts from the 30-year old Ukrainian. Ending his 27-0 run to a MMA’s second best record. Somewhere in Dagestan you’d imagine “The Eagle” is popping a champaigne bottle like the ’72 Dolphins, except he doesn’t drink.
As far as Jackson is concerned however, he won’t be as overlooked as he has been. With him applying pressure right off the bat it kept Amosov along the fence line. And that’s a spot he’s been able to be taken advantage of. Although Amosov did have early success with crisper striking, they weren’t damaging strikes. Once Amosov realized the fight probably wasn’t going to the ground, he became hesitant. Not that Jackson has one-punch lights out firepower, the counter right, combo, uppercuts made him the seventh welterweight champion in company history. And possibly the last one.
A Title Changes Hands But What Is Next For It
This was not only the last card of the year for Bellator, but it was also the last on SHOWTIME. It will be a hard sale moving forward for another network to jump on board with the organizations future up in the air. So literally everything now is frozen.
But come 2024 if there is any wiggle room for Scott Coker‘s company they could easily run this fight back. If anyone deserves an instant rematch, you’d figure it’s someone with 27-straight wins. Or possibly the hot former champion Andrey Koreshkov. But as Jackson said:
“It feels like a dream. One I woke up from, and it’s still a dream…. and I’m a nightmare;… for everyone”.
Looking at overall records, the best is all how YOU look at things. There are undefeated fighters with no contests and draws in the mix. But pure undefeated it slides down to 17-0 with a couple of fighters lead by two in the UFC Shavkat Rakhmonov and Movsar Evloev.
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