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.

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You need to know about Lyman Good. He is our kind of fighter. Despite being an out-of-towner (he hails from Spanish Harlem) who trains at a notoriously commercial gym (Tiger Schulmann’s MMA), the 23-year-old is a street-trained brawler turned MMA prodigy. He’s one of our guys because, above all, he is scratching for every inch: He has been sleeping in a cage for the last three months to hone his instinct.

Will it be enough to win the $175K welterweight purse at the end of the Bellator Fighting Championship tournament? After catching up with Good, we might just be convinced it is enough to take him a lot further than that.

Good is a pretty mean-looking character. His body lacks any doughyness; every ounce of fat is clipped, leaving only the hard angles of muscle. Still, a worked look no longer distinguishes anyone from the pack in MMA. What distinguishes Good, physically speaking, is his head. Atop a thick dense neck sits a jagged bone structure that tapers off at the top like an upside-down water pail.

A braver man might call it a buckethead, but the point is there just doesn’t seem to be anywhere to land a punch that could ring his bell. Based on physiology, it looks like you could hit him in the chin with a fire hydrant and the impact would just disperse down that enormous neck instead of rattling his brain off his skull walls like a normal person.

He has the physical build, street toughness and mental focus (he believes taking someone’s heart is the best path to crumbling their body) to amass an undefeated record (8-0) and get us all fired up. But, does he have the potential to be more than just a king in the street? Could he one day throw hands with George St. Pierre? Will he live up to the hype he’s creating, or let his legion of supporters down? After the jump, we ask him.

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Right now, Eddie Alvarez, the Kensington-born brawler training out of Fishtown’s Philadelphia Fight Factory, is the highest-profile MMA fighter representing Philly. If you’re a fight fan, a wannabe tough guy needing to know who to avoid, or just a Philadelphian looking for the next local celeb, you should know why.

That’s where we come in. The Following is the official* Eddie Alvarez Crash Course: who the guy is, how the guy fights and where the guy will be fighting. All in under 600 words. For those who have been keeping a half an eye on the local fighter, it’ll be a quick refresher; for those who just blinked twice when they read his name, it’ll be a helpful catch-you-up.

Oh, and if you’re not a cake-eater, you need to know more, so tune in anyway. Hit the jump.

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via Bellator

Last Friday night in Norman Oklahoma, the Bellator Fighting Championship’s third week went down. The Complex couldn’t make the trip, but caught all the action at Rumba’s, our North Philly spot which broadcasts the weekly ESPN Deportes reply. This was a crowded card of big guys, mostly the 185 pounders (middleweights), and the World Wide Leader in Sports decided to split it into two shifts, last weekend and next. Though the opening round continues to produce some noticeable mismatches (something that is probably inevitable in a tournament like this), the big guys didn’t disappoint. Hector Lombard and Yosmany Cabezas, the two frontrunners, came out strong and look to be on a collision course for the finals in June.

We’ll break down some of the highlights of their fights and investigate possible upsets, all after the jump.

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With the vast majority of attention on Chuck Liddell and the UFC this weekend (Liddell, the MMA superstar, is fighting this weekend at UFC 97 despite loud rumors of his impending retirement), the Sports complex is here to give a quick word on what to expect out of Bellator Week 3.

This week’s tournament will showcase the middleweight bracket of Bellator’s lineup. Look for some quick finishes as the promotion gets its weight up.

MMA Junkie is excited about Hecktor Lombard making his American debut. The Cuban fighter is totted as the middleweight headliner; coming from a rough background, he honed his craft traveling the world competing, most notably as an Olympic Judo champ for Cuba.

Alex Andrade looks to be nice on the feet, with decent kickboxing experience as well as a Dallas Golden Gloves championship. One of the best upset chances for the night comes from his opponent Damien Stelly who holds Wrestling and Sambo distinctions as well as being a Golden Glove champ from Georgia. Side note to this fight: Stelly is a combat instructor for the U.S. Army who has served three tours in Afghanistan with the Rangers.

It’s hard to make the call on what other fights will stand out, but we will be watching with an eye to the match making to see if Bellator is padding its middleweight division with sacrificial lambs.

Remember, the fights are broadcast on ESPN Deportes Saturday. You can check them out at Rumba’s at Fourth and Norris if you want the authentic Latino experience. The show is also available on Bellator’s Web site with English commentary every Wednesday following the fights.

