Bellator 25 Exclusive Coverage -

[BK NEWS]

Hornbuckle and Blackburn go the distance at Bellator 25

Bellator had their 25th event in their hometown of Chicago, and Bloodyknux's own Makiwara was there!-

Bellator 25 was definitely a dynamic ride on the 19th. With the venue being a far shot from being sold out, there were quite a few empty seats. While normally this doesn’t bode well for an MMA event, it had its positives as well. This made for a more intimate atmosphere between the spectators and the action around the cage. The fans themselves could even shout out some coaching tips to fighters that were in there mixing it up if they had the desire to. This also didn’t deter officials from doing their best to rile up the crowd and get everyone pumped for the fights, which seemed to work. Everyone was at the edge of their seats for much of the night, showing their energy for the cameras, despite how some of the fights lacked some excitement.

The evening started out with most of the bouts going to decisions. Some bouts were an exciting trip through each round, and some being a bit of a challenge to get pumped up for. Either way, you could tell each fighter tried their hardest to put on a show for the Chicago fans. Zoila Frausto’s bout in particular showed a lot of heart. She really poured on the heat in a battle with Jessica Pene that ended up being mostly dynamic striking exchanges, of which Frausto dominated. This gave her a well-deserved victory. Dan Hornbuckle displayed some tremendous heart when he bounced back from a brutal uppercut followed by a painful groin shot and won a close decision victory over Brad Blackburn. Much respect to each other was given after the fight as well. Another exciting match up came when Damian Grabowski and Scott Barrett touched gloves and threw down. Barrett had some impressive takedowns but Grabowski was able to hold his own with some reversals and his onslaught of strikes in the 3rd round.

The final fight of the evening came between Torrance Taylor and “Mr. International” Shonie Carter. Carter had quite the grand entrance with an army of females parading his various championship belts in front of the cage. They later ended up being his biggest fans in some close seating to the cage as they were the only ones cheering for him as he got taken apart round after round. Torrance ruled in the stand-up game, as well as on the ground with some devastating GnP. By the time Torrance was done with him, Mr. International couldn’t even get on to his stool after the bell rung. Carter’s entourage wasn’t happy with Taylor as he left the ring in victory and he displayed some wide stances and flashy kicks to them in response to their negative backlash.

Check out the Bellator discussion thread for more pics of Shonie's entourage!



Check out additional photos and discuss this season of Bellator Fights here!