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Matt Mitrione and Ryan Bader will square off on Friday night to take one step closer to filling the vacant Bellator heavyweight championship. The pair of UFC veterans headline Bellator 207 from Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, in a semifinal bout of the Bellator Heavyweight World Grand Prix tournament.
Bader, currently the promotion’s light heavyweight champion, is fresh off a 13-second knockout of Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal in his first-round bout in May. Mitrione, meanwhile, a former NFL defensive lineman, took a majority decision from Roy Nelson in February.
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The winner of Friday’s main event will face the winner of Saturday’s Fedor Emelianenko-Chael Sonnen semifinal bout at Bellator 208 in Uniondale, New York. The tournament final is expected to take place in January, though no specific date or venue has been announced.
Bellator 207 fight card, results
Ryan Bader vs. Matt Mitrione — Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinal
Roy Nelson vs. Sergei Kharitonov — Heavyweight
Lorenz Larkin def. Ion Pascu via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Corey Browning def. Kevin “Baby Slice” Ferguson via second-round TKO (punches)
Mandel Nallo def. Carrington Banks via first-round TKO (knee): Bellator MMA may have just found its knockout of the year.
A jumping right knee from Mandel Nallo was enough to remove Carrington Banks of consciousness in a spectacular finish in Round 2 that send the lightweight Banks falling face first to the canvas on Friday at Bellator 207 in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Nallo (7-0) improved to 2-0 under the Bellator banner as he brought fans inside Mohegan Sun Arena with the devastating strike that brought an instant end to the fight just 57 seconds into the second round.
“We knew [Banks] was a great wrestler but in the first round when he would jab, he would dip his head to the out to my right side and I kept missing with the right hand because he was dipping,” Nallo said. “My coach told me to start focusing on stuff that was lower and I figured that the old knee was going to do the trick.”
As Banks (7-2) took a step forward early in Round 2, Nallo timed him perfectly with a leaping knee that caught him flush on the chin and knocked him out cold. Color commentator “Big” John McCarthy on the Paramount Network telecast instantly called it one of the top 10 best knockouts in Bellator history.
Nallo, a native of Vancouver, nearly had the fight finished in the opening round when he caught Banks with an anaconda choke.
“I think he was real close [to tapping],” Nallo said. “.I think that he’s a real savvy wrestler and he kept underhooking and getting around my hips and I couldn’t choke him with his own arm. I’m like squeezing and if I get this done in Round 1, I can go hang out at the restaurant. I’m trying to do this real quick but then I felt like a doofus when he got out.”
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