The full weigh-in results for week 3:

185 tourney: Jared Hess (185) vs. Daniel Tabera (183)

185 tourney: Alex Andrade (185) vs. Damien Stelly (185)

185 tourney: Hector Lombard (183) vs. Virgil Lozano (183)

185 alternate: John Kirk (186) vs. Jason Norwood (186)

Non-tourney: Johnny Eduardo (145) vs. Donald Sanchez (147)

170 tourney: Dave Menne (169) vs. Norman Paraisy (170)

185 tourney: Edwin Aguilar (184) vs. Yosmany Cabezas (183)

Non-tourney: Tyler East (235) vs. Amedio Viola (230)

Non-tourney: Marcelo Alfaia (185) vs. Joey Gorczynski (185)

Non-tourney: Wayne Cole (205) vs. Rudy Lindsay (201)

Non-tourney: William Albrecht (200) vs. Mike Messina (205)

We’ll have the recap on Monday.

Here’s a preview of what to expect from MMA in PA.

Last Friday night, a crowd mixed with MMA junkies, local fight fans, casual spectators and complimentary ticket holders filled up about three quarters of the Mohegan Sun Casino Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut for Bellator’s second week. Some of the crowd seemed pretty fresh to the sport, judging from the constant request for resetting the fighters and boos that could be heard whenever the contest was not a stand-up slugfest. Stand-ups, where the ref resets both fighters to their feet, occur when an official judges that neither fighter is advancing the action. Since many of the most vicious attacks come from a standing position, these interventions are meant to increase the action. Still, the crowd’s constant clamoring for them was less a sign of fight fans wanting to see action and more indicative of virgin fans dissatisfied with anything less than a blood orgy.

In the Victor Meza v. Omar de La Cruz fight, for example, the crowd was calling for a reset while De La Cruz was on Meza’s back with his hooks dug in deep and fighting for the submission (in the first round). This would be the equivalent of hockey fans calling for a shootout after the end of the first period. While this shows the youth of Bellator’s audience (and the sport in general), it also shows the percentage of small-event crowds that are there to see a fight — but not there to watch MMA. In short, the crowd is still peppered with Billy Badasses who could give a shit about an intricate guard pass; if they don’t see someone get kicked in the face, they’re going to let the ref and the fighters know they aren’t doing their jobs. If you’re not sure which ones are Billy, check for the tag hanging off his fresh Tapout hoodie. It’s a dead giveaway.

Still, the young league is coming along: Bellator’s second week definitely made some headway against those who questioned one-sided machups in week one (namely me). Eric Reynolds’ upset of Thomas Schulte upset and the close calls on the Eddie Alvarez and Wilson Reis fights (much closer on the Alvarez fight — he was almost knocked out in Week 1) makes a good argument for the matchups, showing that:

- the marquee guys did face some real contenders, and

- they needed the warmup fights to jolt them back into warrior mode.

We will know a lot more after this weekend, but if things keep ramping up, round 2 (starting May 1 and running all month) could elevate the league onto the mainstream radar. We will see …

Don’t forget: Bellator replays the fights on their Web site, available the Wednesday following the event. Also they are being shown every Saturday from 9 to 11 p.m at Rumba’s Bar at Fourth and Norris streets, a few blocks from the Berks El Station. Come out and feel free to yell at the TV as a fight fan, an MMA spectator or inebriated reporter hitting on Puerto Rican bartenders with busted high school Spanish. Bilingual yellers more than welcomed.

Bellator

Reis on the attack

Last Friday night in Uncasville Connecticut Bellator Fighting, ESPN’s foray into MMA, second week of fights went down. The night was highlighted by Lyman Good and local boy Wilson Reis stretching their undefeated records to 8-0 and 7-0, respectively. The Complex covered it live after plowing through the archaic traffic patterns of New Jersey, the pitfalls of Connecticut (fun fact: never, ever follow a sign for “Downtown West Haven”) and other challenges too numerous to name here. Aside from tweeting the blow by blow, we have the smothering coverage and a couple peripheral thoughts on the show, all after the jump.

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The second week of the newly formed Bellator Fighting Championship is here, just in time to see Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United phenom Wilson Reis back at work. He’ll be facing Henry Martinez, a little-known grappler fighting out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, tonight at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Reis’ opponent looks mean and has the bio of a very hard worker, but judging from his light track record (Martinez hasn’t seen anyone on Reis’ level of competition) and Bellator’s seemingly protective matchmaking (thus far, most of the matches involving Bellator’s marquee names have been noticeably one-sided), he probably won’t be inspiring a lot gamblers to lay their money down on the long shot. Still, it is the fight game, and in the fight game anything can happen, especially when both sides know that just one loss eliminates you from the $175K purse.

