Womens MMA and More

Bellator 27 will come to us live from the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio, TX and feature the first title defense for Bellator Featherweight Champion Joe Soto as he takes on Season two tournament winner Joe Warren. The card also features three quarter-final bouts in the season three bantamweight tournament.

Let’s take a look at the match-ups and predict the winners.

BELLATOR FEATHERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP:

Champion Joe “The Hammer” Soto (9-0) vs. Challenger Joe Warren (5-1):  Soto comes in as a highly underrated champion after capturing the title with three wins in the season one tournament.  In his last bout Soto defeated Diego Saraiva via stoppage due to a cut at Bellator 19 in May.  That bout was a non-title tilt so this will be the first defense of the strap for Soto boasts four wins by submission and four by (T)KO among his nine victories.  Warren is a decorated wrestler who has made a big splash on the MMA front with his high level skills and brash talk about opponents. After a highly touted and successful run in Japan, Warren returned to the U.S. and won the season two featherweight tourney by with a split decision victory over Patricio “Pitbull” Freire in a highly competitive bout.

Many are counting Soto out in this bout but he has displayed a well rounded skill set that could create difficulty for Warren.  But the thought here is that Warren’s wrestling and top control will smother and wear down Soto throughout the early rounds and eventually allow Warren to stop an exhausted Soto very late in the fight.

Warren over Soto by TKO (ground and pound) in round 5.

BELLATOR SEASON 3 BANTAMWEIGHT TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINALS:

Women’s Rankings

The IWMMAR Women’s MMA Rankings were published on August 24^th. Meisha Tate moved up from #7 to #4 in the bantamweight category after winning the Strikeforce 4-woman tournament. And Zoila Frausto moved into the junior flyweight rankings in 6^th place after defeating Jessica Pene by lackluster decision. Pene was ranked 5^th but is now in 8^th place. The full rankings can be viewed at http://www.independentworldmmarankings.com .

TUff Girls

Tuff Girls, a Muay Thai reality show featuring Master Toddy (best known as the coach of media darling Gina Carano, who was a part of his original show, Fight Girls, in 2007) has just finished taping in Thailand. The girls live and train together for a chance to compete in Muay Thai on a major card. The show will air in Australia in the fall.

Fight Results: Decisions and Submissions

In an action-packed brawl at Bellator 26, Lisa Ward handed Aisling Daly her first professional loss when she took her to unanimous decision. Daly had no answer for Ward’s relentless ground game. Ward will rematch Megumi Fujii in the semi-finals.