Bellator 33: Alvarez vs. Huerta

[INDYjon22]

Main Card
Eddie Alvarez vs. Roger Huerta
Welterweight Championship:Lyman Good vs. Ben Askren
Wilson Reis vs. Deividas Taurosevicius
Rick Hawn vs. LeVon Maynard

Local Feature Fights
Jamal Patterson vs. Tim Carpenter
Chris Liguori vs. Edward Guedes
Kenny Foster vs. Lester Caslow
Daniel Tavares vs. Will Martinez
Tuan Pham vs. Nick Cattone
Lewis Cassner vs. Fran Evans​

This could possibly be the biggest night in Bellator's young history. Huerta vs. Alvarez is a huge fight for the company, even if it isn't for the title. Huerta has a huge name in MMA because of his exciting style of fighting and his showman ship and Eddie Alvarez is one of the best Lightweights in the world, bar none. Two very exciting and top level fighters, honestly it is weird seeing this fight happening under the Bellator banner, instead of the UFC or Strikeforce name, but I can dig it and Bellator needs it.

Huerta has been very rusty as of late. He got wrestle fucked by Gray Maynard and then out worked by Pat Curran. Huerta seemed to have been losing the heart to fight, but he claims the contrary. This fight may be the final nail in the career of the man named Roger.

On the flip side of things is Eddie Alvarez. A very good fighter who happens to be the Bellator Lightweight champion. He holds notable wins over Joachim Hansen, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Toby Imada, and Josh Neer. A win over Roger Huerta would be huge for his career and possibly his biggest win ever. Not to mention he has been on fire as of late. He hasn't lost a fight since 2008 and that was to Shinya Aoki, no push over.

The fight itself intrigues the hell out of me. I am curious to see if the exciting and dangerous Huerta will show up or not. If the old Huerta shows up he could run through Alvarez but if he is still in his hesitant mindset it will be a very long night. Alvarez is far to dangerous to have an off night against. Also, the most intriguing part of this fight is that the Bellator Lightweight title will NOT be defended. I don't have a problem with the title not being defended considering Huerta did not win the tournament for a shot at the belt, Pat Curran did, but I do wonder what happens if Huerta wins. That would mean an almost immediate title shot against either Alvarez or Curran after that fight happens. Not the greatest booking ever.

Also, I don't want to overshadow the other big fight on this card. The Welterweight title will be defended as well. Lyman Good defends against Ben Askren. Askren is a very talented prospect who wrestled in the Olympics. However, Askren also has an attitude problem that annoys the piss out of me. This should be a fun fight seeing as both men have perfect records, so someone's record will have a blemish on it after the fight and someone's ego will take a hit. I am very interested in seeing who walks away with the title and the perfect record.

 

[Buffalo Dave]

I was only able to catch the main event fights for this.

Askren vs. Good - In a fight that was dominated by Askren who used his great wrestling skills to keep the fight on the ground and control it from there in all 5 rounds to win a decision and become Bellator's new Welterweight champion. Every time Good what get top position, Askren would just get it right back. At one point in the 4th round the moron ref decided to stand up both fighters while Arksen was in a dominate position and working from there, after that he got caught by Good, but secured another takedown and the round ended, dumb dumb move by the ref, especially if Arksen would've lost in that round! Last round Good almost put it away with a Triangle Choke, but Arksen was able to slip out. Gotta say that with some more work in BJJ and some GnP work Arksen is gonna be very good. He's only been fighting for almost 2 years in MMA.

Alvarez vs. Huerta - What a explosive first round!! Right away Alvarez hurt Huerta with a leg kick, and just used his boxing to pour on the pressure, also getting some takedowns, but Huerta was able to get right back up. Huerta was able to battle back and start connecting with some shots of his own, one that put Alvarez on his butt. Second round Alvarez continued the pressure using his boxing, mixing in his leg kicks still. Towards the end of the round Huerta was able to get two takedowns. Close round not sure how it was scored, since the doctor stopped the fight for the damage Huerta took to his eye.

I really hope Rodger doesn't call it quits on his career, as he said he might if he lost this fight. With a 1-4 record in his last five fights, I guess I would be a little disappointed in myself too, but it's not like he is getting KO'd in these fights, losing to 3 top ten Lightweights isn't all that bad. Hopefully he will just take some time off and be back to fight again.

 

[INDYjon22]

Not a terrible card but also not exactly what I was hoping for. It was worth the watch for the most part though. Here is a quick run down.

Hawn vs. Maynard was a fun little fight. Maynard was looking good with his striking until Hawn pulled off an awesome throw and showed off his ground n' pound. I loved the throw that Hawn did, and his post fight interview made me a fan. I will be firmly supporting him come the Season 3 tournament.

