The season eight Bellator lightweight tournament started on Thursday night at the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort and David Rickels, Will Brooks, Saad Awad and Alexander Sarnavskiy advance to the semifinals with victories.
In the main event of the night, Rickels was able to outlast Lloyd Woodard as he won a unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the fight 29-28 for Rickels.
Woodard was able to control the first round as the highlight of the round was when he used a belly to back suplex to take the fight to the ground. Rickels would attempt submissions from his back, but Woodard was able to escape the attempts.
Rickels would come out in the second round and push the pace, which Woodard appeared to be slowing down. Once again the fight would go to the ground and Rickels would attempt several submissions. Woodard would not be able to mount much offense in the round and the fight headed to the final round.
In the third round, Woodard appeared to be gassed out and Rickels was able to take advantage by being the aggressor and landing combinations. In the final minute of the fight, they would start to brawl and Woodard would take the fight to the ground. Once on the ground, Rickels looked for a submission which was unsuccessful and the fight would end.
Rickels (12-1) now advances to the semifinals of the lightweight tournament where he will face Sarnavskiy (22-1). “Tiger” opened the main card on Spike TV and stopped Thiago Michel in the second round with a rear-naked choke submission. He was able to control the fight on the feet in the first round and then on the ground in the second. The submission win was Tiger’s 12th career win by submission and his second victory in Bellator.
In the other lightweight tournament quarterfinals, Brooks (9-0) won his Bellator debut with a unanimous decision win over Bellator tournament veteran Ricardo Tirloni and Awad only needed 31 seconds to score a TKO victory over Guillaume DeLorenzi.
The complete Bellator 87 Results are below:
Main Card: (Spike TV)
David Rickels def. Lloyd Woodard via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Will Brooks def. Ricardo Tirloni via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Saad Awad def. Guillaume DeLorenzi via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, :31
Alexander Sarnavskiy def. Thiago Michel via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:43
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com)
Jason Fischer def. Sevak Magakian via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 3:37
Karl Etherington def. Jason Fish via submission (punches) – Round 1, 3:45
Amir Killah def. John Schulz via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 4:34
J.P. Reese def. David Shepherd via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Sam Quito def. Ben Lagman via submission (knee bar) – Round 2, 3:54
Tony Zelinski def. Nick Kirk via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)