Bellator 179 took place on Friday from the SSE Arena in London, England and was headlined by Rory MacDonald winning his promotional debut as he defeated Paul Daley by submission in the second round.
In the co-main event of the fight card, Linton Vassell scored the biggest victory of his career as he submitted former Bellator light heavyweight champion Liam McGeary in the third round.
TheMMAReport.com has put together post fight statistics from Friday’s fight card.
- The victory for MacDonald snaps a two fight losing streak and this is his first submission victory in seven years (Mike Guymon, UFC Fight Night 20 on January 11, 2010).
- Daley has now dropped two of his last three fights and his last submission defeat came against Jake Shields in Strikeforce in 2008 (8 years, 7 months and 15 days ago).
- Vassell is now tied with Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal for the 2nd most wins (7) in Bellator light heavyweight division history (Emanuel Newton and McGeary tied for the most with 8 wins).
- Vassell now has three submission wins in Bellator light heavyweight competition and he is tied with Mike Mucitelli, Newton, and McGeary for the most in division history.
- McGeary drops to 1-2 in his last three fights and he is now tied with Douglas Lima, Eduardo Dantas, and Cheick Kongo for the 7th most fights (11) in Bellator history (David Rickels and Patricio Pitbull have the most, 18).
- Kongo scored a split decision victory against Augusto Sakai to win his fifth straight fight and this is the first time in his career that he has won five fights in a row.
- Kongo has the most wins (9) in Bellator heavyweight division history (Cole Konrad #2, 7).
- After starting his career with nine straight victories, Sakai is winless in his last two fights (0-1-1).
- Alex Lohore won his eighth straight fight with a knockout victory against Dan Vinni and ten of his twelve career victories have come by stoppage.
- Kevin Ferguson Jr. scored his first professional victory as he defeated D.J. Griffin by TKO in the opening round.