Bellator 200, which took place Friday afternoon at SSE Arena, Wembley in London, England, was an absolute success for the world’s second-biggest MMA promotion. Phil Davis kicked off the main card with a surprisingly brutal KO win over Linton Vassell, followed by a submission win by fan favorite Aaron Chalmers over Ash Griffiths and a submission win by Michael Page over David Rickels, plus a dominant decision victory by Kate Jackson. But without a doubt the highlight of the night took place in the main event of the evening, when Gegard Mousasi added to his collection of MMA belts with a brutal first-round TKO win over Rafael Carvalho to become to the new Bellator middleweight champion.
It was an incredible win for Mousasi against a fighter in Carvalho who had been looking like he was one of the top middleweights outside of the UFC. But Mousasi showed Carvalho there are levels to this sport and “The Dreamcatcher” is fighting at an elite level right now. The 32-year-old Iranian-born, Dutch-bred fighter improved his MMA record to an incredible 44-6-2 mark and he’s currently on a seven-fight win streak, including wins over Carvalho and Alexander Shlemenko since coming to Bellator. It’s amazing the UFC let him test free agency and leave considering he had won five-straight fights in the Octagon prior to testing the free-agent waters — including a TKO win over former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman — but the UFC’s loss has become Bellator’s gain as Mousasi is looking like one of the best middleweights in the world right now, and he’s quickly becoming one of the faces of Bellator.
After the fight, Mousasi didn’t waste time calling out for a superfight against another fighter the UFC let go in the former of Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald. “The Red King” has said numerous times that he wants to fight at 185lbs in Bellator and become a two-division champion, and he might get that chance if Bellator does the right thing and books this Mousasi vs. MacDonald superfight. Considering both men have asked for the fight — MacDonald wrote on Twitter that he wants it, too — there’s absolutely no reason it can’t be made, and we know Bellator president Scott Coker isn’t afraid to book big fights that the fans want to see. Both Mousasi and MacDonald, who is 2-0 in Bellator with dominant wins over Paul Daley and Douglas Lima since leaving the UFC, are arguably the top two pound-for-pound fighters on the Bellator roster, and it would be a real coup for the promotion if it could book this superfight before he end of 2018. This is a fight that the fans want to see and now let’s see if Bellator can get pen to paper and get it done. It would be the biggest fight the promotion could book.
It’s just a disappointment that the UFC deemed both Mousasi and MacDonald expendable, as both men could be fighting for titles in the UFC right now. But for whatever reason the UFC did not want to pay these guys and now Bellator has two elite fighters on its roster. Both men are stars in a sport where stars are hard to come by, and the fact these two amazing fighters want to put together a superfight for the fans is incredible to hear. Superfights aren’t easy to get booked in MMA as usually one of the two sides will be holding out for more money or try to avoid the other guy. But in this case, both Mousasi and MacDonald are already being paid handsomely by Bellator and now both guys want to go out there and challenge themselves and put together a huge fight for the fans. Considering how amazing Mousasi just looked against Carvalho and how great MacDonald performed against Lima and it’s easy to get excited for this potential superfight. Now let’s see if Coker can get it done.
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