Vegh, Galvao Earn Title Shots at Bellator 73

I stated in my pre-fight breakdown of Attila Vegh vs. Travis Wiuff that the only way for Vegh to win would be to land a right hand on Wiuff’s chin and knock him out. Vegh seemed well aware of that, as that’s exactly what he did, putting Wiuff out just 25 seconds into the first round with an overhand right. Good stuff from Vegh, who will now move on to take on Christian M’Pumbu for the Bellator light-heavyweight championship.

In the bantamweight tournament final, it was Marcos Galvao, a man who had only one win by TKO or submission in his career, winning by TKO against Luis Alberto Nogueira in the second round. I thought Nogueira would be able to out-point and hurt Galvao, but the opposite happened: it was Galvao who out-struck and ultimately hurt Nogueira. Galvao has had a couple tough decisions go against him in his career, so it’s good to see him bounce back to earn a title shot against Eduardo Dantas. I have to be honest, though… I really don’t like Galvao’s chances in that one. Of course, that has less to do with Galvao than it has to do with Dantas, who SILVA considers the best bantamweight in the world, better than Dominick Cruz and Renan Barao.

And in the other fights, Mike Wessel defeated Ryan Martinez by split decision, meaning that SILVA was actually correct in picking a large betting underdog, a rare event. Wessel was about a +300 underdog when his fight with Martinez began. In the final televised fight, 2-0 Mike Mucitelli defeated 5-0 Matt Van Buren by first-round submission due to triangle choke.

Since UFC 151 has been cancelled, I obviously won’t have coverage of that event next week. Instead, I’m planning on getting more SILVA scores done, and taking a look at some past MMA fights and tournaments to see what SILVA would have said about them. Stay tuned!

SILVA Predictions for Bellator 73

Well, now that Bellator’s event this week has been completely overshadowed… how about some SILVA predictions?

 

As I explained the other day, I would disregard SILVA’s pick in the light-heavyweight tournament final between Travis Wiuff and Attila Vegh. My pick is absolutely for Wiuff to win it, although there is a chance Vegh wins by TKO.

In the bantamweight tournament final, SILVA likes Luis Alberto Nogueira to beat Marcos Galvao. Galvao has an interesting record – he’s been to decision 15 times in 18 fights, an extremely high rate. I anticipate his match against Nogueira will be primarily a striking match, in which I feel Nogueira has the advantage, both in terms of chance to win by knockout, and in terms of winning on points if it goes the distance.

As for the other fights… Mike Wessel was a participant on the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter, and lost quickly by submission to Marcus Jones in his only appearance. I wish I knew more about his opponent, Ryan Martinez, or either Matt Van Buren or Mike Mucitelli, but hopefully I’ll learn plenty on Friday evening.