Bellator held their Bellator 145 event on Friday night at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Not only did the event feature some excellent fights — including the main event — but there were some big announcements mixed in there as well.
In the main event of the evening, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire lost his Bellator Featherweight Championship to Daniel Straus in what is being called one of the best fights of the year. The fight went the distance, with Straus becoming the new champion by scores of 49-46, 48-47, 48-47.
Prior to the main event, Bellator MMA announced the main event for their next “tentpole” show, which to say the least, was quite the surprise announcement. In what will be their third meeting, Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie will meet inside the Bellator cage at Bellator 149 in Houston, Texas on February 19, 2016.
In the co-main event of the show, Will Brooks continued to make a case for being one of the best fighters in the promotion, as he successfully retained his Bellator Lightweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Marcin Held. In the first round, Held actually got Brooks in a deep kneebar and things looked serious for a moment, however Brooks would manage to fight out and dominate the action to pick up scores of 50-45, 49-46, 49-46 from the judges.
Former WWE Superstar and current TNA Wrestling star Bobby Lashley improved his professional MMA record to 14-2 with a dominate 54-second TKO of MMA veteran James Thompson. With the win, Lashley managed to erase one of only two blemishes on his MMA record.
Also on the televised portion of the event, highly regarded lightweight contender Michael Chandler defeated David Rickels by way of second-round technical knockout.
Below are complete quick-match results for last night’s Bellator 145 event:
Main Card Fights:
Daniel Straus def. Patricio Freire via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) to become the new Bellator Featherweight Champion.
Will Brooks def. Marcin Held via unanimous decision (50-45, 49-46, 49-46) to retain the Bellator Lightweight title.
Michael Chander def. David Rickels via TKO (punches) at 3:05 of R2
Bobby Lashley def. James Thompson via TKO (punches) at :54 of R1
Emmanuel Sanchez def. Justin Lawrence via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Preliminary Fights:
Augusto Sakai def. Alex Huddleston via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Chel Erwin-Davis def. Adam Cella via TKO (punches) at :35 of R3
Garrett Gross vs. Jeff Crotty via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Kyle Kurts def. Steven Mann via submission (triangle choke) at 2:59 of R1
Kain Royer def. Clay Mitchell via submission (kneebar) at 3:41 of R1
Adam Meredith def. Jordan Dowdy via submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:54 of R1
Fazlo Mulabitinovic def. Scott Ettling via submission (armbar) at 1:52 of R1
