MMA promotion Bellator is scheduled to make it’s New York debut tonight in the World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden. Wanderlei Silva faces Chael Sonnen in a co-main event of the evening, with quite the amount of animosity between them already brewing. During the press conference on Thursday Silva was asked if the “impulse” for him will be to shake Chael’s hand after the fight, which he responded to with a solid “No.”.
Alongside that main event is 12 other matches that will be broadcasted on many platforms. The prelims, which start at 6PM can be watched online for free on the official Bellator website. The prelims include a Welterweight fight between Haim Gozali (7-3-0) and Ryan Couture (10-5-0), a Lightweight fight between Bradley Desir (9-5-0) and Nate Grebb (3-1-0), two Catchweight bouts between Sergio Da Silva (6-8-0) and Matt Rizzo (9-2-0), and Hugh McKenna (0-1-0) versus John Salgado (4-7-1), and also a Welterweight bout between Anthony Giacchina (1-1-0) and Jerome Mickle (2-1-0).
At 8PM EST the main card for Bellator 180 can be viewed on Spike TV. Now keep in mind, the Bellator 180 main card is different from the Bellator NYC PPV. That is afterwards. Anyways, the card for Bellator 180 is 4 fights. Heather Hardy (0-0-0) faces Alice Yauger (4-5-0) in the Flyweight division, in the Welterweight Division Neiman Gracie (5-0-0) faces Dave Marfone (5-2-0), in the Featherweight Division James Gallagher (6-0-0) goes up against Chinzo Machida (5-2-0), and in the main event of Bellator 180, Phil Davis (17-3-0) defends his Light Heavyweight Championship against Ryan Bader (22-5-0).
At 10PM EST the main card kicks off. You can watch the main card via PPV. The complete list of ways to order can be found here. The main card is 5 fights. Aaron Pico (0-0-0) faces Zach Freeman (8-2-0) in a Lightweight match to kick off the main card. Michael Chandler (16-3) defends his Lightweight World Title in the second contest of the main card against Brent Primus (7-0). Our third and final title match of the night is Douglas Lima (28-6) defending the Welterweight Title against Lorenz Larkin (18-5). The first of two co-main event’s is Fedor Emelianenko (34-4-0) facing Matt Mitrione (11-5-0) in a Heavyweight Bout. The second main event is Chael Sonnen (28-15) facing Wanderlei Silva (35-12) in a Light Heavyweight Match.
“Only the best promoter in the business, Scott Coker could put together such an incredible blockbuster card, with something for everyone” said Kevin Kay, President of Spike TV and mediator of the press conference on Thursday.
This is Bellator’s first event in the state of New York due to a 20 year long ban of MMA that was lifted just last year in March. UFC has already held many events in New York since the ban was lifted, with UFC 205 being the most notable one. This Bellator event has been proclaimed by many as the biggest one in brand history so far.
JackWannan.com 