What We've Learned From Bellator FC Season 1

The first season of the Bellator Fighting Championships is one for the books and champs in four weight classes have been crowned. So what have we learned over the course of a dozen shows? (More bullet points! Yay!)

• Toby Imada may not be the best fighter at 155, but the dude is dangerous if you let your guard down.
• Nothing says "viral buzz" like a YouTube clip. Bravo to the Bellator exec who greenlighted putting highlights on the Internet.
• Jared Hess sure can bleed.
• Hector Lombard is a monster. But we knew that, just like we knew Eddie Alvarez and Lyman Good were monsters.
• Joe Soto is one tough featherweight bastard, and he's shown just how beatable Wilson Reis is. Reis barely squeaked by Roberto Vargas, who took a page from Soto's book by out-scrambling the master scrambler.
• If there's a bantamweight tournament in the cards, it has to include Nick Pace.
• There aren't a lot of A-level or even upper B-level Latino fighters. There are, however, a lot of up-and-comers. Give them time and Omar De La Cruz, Hector Urbina, Estavan Payan and Yahir Reyes will be killers.
• Smooth production, professional packaging and decent fights means season two will definitely be worth watching.

Observations From My Couch: Bellator FC Welterweight Finals

• If I were an athletic commissioner I never would've approved Uriah Hall's match-up against Edwin Aguilar, as Hall had one MMA bout to his record compared to Aguilar's 34. I'm glad I'm not an athletic commissioner. Hall kicked some serious butt.
• Nick Pace: great flying knee KO, awful victory dance. You're a killer, man, but seriously, what the hell was that?
• Did Justin Torrey and Matt Makowski have an agreement to look as much alike as possible? Because with their bald heads, frames and shorts, I damn sure couldn't keep track of who was who.
• Jake Ellenberger didn't just knock Marcelo Alfaya out, he took away some of Alfaya's IQ points. I think Alfaya now has to relearn how to drive a car and tie his shoelaces.
• Lyman Good is the reason why superheroes should not be fighting regular humans in MMA bouts. It's just unfair.

Observations From My Couch: Bellator FC Week 7

• Alonzo Martinez, Victor Meza, Jose Chalupa, Chico Gonzales... A whole bunch of people I still don't know fought and won and lost. Yippee.
• Boy was that Jay White/Eddie Sanchez bout a non-starter. That shouldn't even count as a win for Sanchez. That should go on his criminal record as a mugging.
• It was nice of Jorge Ortiz to get all in shape for his welterweight semifinal bout. Please, someone get that guy a sandwich or something and then make him do some calisthenics.
• Lyman Good is like a life-sized action figure that can punch you in the face really hard and choke the crap out of you. Fear him.
• It's sad seeing someone like Dave Menne - the UFC's first middleweight champ and a true elder statesman in the sport - get his ass completely handed to him. Time is the enemy of us all.
• Omar De La Cruz versus Good for the welterweight crown. Can I get a woot-woot?

Lyman Good Has Been Sleeping in a Cage

How prepared will Lyman Good, the Team Tiger Schulmann welterweight star scheduled to fight at Bellator FC 2 this Friday, be when he squares off against Hector Urbina? Let me put it to you this way: Good has been sleeping in a cage. Seriously. For weeks. Put another way, King of the Cage veteran Urbina might have an edge in experience and has no doubt been training hard, but at the end of the day where does he go to bed? Is it in the cage at the gym? Is it? No? Well, Good - who normally lives in Spanish Harlem with his mother and sisters - hasn't been going home. He's been curling up in the cage at the TSMMA training center in New Jersey. Forget Good's top-level conditioning, epic grappling and deadly striking skills, when the referee says "go!" he's going to tear Urbina's head off out of pure mental anguish.

