The tenth season of Bellator MMA will continue on Friday night as the organization will head to the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma for the fourth time in the last fourteen months.
Bellator 111 will be headlined by a title fight as Eduardo Dantas makes his second bantamweight title defense as he is challenged by Anthony Leone.
Also, the card will feature the opening round of the season ten heavyweight tournament with the matchups being Alexander Volkov vs. Mark Holata, Peter Graham vs. Mighty Mo, Ryan Martinez vs. Lavar Johnson, and Rich Hale vs. Blagoi Ivanov.
The fight card will begin with the preliminary card on Spike.com at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT and the main card on Spike TV will start at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
Eduardo Dantas (15-3) vs. Anthony Leone (13-6)
This will mark the first title fight in Bellator this year as Dantas will be fighting for the first time since his knockout victory against Marcos Galvao at Bellator 89 last year. His last two wins in Bellator have been by stoppage, with the other win coming against current UFC fighter Zach Makovsky.
- This will be his first fight in 386 days, which is the longest layoff since turning professional in 2007
- Dantas has held the bantamweight title for 692 days, which is 145 days longer than Makovsky
- If Dantas wins on Friday, he would become the 5th fighter in Bellator history to make two successful title defenses (Ben Askren, Michael Chandler, Pat Curran, and Alexander Shlemenko).
- Dantas has five wins in the Bellator bantamweight division, which is second most in the organizations history (Makovsky, 6)
Dantas was initially scheduled to meet Rafael Silva on Friday night, but a knee injury forced him out of the fight and Bellator initially wanted to give season nine tournament winner Joe Warren the title shot. However, Warren is still recovering from an injury and Bellator used the “Tournament Champion Replacement Clause,” to give Leone the title shot, who lost to Silva in the 2013 Summer Series tournament final.
- Prior to the tournament final against Silva, Leone had won four fights in a row including a decision win over Makovsky
- Leone started his career 8-0 before suffering his first career defeat in his WEC debut against current UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao
- Six of his thirteen victories are by submission and three have come by armbar
Alexander Volkov (19-4) vs. Mark Holata (12-4)
Volkov returns to the Bellator cage for the first time since losing the Bellator title to Vitaly Minakov, which snapped ten fight winning streak. It was also the first time in his career that he has been defeated by knockout and it was first stoppage defeat since 2010.
- Volkov held the Bellator heavyweight title for 337 days and is one of three men to hold the title (Cole Konrad, Minakov)
- Prior to entering Bellator, he had never competed in the United States
- Volkov has 14 career victories by TKO/KO and nine of his last twelve wins have been by TKO/KO
- He is one of three fighters in Bellator history to win a fight with one second left in a round (Jason Fischer, Quinton Jackson)
Holata will be fighting in his home state of Oklahoma for the twelfth time in his career and this will be his third Bellator tournament. He has been eliminated in the opening rounds of his previous tournament and both defeats came in the first round against Ron Sparks and Vinicius Spartan.
- This will be Holata’s first fight in 518 days, which is the longest layoff in his career
- Holata’s last win was at Bellator 69 against Abe Wagner on May 18, 2012 (658 days)
- Defeated current UFC heavyweight Shawn Jordan by knockout in Bellator debut in 2010
- Ten of his fourteen fights have ended in the first round
- Played football at the University of Tulsa as a defensive tackle and fullback
Peter Graham (10-6) vs. Mighty Mo Siliga (5-2)
After starting his MMA career 1-5, Graham won nine straight fights before being placed into the season nine heavyweight tournament final on short notice. In the tournament final, he was defeated by Cheick Kongo and it was his first career defeat to come by decision.
- Graham has a recorded 75 professional fights as a boxer, kickboxer, and mixed martial artist
- Nine of his ten victories are by TKO/KO and six of those have come in the first round
- Out of Graham’s six MMA defeats, five have been by submission
Just like Graham, Mighty Mo has competed as a boxer, kickboxer, and mixed martial artist. After being away from MMA for over three years, he returned at Bellator 100 in September and defeated Dan Charles by TKO. He followed up that win by submitting Ron Sparks at Bellator 105 to claim a spot in this tournament.
- Siliga went over six years between wins in MMA (2468 days)
- All of Siliga’s wins have been by TKO/KO or Submission
- Siliga has only made it out of the first round twice in his MMA career
Ryan Martinez (10-3) vs. Lavar Johnson (17-8)
After recovering from a hand injury, Martinez returns to the Bellator tournament following being a finalist in the 2013 Summer Series tournament. Prior to losing to Minakov in the tournament final, he had won three straight fights and had back to back wins by knockout in the first round.
- Training partner of Bellator light heavyweight Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and UFC heavyweight Roy Nelson
- Martinez’s 18 second knockout of Travis Wiuff is the second fastest knockout in Bellator heavyweight history (Eddie Sanchez :10 vs. Jay White)
- Six of his ten win have come in the first round by TKO/KO or Submission
Blagoi Ivanov (9-0, 1NC) vs. Rich Hale (21-6)
Ivanov is considered one of the favorites by many people to win this tournament and this will be his second Bellator tournament. He made it to the semifinals of the season five tournament, but he had to pull out of the tournament with an injury. Since coming back to MMA after being stabbed in 2012, he has won back to back fights by submission in the first round.
- Ivanov won gold at the 2008 World Sambo Championships in Russia and defeated Fedor Emelianenko in the semifinals
- Eight of his nine victories are by TKO/KO or Submission
- In his four Bellator fights, his average fight time is 3:57
Hale will step back into another Bellator heavyweight tournament after being a finalist in the season seven tournament and a semifinalist in the 2013 Summer Series tournament. He is coming off a knockout defeat against Martinez and two of this three defeats in Bellator are by TKO/KO.
- Hale is entering his fourth Bellator tournament, which is tied for second in Bellator history for most Bellator tournaments competed in (Brent Weedman holds record at five)
- He is one of two fighters in Bellator history to win by inverted triangle choke submission (Tony Imada)
- Five of his six Bellator wins have come by TKO/KO or Submission and four of those wins have been under two minutes
- Hale’s last win was against Thiago Santos and that was 488 days ago