Bellator 136 Results: Will Brooks Retains Lightweight Belt
Tonight’s (Fri., April 10, 2015), the packed Bellator 136 main card is in the books from the Bren Events Center in Irvine, California.
The event featured a pivotal lightweight title match-up between champion “Ill” Will Brooks and returning challenger Dave Jansen. The champion had won six straight while Jansen had won seven in a row, making this a true test of who the best 155-pounder in Bellator truly was.
Jansen came out aggressive with several kicks early, but Brooks soon found a home for some combos. The champ landed a hard right hand and Jansen scored a ton of hard knees. He scored with strikes from the challenge and Brooks landed numerous good uppercuts. A low blow caused a brief halt in the second, and Brooks came back to pick up his pace a bit with some quick combos and kicks. “Ill” snapped a big knee and body kicks before he secured his first takedown. Brooks snapped a spinning back to start the third, following up with another combo ended by a knee and slamming Jansen to the mat. An eye poke to Brooks halted the action momentarily, and he came back to end the round with a big punch and knee to the body.
In the championship round, Brooks avoided a takedown as Jansen clinched to a restart. Brooks again worked his combinations and knees. The champ unleashed a high volume of various strikes along the cage to bloody Jansen, finishing the round with more punches and a stiff head kick. The final frame featured more clinch work from Brooks as he put the finishing touches with a takedown to lock up an impressive unanimous decision win.
In the co-main event, dangerous GLORY kickboxer Joe Schilling put his MMA skills up against Rafael Carvalho. Schilling came out winging big shots as expected, but kneed Carvalho below the belt. Carvalho quickly returned and clinched Schilling, who got out to throw some big shots before getting taken down. He reversed and the fighters went to war with varied shots to close the first. Schilling taunted in the second, but Carvalho took him down to land in side control. He went for a kimura and clinched to end the frame. Schilling came out landing some huge shots in the third, dropping Carvalho with one. Carvalho got two takedowns and got Schilling’s back to land some hard punches, ending the fight on top landing shots to win a big split decision.
Lightweight grappling whiz Marcin Held will looked to continue his hot streak against Alexander Sarnavskiy. Held went for one of his rolling heel hooks in the first, taking top position to pass to side control. Sarnavskiy reversed but Held sought an omoplata then another heel hook as the round wound down. Held got a takedown in the second to batter and mount Sarnavskiy, who was planted again after getting up for a brief moment. “”Tiger” kept running from Held’s grappling attempts to start the third, but the Polish master eventually locked on a tight kneebar that forced Sarnavskiy to submit by screaming similar to Joe Warren’s Bellator 135 loss to Marcos Galvao.
The main card kicked off with a heavyweight bout between Alexander Volkov and Tony Johnson. The first round saw Johnson clinch for the most part, eating a few sharp kicks and knees from Volkov before securing a takedown. Johnson controlled the second round with his wrestling, taking the Russian’s back off a failed kimura attempt. Johnson clinched again in the third, eating knees and punches but dictating the pace to win a boring split decision.
Main Card (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET):
Will Brooks def. Dave Jansen via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46)
Rafael Carvalho def. Joe Schilling via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
Marcin Held def. Alexander Sarnavskiy via R3 verbal submission (kneebar, 1:11)
Tony Johnson def. Alexander Volkov via split decision (29-29, 28-29, 29-28)
Preliminary Card (7 p.m. ET):
John Teixeira def. Fabricio Guerrero via split decision (29-28 28-29 29-28)
Saad Awad def. Rob Sinclair via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Joey Beltran def. Brian Rogers via majority decision (28-28, 29-28, 29-27)
Jay Bogan vs. Justin Governale