It is no secret that tSC is in the tank for our man Reis. We hyped him up early and we’re just as excited to see see him get back to scientifically deconstructing opponents now. We’ll be covering the fight from every angle.

Tonight we’ll be reporting live from Connecticut — updates, observations, results, and everywhichway Reis brings the pain in 140 characters or less via my Twitter (@JoeBlo). Unless you are making the trip through the depths of traffic hell to see the show, we’ll be your go-to for the fights’ blow-by-blow.

If you miss that, we’ll be checking out the broadcast at Rumba’s at Fourth and Norris on Saturday Night from 9 to 11 p.m. (between the music, the atmosphere, the fight-enthused crowd and the access to the all-too-rare ESPN Deportes, Rumba’s has quickly become Philly’s go-to Bellator bar).

If you miss that we’ll have a full recap — filled with all the loose teeth and gritty details that are only available ringside — up right here early next week.

To stave you off until then, here is link for those not easily offended: If you want to see how raw the UFC is, listen to the company’s head honcho Dana White as he gets earthy all over a reporter whom he perceives as “writing bullshit stories.”

It isn’t all that often you get to hear a multimillionaire business mogul with aspirations of penetrating the main stream drop bombs like “faggot” and “dumb bitch” on his immediate outlet to the general public. An outburst like that, with literally millions of dollars worth of deals in negotiations on the table, is pretty gangster.

If those “bullshit stories” get blowback like that, who knows what is in store for the reporter twittering from a fight night? Find out tonight.

Next week’s Bellator Fighting Championship fight is quickly approaching, and the Complex is fiending to see our hometown monster Wilson Reis get back into the ring. To help stave off the growls of anticipation, we caught back up to last week’s hometown hero — Fishtown’s Philadelphia Fight Factory product Eddie Alvarez. We asked him about handling the rigorous Bellator schedule and, most importantly, about the sick move he pulled off to finish last week’s fight (the video of all the fights is available here). We also find out if there is any chance to see him at UFC 101, the just-about-locked-up mega event slated for Aug. 8 at the Wachovia Center. Lastly, we have a word or two about the Philadelphia Weekly Alvarez cover, and explain just a bit of what they missed …

To top it all off, we’ll serve up with a dollop of shit talk, because we know you love the hate. All after the jump.

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Eddie’s quick takedown for a mean finish

The Bellator Fighting Championship premiered Friday night, was broadcast Saturday night on ESPN Deportes, and was highlighted by local favorite Eddie Alvarez (check the rundown below for details). The complex gave you the heads up on Rumba’s Bar at 4^th and Norris Streets, who will be showing the fights every week (more on that at the end). You can also catch the fights with English commentary at Bellator’s website; this will be available on the Wednesday following each fight.

For those of you laid down bets, here’s the official results:

Tournament Bouts [Broadcast]:

Lightweight: Jorge Masdival def. Nick Agallar via TKO (Punches) – Round1

Lightweight: Eddie Alvarez def. Greg Loughran via submission (Guillotine Choke) – Round 1

Lightweight: Toby Imada def. Alonzo Martinez via submission (Rear Naked Choke) – Round 1

Featherweight: Yahir Reyes def. Nick Gonzalez via submission (Rear Naked Choke) – Round 1

Featherweight: Estevan Payan def. Luis Palomino via split decision

Featherweight: Joe Soto def. Ben Greer via TKO (Punches) – Round 1

Non-Tournament Bouts [Not broadcast]:

Featherweight: Jonathan Brookins def. Stephan Ledbetter via submission (Rear Naked Choke) – Round 1

Lightweight: Lorenzo Borgomeo def. Daniel Morales via submission (Rear Naked Choke) – Round 3

Middleweight : James Brasco def. Kevin Abrante via submission (Armbar) – Round 1

Middleweight: Moses Gabon def. Chris Decaro via submission (Triangle Choke) – Round 1

Middleweight: Gary Padilla def. Daniel Sarafien via TKO (Punches) – Round 2

All things considered, the show came off well- the production looked pretty quality – there certainly wasn’t any sandbagging – but it was all clean either. After the jump we’ll point out of a couple of potential pitfalls for the startup league and run down the complete action (including a blow-by-blow recap of local product Eddie Alverez‘ close win over Greg Loughran).

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