In the main event of Bellator 108 last night Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson marked his debut with a first round knockout win over Joey Beltran, snapping a three-fight losing streak in the process.
‘Rampage’ stalked his opponent early in the fight, while Beltran seemed happy to get on his bike and circle the cage. Eventually Beltran settled into a clinch-based game, pressing ‘Rampage’ against the cage and looking to wear him down with dirty boxing.
It seemed to be working somewhat successfully until deep in the round when ‘Rampage’ got free and then waded forward with a combination of strikes which didn’t find their mark, but did reverse the roles with ‘Rampage’ now the one who had backed Beltran against the cage.
‘Rampage’ landed a nice knee to the body, but undeterred, Beltran threw back a series of hard knees himself. ‘Rampage’ then switched things up, firing off a barrage of left and right hooks. The first few missed their target, but then a left landed to the chin which seemed to buckle his opponent’s legs, followed by a right for good measure as Beltran dropped down to his knees on the canvas.
‘Rampage’ stepped back for a moment and then waded in with a final punch that sealed the deal and earned him the victory with just one second of the round remaining. It seemed to me that Beltran was concious the whole time, though definitely dazed so it was a good stoppage, but perhaps should have been recorded as a TKO.
Earlier in the evening Vitaly Minakov became the new Bellator heavyweight champ after TKO’ing Alexander Volkov with an uppercut mid-way through the opening round followed by ground and pound.
The other two bouts on the main card also finished in the first round, with Patricio Freire overwhelming Justin Wilcox in their fight, taking his legs out from under him with hard punches and then swarming all over him on the mat until the referee eventually intervened.
Marcos Galvao also dominated Tom McKenna, eventually finishing him with ground and pound from back mount.
See all the results from last night’s event below.
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Main Card
Quinton Rampage Jackson def. Joey Beltran via Knockout at 4:59 of Round 1
Vitaly Minakov def. Alexander Volkov via Technical Knockout at 2:57 of Round 1
Patricio Freire def. Justin Wilcox via Technical Knockout at 2:23 of Round 1
Marcos Galvao def. Tom McKenna via Technical Knockout at 4:29 of Round 1
Prelims
Sam Oropeza def. Chip Moraza-Pollard via Knockout at :37 of Round 1
Tom DeBlass def. Jason Lambert via Knockout at 1:45 of round 1
Nah’Shon Burrell def. Jesus Martinez via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Will Martinez def. Kevin Roddy via Submission at 3:50 of round 1 (rear naked choke)
Liam McGeary def. Najim Wali via submission at 1:31 of round 1 (armbar)
Anthony Morrison def, Kenny Foster via Majority Decision (28-28, 29-27, 30-26)
Dan Matala def. Ryan Cafaro via Technical Knockout at 3:52 of Round 2
Rob Sullivan def. Sergio da Silva via Split Decision (29-28x, 30-27)
