Preview: Bellator Fighting Championships VI

Following an exciting event at the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio that saw two lightweights advance to the tournament finals—one of them a decided underdog—Bellator Fighting Championships will hold the semifinal match ups in their inaugural featherweight tournament this coming Friday, May 8 at the Central Pavilion Arena in Robstown, Texas.

Moving on to the lightweight finals at BFC V were tournament favorite Eddie Alvarez, who tore through Eric Reynolds, finishing him with a rear naked choke at 1:30 of round 3, and journeyman lightweight veteran Toby Imada, who impressed and upset in the third round by submitting standout striker Jorge Masvidal with an inverted, standing triangle choke at the 3:22 mark. Imada’s victory was not only surprising following Masvidal’s apparent dominance of him up until that point, but his standing triangle is one of only a handful of instances where the maneuver has been pulled off on a big stage like Bellator.

Imada will meet Alvarez in the coming months, probably at BFC XII, to decide Bellator’s first-ever lightweight champion.

BFC VI marks the continuation of the featherweight tournament, as tournament favorite Wilson Reis looks to keep his own undefeated record in tact by taking out the aggressive and also unbeaten Joe Soto in semifinal action, while Yahir Reyes and Estevan Payan lock horns to decide who gets to meet the winner to decide Bellator’s first-ever featherweight champion.

Week 6 BFC Predictions:

Bellator VI – Featherweight Tournament Semifinals:

Yahir Reyes vs Estevan Payan

• Estevan Payan (7-1 MMA) gutted out a very close split decision victory over Luis Palomino to earn his spot in the tournament semifinals just over a month ago, while Yahir Reyes (13-5 MMA) took out Nick Gonzales with a rear naked choke in the first round on the same night. The short layoff both fighters are coming off of combined with Payan’s much longer—and considerably more taxing effort—on April 3 will most likely have an impact on this bout. The only question is whether the increased cage time helped or hurt Payan in the long run against his more experienced opponent, who has seen more than twice the amount of professional action as he has. Look for Reyes to run his win streak to six in a row with a second round submission of a scrappy opponent, earning himself a spot in the tournament finals opposite the winner of Reis-Soto.

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Wilson Reis vs Joe Soto

• At (5-0 MMA) and (7-0 MMA) respectively, both Soto and Reis are relatively new to this game, but with the absence of a loss on either resume, and with eight finishes between them, neither man should be underestimated. Soto was impressive in quarterfinal action, taking out opponent Ben Greer by way of a first round TKO while Reis settled for a competitive Unanimous Decision of Team Greg Jackson-trained fighter Henry Martinez, and he has also finished all five of his professional fights. The difference in this fight is ultimately going to come down to strength of opposition and positional control, and with Reis holding the edge in both—having fought in the now-defunct Elite XC promotion and possessing a suffocating top game—look for the Brazilian submission specialist to weather an early storm to eventually wear Soto down and take a late submission in the third round, substantiating his position as tournament favorite and evening up his finish/decision ratio with four a piece in the process.

Look for previews of all of Bellator’s events to be up in the future on ProFighting-fans.com.

By Steven T. Kelliher
ProFighting-fans.com Staff Writer