Bellator 278 took place last night and we’ve got all the results for you below.
In the main event of the evening Liz Carmouche became Bellator’s new women’s flyweight champion in controversial fashion with a late fourth round TKO stoppage against Juliana Velasquez.
For much of the fight it appeared that Velasquez was getting the better of the action, landing the better strikes in the first two rounds as her left hand did much of the work, while in the third she really started to take over.
Early in the fourth she dropped Velasquez, but to her credit, later in the stanza Carmouche did secure a takedown and was able to catch her in the crucifix and dropped down a series of elbows to the champion’s unprotected head.
The blows didn’t appear too damaging though, yet with only 13 seconds of the round remaining referee Mike Beltran stepped in and waved off the fight, resulting in Carmouche winning the title.
The scorecards afterwards showed that all three judges had Velasquez up by 30-27 heading into the fourth round and many others have since voiced their opinion that Beltran was far too hasty with his decision to stop the bout given that Velasquez wasn’t badly hurt.
Aside from that controversy, the other notable action of the night saw Enrique Barzola and Danny Sabetello comfortably win their bantamweight grand-prix wild card bouts by unanimous decision against Nikita Mikhailov and Jornel Lugo respectively.
Liz Carmouche def. Juliana Velasquez via TKO (elbows) – Round 4, 4:47 – for women’s flyweight title
Enrique Barzola def. Nikita Mikhailov via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) – bantamweight grand prix wild card
Danny Sabatello def. Jornel Lugo via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26) – bantamweight grand prix wild card
Grant Neal def. Christian Edwards via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Manny Muro def. Nate Andrews via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Weber Almeida def. Fabricio Franco via TKO (referee stoppage) – Round 1, 3:01
Dante Schiro def. Scotty Hao via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 1:03
Blake Perry def. Makoa Cooper via submission (anaconda choke) – Round 2, 4:14
