Bellator 148 took place this past Friday night in Fresno, California and was headlined by Paul Daley defeating Andy Uhrich by knockout in the first round. In addition to a stoppage victory by Daley, the main card on Spike TV saw stoppage victories by Paul Bradley, Patricky “Pitbull” Freire and Tony Johnson.
With Bellator 148 in the books, who should Daley, Bradley, Pitbull, and Johnson face in their next fights in Bellator? I give my thoughts on each of the fighters below and give my predictions on who they will face next inside the Bellator cage.
Paul Daley:
Since coming back to Bellator last year, Daley has won three straight and his last two wins have come by stoppage. With his name in the sport and his recent wins, the case could definitely be made that Daley should get the winner of the upcoming welterweight title fight at Bellator 153.
However, we all know the fight for Bellator to make is Daley against Josh Koscheck. Following Daley’s win at Bellator 148, he went straight over to where Koscheck was sitting and gave him a piece of his mind. I would be fairly surprised if Bellator does not book the rematch between the veteran welterweights next and it would seem likely that this fight would take place in July at the Bellator event in London.
Prediction: Josh Koscheck
Paul Bradley:
When it came to the biggest surprise of Bellator 148, it was Bradley’s knockout win against Chris Honeycutt in the co-main event of the fight card. It was not a surprise that he won the fight, the surprising part was the fact that he stopped Honeycutt in 40 seconds to record the sixth fastest victory in Bellator welterweight division history.
The victory over Honeycutt was the first stoppage victory for Bradley in Bellator and his last stoppage win came in 2012 when he defeated Keith Smetana by 2nd Round TKO. The victory over Honeycutt shows that Bradley is in the mix for a title fight and he should get a number one type contender fight next.
Prediction: Brennan Ward
Patricky “Pitbull” Freire:
Most fight cards have at least one “oh my god” moment and that moment at Bellator 148 came from Pitbull. He scored a brutal and devasting knockout against Ryan Couture at the three minute mark of the opening round and he has now won five of his last seven fights.
Pitbull already has a feud going with current Bellator lightweight champion Will Brooks and a fight between those two would make sense. However, Pitbull needs to put together back to back victories before he should secure a title shot.
Prediction: Brent Primus
Tony Johnson:
The opening bout of the Bellator 148 main card was a heavyweight bout and going into the event, both fighters knew that a lot was riding on this fight. Johnson would end up stopping Raphael Butler at the 4:24 mark of the final round and he has scored back to back victories in the Bellator cage since coming back to the promotion last year.
While Johnson may not have a fighting style that a lot of people like to watch, he is one of the best heavyweights in Bellator right now. Kind of like Bradley, he deserves to be placed into a number one type contender fight next.
Prediction: Sergei Kharitonov