It was teacher versus student in the main event of Bellator 89 and the student won as Eduardo Dantas successfully defended the Bellator bantamweight title as he won by knockout in the second round over Marcos Galvao.
Dantas was able to use his speed to his advantage and landed several significant punches and kicks during the fight. In the second round, he landed a kick early in the round that rocked his opponent.
The end of the fight would come when Dantas landed an uppercut near the cage that dropped Galvao and would land a couple of more strikes before the referee came in to stop the fight.
Following the finish of the fight, Dantas was emotional since Galvao (13-6-1) is a former training parter and considers him a friend.
Dantas (15-3) is now 5-0 in the Bellator cage and will wait to find out who is next title defense will be against. Currently, Bellator has not announced when the next bantamweight tournament will take place, but they are expected to have a tournament either in the Summer Series or season nine in the fall.
Cramer, Cooper, Marshall and Aliev advance in tournament
Tonight’s fight card also saw the four quarterfinal bouts in the middleweight tournament as Dan Cramer, Brett Cooper, Doug Marshall and Sultan Aliev advanced to the semifinals with victories.
Aliev (9-0) started the tournament off with a decision victory over Marlo Parlo, which all three judges scored the fight 29-28. Aliev was able to win the first two rounds, which Parlo (9-1) struggled to get his offensive attack going. He would be able to take the fight to the ground in the third round, but ran out of time to get the come from behind victory.
Marshall (16-6) kicked off the main card on Spike TV and scored a knockout victory in the first round over Andreas Spang. Prior to the fight, Marshall said he was coming to win by knockout and it was a one punch knockout win for him. After landing the fight ending shot, he walk away from Spang (8-3) before the referee could call the fight.
The other two semifinal bouts would go the distance as Cooper (18-7) dominated Norman Paraisy to win all three rounds on the judges scorecards. He nearly finished the fight in the second round, when he dropped Paraisy (10-3-1). However, he would not be able to finish him and would work his way towards a decision.
In what will likely go down as one of the best fights in Bellator in 2013, Cramer (10-3) would be able to do enough to defeat Brian Rogers on the scorecards. It was a back and fourth fight were each fighter having their moment. Cramer was able to use his striking and grappling to control the fight early on. In the final round, Rogers (10-4) was able to contact on several of his strikes, but Cramer would be able to survive and win a unanimous decision.
The semifinal matchups will be Dan Cramer vs. Brett Cooper and Doug Marshall vs. Sultan Aliev. The semifinals will take place next month and the date and venue for these fights will be announced by Bellator in the coming days.
Main Card: (Spike TV)
Eduardo Dantas def. Marcos Galvao via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 3:01
Dan Cramer def. Brian Rogers via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)
Brett Cooper def. Norman Paraisy via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Doug Marshall def. Andreas Spang via KO (punch) – Round 1, 3:03
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com)
David Mejia def. Mont McMullens via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 4:15
Aaron Johnson def. Brennan Ward via submission (armbar) – Round 1, :15
Sultan Aliev def. Mikkel Parlo via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Joe Pacheco def. Kyle Bolt via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 4:02
Johnny Buck def. Chris Mierzwiak via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Mike Maldonado def. Timothy Goodwin via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)