Bellator 80 took place on Friday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida and Alexander Volkov and Rad Martinez secured spots in tournament finals, plus Joe Warren snapped a two fight losing streak in the main event.
Warren (8-3) took on Owen Evinger in the main event and used his wrestling to dominate the action to score a unanimous decision victory. He was able to take the fight to the ground with ease and Evinger was unable to get off his back.
It appeared that Warren was near a second round submission, but Evinger was able to escape the hold. Evinger was never able to mount much offense and could not get any offense going in the third and final round.
In the co-main event, Alexander Volkov was able to stop Vinicius Queiroz with one second left in the second round to secure a spot in the heavyweight tournament final against Rich Hale. Volkov was able to land several combinations in the fight and stunned Queiroz at various times.
The moment of the fight came in the second round when Queiroz took the fight to the ground and the referee decided to stand them up after he felt the fighters were not improving their position. After the stand up, Volkov landed combinations against the cage that dropped his opponent and he got the finish.
In the other tournament semifinal bout, Rad Martinez scored a unanimous decision victory over Wagnney Fabiano to advance to the finals to face Shahbulat Shamhalaev. Martinez was able to keep the fight standing and not allow Fabiano to get on the ground and use his jiu-jitsu.
The full Bellator 80 results are below:
Main Card: (MTV2/EPIX2)
Joe Warren def. Owen Evinger via unanimous decision (3-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Alexander Volkov def. Vinicius Queiroz via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 4:59
Rad Martinez def. Wagnney Fabiano via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Brett Cooper def. Darryl Cobb via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com)
Ryan DeRocher def. Taylor Krahl via KO (strikes) – Round 1, :20
Cosmo Alexandre def. Josh Quayhagen via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Shanon Slack def. Sky Moiseichik via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Cristiano Souza def. Robert Otani via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 2:46
Joe Vedepo def. Mike Bernhard via submission (shin choke) – Round 1, 3:26
Brandon Girtz def. Mitchell Quinones via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)