Andrey Koreshkov stayed unbeaten on Friday night at Bellator 82 at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort as he defeated former Bellator welterweight champion Lyman Good by unanimous decision to win the season seven welterweight tournament.
Koreshkov (13-0) was able to stay on the outside and stay away from the inside game of Good and was able to defend the ground game of Good when the fight was on the ground.
In the opening round, Koreshkov came out and implemented his gameplan on staying on the outside and picking his spots to throw his strikes. Good did not seem comfortable during the round and did not take many risk because of the striking ability of his opponent.
Good’s best round was the second round, which he was able to get the fight to the ground and got the back of his opponent. He looked for a rear-naked choke once getting Koreshkov’s back, but he was unable to lock in the submission. With over 90 seconds left in the round, Koreshkov was able to get back to his feet and get back to striking with his opponent.
In the final round, Good took the fight to the ground and once again looked to take the back of his opponent. There seemed to be a small opening for him to get the back, but he did not take advantage of the opportunity. Koreshkov would actually end up taking down Good (14-3) and would finish the fight in top position.
All three judges scored the fight the same with giving Koreshkov two of the three rounds and he has guaranteed himself a title shot in the welterweight division and won $100,000. He will now wait to see who he will face for the title as current champion Ben Askren is set to defend the title in January against season six tournament winner Karl Amoussou.
The rest of the Bellator 82 main card saw wins for David Rickels, Doug Marshall and Alexander Sarnavskiy. Rickels defeated Jason Fischer by unanimous decision in a 160 pound catchweight bout. With this win, Rickels (11-1) is likely to have a spot in the next lightweight tournament, which is scheduled to begin in the beginning of 2013.
Marshall (15-6) was making his Bellator debut against Kala Hose and only needed 22 seconds to get the knockout victory. After Hose landed a knee, he connected with a left hook that dropped his opponent and the referee quickly came in to call the fight. The former WEC light heavyweight champion is now 2-2 in his last four fights and he asked the Bellator fans to write into Bellator and tell them that they want to see him back in the Bellator cage.
Finally, Sarnavskiy (21-1) scored his first win in Bellator over Tony Hervey in what some many considered a safe gameplan for the Russian fighter. He was able to control the fight with his ground game and Hervey was unable to get off his back when the fight went to the ground.
The full Bellator 82 results are below:
Main Card: (MTV2/EPIX2)
Andrey Koreshkov def. Lyman Good via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
David Rickels def. Jason Fischer via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Doug Marshall def. Kala Hose via KO (strike) – Round 1, :22
Alexander Sarnavskiy def. Tony Hervey via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com)
John Schulz def. Hector Garcia via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 2:45
Jeremy Czarnecki def. Justin Houghton via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Terry Davinney def. Matt Van Buren via knockout (strikes) – Round 1, :15
Giva Santana def. Brendan Seguin via submission (knee bar) – Round 2, 2:33
Shawn Bunch def. Chad Coon via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Mario Navarro def. Anthony Bain via submission (triangle choke) – Round 2, 3:18