Last night’s Bellator 120 PPV event featured an Interim Lightweight fight between Will Brooks and Michael Chandler that saw Brooks earn the title via Split Decision in a pitched 5 round battle.The match-up far exceeded expectations and both men deserve credit. The match was a late replacement for Chandler’s title shot against Eddie Alvarez, as Alvarez was out due to an injury, and most observers assessed Brooks as talented but not ready. Brooks made many believers last night with a stand out performance.
Chandler was a slight favorite over the champion Alvarez, and he was a solid favorite over Brooks, and he fought the first round and a half like everyone thought, using the depth of his game to control the fight. Brooks was put on his back where he is not used to being, but Brooks stayed cool and really did not get hurt while Chandler was on top.
In the second half of round 2, Brooks would get a reversal and threaten Chandler from behind, and in round 3 he erupted to get top position and he did what Chandler could not, and that is hurt his opponent with ground and pound. Chandler emerged swollen and bleeding and Brooks emerged with confidence.
Chandler tried to make the fight on the feet, but Brooks, who is known as a grappler showed a lot of patience and lateral movement, as well as accurate and deceptive counter striking. There were many times in the fight where Brooks looked like the more polished striker as Chandler, who touted making a boxing debut last year that he never did, was reduced to lunging and missing big punches as he struggled to see out of his eye.
In the final round, Chandler would make it interesting by scoring a reversal and riding out the fight in top position. Again however, Chandler did nothing with the position, as he was unable to hurt Brooks further after apparently catching him with an upper cut.
A split decision is warranted as Chandler is a high level guy who showed he was not out of the fight at the very end, but Brooks did more damage, showed a lot of poise on the ground and in the stand up, and he showed his grappling could dominate Chandler. He mounted Chandler to get the big damage doen, Chandler always found himself in guard and coulnt get off damaging punches. The win for Brooks is justified. Now on to Eddie Alvarez for the interim champion.