Good vs. Askren was a wrestling clinic. As a wrestler I enjoyed some of the wrestling that was displayed, but the fight overall was not what I wanted to see. Askren implemented his game plan perfectly and won the fight fair and square. Good just could not get his stuff together and suffered from it. Hopefully Askren can develop some better striking and BJJ because he could be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Alvarez vs. Huerta was a really fun fight. Alvarez has some devastating kicks, but I also wonder if Huerta had an injury coming into the fight. Once again Huerta did not look like himself at all and Alvarez exploited it. Huerta showed some power when he caught Alvarez with a punch and in the second round he took Alvarez down twice. The first round was clearly Alvarez but the second round could have gone either way. It is just a damn shame that we didn't get to see how it would have finished because Huerta wasn't allowed to come out and fight for the third round. A damn shame.

After the fight Alvarez's antics really left a bad taste in my mouth, even if it was his hometown. He acted like a damn fool. Also, the commentators must be huffing paint chips to think Alvarez is the top Lightweight in the world. I really hope they can put the Gilbert Melendez fight together because I believe Gil would destroy Alvarez. Definitely a fight I would love to see. Hopefully next weeks card featuring Hector Lombard fighting Alexander Schlemenko.

 

[jmt225]

I was only able to catch the main event.

It was a good fight, though the commentators were really turning me off by riding Alvarez's dick so hard. Listen, the only thing Alvarez did in that fight that was truly effective were his leg kicks. Those were brutal, but I was not impressed with anything else. On the feet he had some decent boxing, but he never dropped Huerta, whereas Huerta put Alvarez on his ass in the first round with a beautiful right hook counter. However, the commentators refused to acknowledge it after the fact, or even give Huerta any credit for the other shots he landed throughout the first two rounds. No, it was all about Alvarez "dominating" Huerta. What bullshit. Huerta easily won that 2nd Round, if you ask me. Not only did Alvarez not land anything decent on the feet in that round outside of a leg kick or two, but Huerta got a takedown, an additional slam, and laid down some good Ground and Pound. Also, I loved how the commentators put over the 1st Round as a 10-8 round for Alvarez. BULLSHIT! Alvarez won the round, but it was not 10-8 or anything close to it.

Seriously, I've never seen so much nut-hugging by commentators in a fight since I started watching MMA. It really, really got under my skin. Alvarez is a good fighter, but he's not anywhere near the best Lightweight in the World. Hell, in my book, he's not even top 5. If/when he fights Gilbert Melendez, he's going to get destroyed. Mark my words.

 

[BB053187]

I pretty much wanted to say this was the most unbiased comments I've seen in regards to the Alvarez vs. Huerta fight. I also gave the 2nds round to huerta and think he could've come in in the 3rd and done some damage. But I guess the doctor stoppage was justified since he had two broken orbitals :-/ But the damn commentators were just so freaking annoying.

But the coverage of the fight was awful...they are hyping Alvarez way to much. Saying he totally dominated Roger is not exactly what I saw. He's good but he's not the best! Kinda wondering what Roger will do from here.....any thoughts? I hope he doesn't retire. He's young, he's a great fighter and could go real far. He's never been truly finished, either.

 

[INDYjon22]

I pretty much wanted to say this was the most unbiased comments I've seen in regards to the Alvarez vs. Huerta fight. I also gave the 2nds round to huerta and think he could've come in in the 3rd and done some damage. But I guess the doctor stoppage was justified since he had two broken orbitals :-/ But the damn commentators were just so freaking annoying.

But the coverage of the fight was awful...they are hyping Alvarez way to much. Saying he totally dominated Roger is not exactly what I saw. He's good but he's not the best! Kinda wondering what Roger will do from here.....any thoughts? I hope he doesn't retire. He's young, he's a great fighter and could go real far. He's never been truly finished, either.

Eddie Alvarez is Bellators golden boy, of course they are going to hype him to the moon. The company has very little in regards to name and star power, but Alvarez and Hector Lombard give them the star power they need. The comments made during the fight were incredibly biased, agreed, but it is to be expected by such a small promotion. Strikeforce did the same thing with Brett Rogers. However, if Bellator really had a set of balls then that would pursue pushing for a fight between Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez. It would justify all of their big talk about Alvarez if he won.

 

[BB053187]

Yeah, True. I see what you're saying and I agree but it gets irritating, haha. I hope the Alvarez and Melendez fight does happen and I'd definitely want Melendez to win. I agree that Alvarez's showboating ridiculousness (Even if it was in Philly) left a bad taste in my mouth as well. Definitely lost points there. But he was kinda saying some crappy stuff leading up to the fight so it didn't surprise me any. Roger looked pretty disappointed and pissed about the stoppage. Oh well-hope Alvarez vs. Melendez happens somehow!