Observations From My Couch: Bellator FC Week 1

• I applaud Bellator FC's efforts to create a roster of Latino fighters, but damn, it must've sucked being one of the lone few white fighters on that card. Ben Greer and Greg Loughran probably got a broom closet as a locker room.
• Toby Imada winning is like watching your hard-drinking Vietnam veteran uncle, who usually winds up passed out on some street corner, finally haul off a knock out some big teenager who's been bothering him for ages. Good for him.
• Eddie, Eddie, Eddie... why do you insist on scaring us with these stray punches that end up stumbling you?
• Was it me or did Nick Agallar's boxing footwork look more akin to a session of the arcade game "Dance Dance Revolution"? Dude, you knew you were facing a skilled striker, right?
• Jorge Masvidal looked good, but was that his woman that was jumping up and down after he won? If so, holy mama!

Predictions for Bellator Fighting Championships: Week 1

The debut of the Bellator Fighting Championships is tonight in Hollywood, Florida (it airs tomorrow on ESPN Deportes), and the event features the opening rounds of the organization's eagerly anticipated lightweight and featherweight eight-man tournaments. Some of the best Latino (or somewhat Latino) fighters around are on tap, including Eddie Alvarez, Jorge Masvidal, Nick Agallar and, um, some others. Anyway, MMA Journalist has analyzed the match-ups to make the following rock-solid predictions:

• Eddie Alvarez vs. Gordita Supreme - This bout pits a top-ten heavy-handed 155-pound slugger against a warm, pillowy flatbread filled with seasoned ground beef, sour cream, lettuce and a blend of three cheeses. Alvarez has had trouble with different cheeses in the past, but look for him to score the KO late.
• Jorge Masvidal vs. Fiesta Burrito - A dangerous striker from American Top Team takes on a warm, soft, flour tortilla wrapped around seasoned ground beef, cheddar cheese, seasoned rice and Fiesta Salsa in this one. Expect a stand-up war with Masvidal emerging victorious.
• Nick Agallar vs. Double Decker Taco - Agallar brings strong wrestling and a ton of experience into the ring, but he's matching up against a warm, soft, flour tortilla spread with hearty beans and wrapped around a crunchy corn taco shell filled with seasoned ground beef, lettuce and cheese. Look for Double Decker Taco to give Agallar fits both on the feet and on the ground.
• Toby Imada vs. a packet of mild Border Sauce - Toby Imada may have been around forever, but that packet of mild Border Sauce is simply going to kick his ass.

Lyman Good to Kill, Kill, Kill at Mohegan Sun on April 10th

Bellator Fighting Championships has announced the details for their second installment, and the event, which will take place on April 10th at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut will see Team Tiger Schulmann-trained assassin Lyman Good taking on ShoXC and King of the Cage welterweight Hector Urbina. This will mark the first time Good has fought since his March, 2008 murder of Alexis Aquino at ROC 18, which Good stood trial for but was later acquitted on the grounds that Aquino was asking for it. Since then, the New York City-based fighter has been honing himself to a keen edge, adding such deadly skills as demolitions and knife throwing to his already frightening arsenal of death-dealing abilities. Expect Urbina's blood to stain the BFC canvas bright red before the night is through. The event will air on ESPN Deportes the next day.

Bellator Fighting Championships Signs Diego Marquez

Bellator Fighting Championships, the Latin-based mixed martial arts promotion that will air on ESPN Deportes, has just signed Diego Marquez to its eight-man lightweight tournament, according to a statement released by the fledgling organization. Marquez, the older cousin of Dora the Explorer, now joins the ranks of Eddie Alvarez and Jorge Masvidal in the 155-pound division. Amongst that level of competition, he will have his work cut out for him. "Diego Marquez is an eight-year-old rough and tumble action-adventure hero on the go," says Bellator FC CEO Bjorn Rebney. "An Animal Rescuer with an intense love of animals, Diego invites preschoolers to help him race to the rescue with a host of amazing gadgets and vehicles. Go, Diego, Go!" Expect the prerecorded BFC episodes to air in April.