BELLATOR 137: Halsey vs Grove - Preview and Picks

Ballator 137: Halsey vs Grove

Bellator returns to the Pechanga Casino and Resort in Temecula, California, for Bellator 137 on Friday night (Sat, 4:30 AM IST). In the main event of the evening, Bellator’s Middleweight champion Brandon Halsey will defend his 185-pound title and will look to remain undefeated against UFC veteran Kendall Grove.

Here is my Preview of the Main Card & predictions for the entire Bellator 137:

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com, 4:30 AM IST):

• Ben Reiter Defeats Benji Radach via KO/TKO.
• Virgil Zwicker Defeats Razak al-Hassan via KO/TKO.
• Joe Taimanglo Defeats JAntonio Duarte via Decision.
• Julio Cesar Neves Jr. Defeats Jordan Parsons via KO/TKO.
• Ricky Rainey Defeats Jesse Juarez via Decision.

Main CARD (Spike TV, 6:30 AM IST):

Darrion Caldwell

1) Darrion Caldwell (6-0) vs. Rafael Silva (22-4)

Kicking off the main card is a fantastic bantamweight bout, as standout wrestler & undefeated mixed martial artist Darrion Caldwell faces the stiffest test of his career, Bellator Summer Series tournament winner Rafael Silva. Rafael Silva has won 14 of his past 15 bouts, with the lone loss coming in a short-notice bantamweight title bout against Joe Warren.

Caldwell makes the drop to bantamweight for the first time in his career and will have a nice three-inch height and even bigger reach advantage going into this fight. With just six fights in his career, facing off with a former title challenger in Silva is a huge step up in competition. Caldwell is a wrestler and he is proficient at takedowns and controlling from top position. He has good ground-and-pound and positional grappling, though his submissions are underrated as well. Silva is a 26-fight veteran with a Brazilian jiu-jitsu base, good takedowns and great power. He can knock people out, though he is more of a brawler than a technical stand-up fighter Since coming to Bellator, he has gone 3-1, including earning a title shot. He had his 13-fight win streak snapped last year, when he lost to Joe Warren by unanimous decision at Bellator 118, but recently rebounded in a win over Rob Emerson this past October at Bellator 127

Darrion Caldwell and Rafael Silva is a tough pick for a few reasons. Primarily, the outcome depends on who dominates the grappling exchanges and lands the first takedown. Silva and Caldwell rely on a smothering top game to defeat their opponents & both guys look for the submission and the finish. I could see both guys finding ways to win this fight but I m slightly leaning towards Caldwell to deliver a Joe Warren like performance against Silva.

Prediction: Caldwell wins via Decision.

Curtis Millender

2) Fernando Gonzalez (23-13) vs. Curtis Millender (7-1)

Strikeforce and WEC veteran Fernando Gonzalez looks for his fourth win in a row as he meets 27-year old Curtis Millender. Should Gonzalez earn another victory in the Bellator cage, it’s possible he could leapfrog Paul Daley and become the next challenger to the winner of the upcoming title fight between Douglas Lima and Andrey Koreshkov on July 17th.

The 31-year old Gonzalez has remained undefeated since his Bellator debut last July, taking out the likes of Karl Amoussou, Karo Parisyan and Marius Žaromskis in the process, showing he can hang with top talent. Gonzalez has been very good at controlling the pace in his Bellator appearances. Millender suffered the first loss of his career in his last fight against Brendan Ward this past February at Bellator 134, Millender, he is a tall, rangy 170-pounder with good striking ability and athleticism. He likes to strike at a distance, using good punches and kicks in unison with movement to outwork opponents. His Bellator debut did not go to plan, as he originally was to face Michael Page but ended up fighting Brennan Ward in a losing effort. That loss broke his undefeated record, which included wins over TUF veterans James Chaney and Dom Waters.

Gonzalez has been on fire lately and can brawl with the best of them, but I think the athleticism, movement and length of Millender will be hard to overcome. Millender needs to bring the fight to the mat & not allow Gonzalez to settle into his rhythm to win this fight.

Prediction: Millender wins via Decision.

Eduardo Dantas

3) Eduardo Dantas (16-4) vs. Mike Richman (18-5)

In the co-main event former Bellator bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas tries to stop the momentum of top contender Mike Richman. This winner of this fight may very well be the next challenger for current Bellator bantamweight champion Marcos Galvao.

Dantas is primarily a jiu-jitsu fighter with 20 fights experience & trains at one of the best gyms in the world, Nova Uniao. , though his striking has improved a lot, he has phenomenal ground game & submission ability. After winning the title from Zach Makovsky Dantas defended his title twice against Marcos Galvao and Anthony Leone. He lost his title in a five-round war to Joe Warren in his last fight. Richman, a former Marine, is a striker with excellent power in both his hands and kicks. He can end the fight with just one punch. Since dropping to 135, he has won twice as he blasted through Ed West and Nam Phan, showing that he is a force to be reckoned with in the bantamweight division.

Richman has shown to be a force in 135-pound division thus far, but his weakness is definitely against grapplers, which makes Dantas a stylistic nightmare of a matchup for him. Richman will want to keep this fight on the feet and look for the knock-out but Dantas should be able to control the distance, take the fight to the ground, hold him there and eventually finish the fight

Prediction: Dantas wins via Submission.

Brandon Halsey

4) Brandon Halsey (8-0) vs. Kendall Grove (21-14)

In the main event of the evening, Bellator middleweight champion Brandon Halsey looks to defend his title for the first time against Hawaiian MMA vet & TUF 3 Winner, Kendall Grove.

Halsey is a former NCAA Division 1 wrestler with great physical strength and submissions from top position. He is undefeated and has wins over wins over Joe Yager, Hector Ramirez, Brett Cooper and longtime champion Alexander Shlemenko, inside the Bellator cage. He claimed the title with an impressive finish of Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 126. He utterly dominated the Russian & submitted (RNC) him in mere 35 seconds, which established him as an elite middleweight in Bellator. Grove is a big middleweight, standing 6'6". He has decent striking which looks much better because of his reach, but basically he is a jiu-jitsu fighter. He is 2-1 in Bellator thus far, he lost against Brett Cooper while defeated Joe Vedepo and Christian M'Pumbu to get this title fight.

Grove’s only route to victory seems to be if he could keep Halsey at distance using his reach but Grove has never been known for maintaining and using range to his advantage consistently against his opponents. While Halsey will surely look for the takedown in this fight as he tends to dominate with his ground game. Grove may be more experienced but Halsey is on a roll & I think he will finish this fight before the final bell rings.

Prediction: Halsey wins via Submission.