Last night, at the Revel in Atlantic City, Bellator 118 came to us with a main event for the interim bantamweight title between Brazilian Rafael Silva and Bellator poster boy Joe Warren. Warren was favored at roughly 2 to 1 at the sportbooks, and he came in and dropped the first two rounds to Silva before keeping the pedal to the metal and outworking the tiring Brazilian over the last three rounds. For Warren, it means a date with Bellator’s titleholder Eduardo Dantas at a later date.
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Bellator’s production is really just a ct below than the UFC’s in every way. Bjorn Rebney insists on being on camera, and he is just not likelable. And Warren’s scripted rants about bloody fights and being ‘The Baddest man on the Planet’ leave most observers cringing. If they aren’t scripted, then you are not talking about a likeable, charismatic athlete that Bellator has thrown their hat behind.
And he lost the first two rounds of this fight, showing the same hit-ability that has plagued him in the past. And he takes risks in fights and wound up getting taken down by the Brazilian early in the match.
But he has guts, and he fights through adversity well. He turned the pace up throughout the later rounds and Silva started to fade. Warren never let up. He doesn’t have a lot of outs to finish a fight unless he is given a submission, but his pressure is very impressive. Silva proved to be a very good wrestler as he fought for position all night with Warren, but today he knows what it is like to grapple a wrestling world champion.
The original match was supposed to be Warren versus Dantas, but the champion was sidelined with an injury. Silva stepped in on less than 10 days notice, and he went the full five rounds with Warren. Dantas, when healthy, is a young, fast athlete which is quite the opposite physically of Silva. Warren can take a lot of punishment, but Dantas will be favored to win that fight via a submission. Warren just isn’t all that.
