Bellator week 6 went down May 8^th in Robstown, Texas but it has taken us some time to recover from the blow to our hometown guy Wilson Reis (now 7-1). He not only had his undefeated record broken and was knocked out of contention for the $100K finals by underdog Joe Soto (now 6-0). While most of the media outlets have been focused on the night’s spectacular knockout-Yahir Reyes‘ Spinning Backfist that leveled Estevan Payan (more on that after the jump), not too much has been made of the Reis loss. It sure as hell made an impact on us; and after procrastinating the phone call to our champ to discuss the loss, we finally manned up and got the interview. First, here is a recap of the fight with a few observations. Stay tuned for the interview coming shortly and you will easily see why, even in defeat, Reis is a Philly champ and Soto is marked man.

Reis came out looking a little more than amped. Jittery from the jump, his energy was bubbling over in the form of anxious twitchy movements. Soto, on the other hand, looked extremely relaxed, considering his status as an inexperienced 2-1 underdog. At 22, Soto had never fought past the first round in any of his five pro fights, whereas Reis proved his stamina by smothering Abel Cullum in a 5 round marathon to win the Elite XC title.

The reach advantage of Soto made an immediate impact but it was his takedown defense that really secured the fight. Reis‘ development on the feet is very apparent and he looked content to trade hands because of it; he buckled Soto’s knees in the first round with straight punches to the face and his high kicks penetrated all fight but they couldn’t be followed up on. However Soto slightly edged Reis in this round with his more refined boxing style- overwhelming Reis’s attempts to paw his way through Soto’s reach advantage.

Late in the round one, Soto showed a donkeyesk ability to turn his back and kick his way out of some pretty tight takedown attempts. This same defense would be revisited latter in the fight and deserves a little explanation. Reis in his few successful lunges wrapped up Soto’s legs tightly. Soto sprawled quick to keep his weight down on Reis- preventing him from pulling his opponent’s legs close and executing the takedown.  When Soto did pull that weight off of Reis and back over his own feet, he had created enough distance to turn his body away from Reis and start bucking. Working his way loose he would kick free before turning back to restart the standup fight, avoiding any ground tie-up with the world class grappler.

Rounds two and three saw more of the same: Reis occasionally getting some punches in and lone head kicks, but being outgunned by Soto’s reach and stalk. After a close round one, the fight slipped further and further away. Although it never seemed completely out of reach for Reis, the judges final score surprised no one: all three had it 27-30 for Soto.

It is worth repeating that Reis never looked panicked to get the fight to the ground where his advantage, at least on paper, was enormous. That is probably a result of Reis‘ desire to work his newly acquired hand skills and Soto’s Herculean takdown defense. These factors mixed with the refined boxing of Soto - the underdog used comfortable concise movements to hit a much higher percentage of connections than Reis, who tends to swing for the fences – and his reach advantage left Reis looking lonely in the center of the ring after the decision.

Several days after the fight we caught up with Reis to get his take and were presently surprised to find him in high spirits. He won’t get the $100k purse from this event, but he is already training with his original coach Roberto Godoi in Sao Paulo for a June 5^th return against Roberto Vargas. Check back soon to see the interview with Reis were he gives us an honest assessment of what he is taking from his first pro loss and why he has respect for Soto as well as many reasons to tear him apart in their next meeting.

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Don’t laugh too hard at Estevan Payan

The buzz from this night for most viewers was the undercard, which showcased Bellator’s second mind-boggling highlight in as many weeks. After Week 5 when a bloodied underdog Toby Imada defeated Jorge “gamebread” Masvidal via an inverted triangle choke, Yahir Reyes‘ kept the highlights alive with this Spinning Backfist that leveled Estevan Payan for the knockout win.

Both of these clips are spectacular and will be contenders for submission and knockout of the year respectively. Both victors would have lost without the highlight moves; but with a little background, you really start to feel for Estevan Payan, who was on the wrong end of the spinning backfist. The guy is a Veteran of three tours of Iraq, has five kids under the age of six and shared a heart wrenching story about his little brother: When Payan got some sponsorship and stated fighting full time, he brought his little brother from home to his training facility to separate him from the drug life that had penetrated deep into his immediate family. His attempts failed as the lack of partying and drinking in a pro fighter’s life caused a rift and the little brother returned home, where he was killed a few weeks later, an incident Payan believes to be random. It doesn’t take anything from the crushing blow but we certainly hope this isn’t the last we see of Payan. For our money the backfist was more fluke then skill and Payan wasn’t only winning, he had stalked Reyes the whole fight (maybe Reyes was luring him in?).

The Complex is rooting for Payan to recover his ego and get back on the right side of the highlight reel.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Bellator, Local Fighters, MMA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.