Doug Marshall was unable to capture the Bellator middleweight title last night as he was defeated in the first round by Alexander Shlemenko.
Shlemenko opened up the first by using takedowns to confuse the season eight tournament winner. Marshall would be able to get back to his feet from the takedown attempts but appeared to become more tentative due to the takedowns.
With the fight staying on the feet, Marshall began to load up his strikes and Shlemenko countered the strikes of Marshall by going to the body. The first body shot that he landed rocked Marshall, but he was able to survive.
However, Marshall would not be able to recover from the second body shot and referee Dan Miragliotta came in to call the fight. The defeat snaps a four fight winning streak for Marshall and six of his seven defeats have come by knockout.
At the Bellator 109 Post Fight Press Conference, Marshall said that Shlemenko does not throw as hard as he does, and he plans to win the next middleweight tournament and earn a rematch against Shlemenko.
“It’s hard for me to get up here and run my [expletive] mouth like I want to after I got put down with a body shot,” Marshall said. “A few things kind of threw me off guard. First of all, that [expletive] dude does not throw as hard as I do and that is the bottom line. He had some great takedowns and I was not expecting that at all, not even a little bit.”
“I thought he was this [expletive] badass stand up fighter and he is good, no doubt. He caught me and he dropped me with a [expletive] liver shot but I am going to be back. I am going to smash through the [expletive] tournament, like I did last time and I am going to be seeing that man again.”
Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney did confirm that Marshall will be in the next middleweight tournament, which will likely take place at the beginning of the year.