The Best Moments, Fight, Knockout, and Submission of Season Ten of Bellator

The tenth season of Bellator concluded this past Saturday night and this season featured new champions being crowned, memorable moments, and highlight reel finishes. Derek Anderson

The season started off at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut and the promotion would host ten events, with ten of them taking place in the United States.

It’s very cliche to say that this is the best Bellator season, but it was the best season that the California based promotion has put together.

This season had a little bit of everything from crazy finishes, controversial judging decisions, to a near brawl in the cage between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal.

TheMMAReport.com has put together a list of the most memorable moments of the season, along with our vote for fight, knockout, and submission of the season.

Memorable Moments of Season Ten of Bellator MMA:
– Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal nearly getting into a fight following Bellator 110 and at the post fight press conference.
– Eduardo Dantas pulls out a slick submission at Bellator 111 over Anthony Leone to retain the bantamweight title.
– Pat Curran submits Daniel Straus with 14 seconds left in their fight to regain the Bellator featherweight title and pull off the latest stoppage in a Bellator title fight.
– Darrion Caldwell wins his Bellator debut by submission against Lance Surma in 50 seconds, which is the fastest submission in Bellator featherweight division history.
– Once again, Brett Cooper scores a come from behind victory as he advances to the middleweight tournament final with a knockout in the second round against Kendall Grove.
– Justin Baesman and Herman Terrado fight to a majority draw in the co-main event of Bellator 115.
– Alexander Volkov scores a highlight reel knockout against Mighty Mo Siliga at Bellator 116.
– Douglas Lima dominates Rick Hawn at Bellator 117 to win the vacant welterweight title.
– Liam McGeary advances to the light heavyweight tournament final with the fourth fastest victory in Bellator light heavyweight division history as he beats Mike Mucitelli in 22 seconds.
– Brian Rogers wins another fight in Bellator by flying knee knockout as he defeated Adrian Miles at Bellator 119.
– Tito Ortiz upsetting Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 120 and getting his first win in nearly two years.
– Will Brooks and Michael Chandler battling for five rounds for the interim lightweight title at Bellator 120.

Best Fight of the Season:
There were several memorable fights during this season of Bellator and the top two fights were title fights. When you are handing out an award, you have to pick one fight and that is why my fight of the season is Will Brooks vs. Michael Chandler with the title fight between Pat Curran and Daniel Straus being a close runner-up.

Brooks was a huge underdog in the fight and there was not many people giving Brooks a chance in the fight. Chandler got off to a great start as he took the opening two rounds, but Brooks came storming back with a huge third round. He would go on to win the fourth round, but had to weather a late storm by Chandler.

Chandler landing a glancing shot as the fight approached the last minute of the round and landed several significant ground strikes. He would attempt an arm-triangle choke submission and ended the fight in the mount position.

Two of the three judges would score the fight for Brooks, even though many people felt it was either a draw or Chandler should have won according to MMADecisions.com. No matter what you thought of the decision, it was a great fight and Chandler has been in some of the best fights in Bellator history.

Best Knockout of the Season:
When it came to the knockout of the season, there were plenty to pick from and the runner-ups for this award were Liam McGeary and Brian Rogers. Both of those knockouts were as Bjorn Rebney like to say, “fireworks,” the best knockout came at Bellator 113 when Derek Anderson advanced to the lightweight tournament semifinals with a second round victory against Brandon Girtz.

The fight opened with Girtz scoring an early takedown but Anderson was able to get back to his feet fairly quickly. They would exchange strikes before Girtz closed the distance against the fence and went for a standing kimura submission. Anderson would escape the submission and ended up getting the fight to the ground and keeping it there for the rest of the round.

As the second round opened, Girtz walked right into a right knee that was thrown by Anderson and he immediately fell. He was clearly out and the referee came in before any potential unnecessary strike was thrown.

Best Submission of the Season:
Just like knockout of the season, there were several worthy candidates for submission of the season but the best one was a very clear choice. Back at Bellator 111 on March 7, bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas pulled off a slick move to submit Anthony Leone in the second round with a rear-naked choke.

The champion had a tough first round, which played out with him being taken down and controlling from a position standpoint for the majority of the period. Dantas was able to latch on the rear-naked choke in the second frame when he defended a lazy takedown attempt by Leone.

What are your picks for fight, knockout, and submission of the season? Leave your responses in the comment section below.