Bellator 44, Lombard vs. Vitale Headliner Headed to Atlantic City

[ITurnGirlsGay]

Bellator Fighting Championships officials have unveiled their final host site for the current fourth season.

Bellator 44, the organization's second-to-last show of the season, takes place May 14 at Caesars Atlantic City in New Jersey.

As MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) first reported, the headliner features a non-title bout between Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard (27-2-1 MMA, 6-0 BFC) and Falaniko Vitale (28-9 MMA, 0-0 BFC).

http://mmajunkie.com/news/22953/bellator-44-lombard-vs-vitale-headliner-headed-to-atlantic-city.mma

I love watching Lombard, but I wish this guy could get in some fights against top top competition before he ages out. I don't know much about Vitale, but he holds wins against Okami, Menne, and Lindland. Apparently, he has a win over Starnes, too, but who gives a shit about Kalib Starnes.

 

[INDYjon22]

Falaniko Vitale has been a rather successful fighter throughout his career. He had a two fight UFC career that consisted of a feud with Matt Lindland. He debuted against Lindland and won a very freak accident fight where Lindland attempted a takedown and knocked himself out. A few months later the UFC scheduled the rematch and Lindland completely dominated Vitale. Other then that Vitale defeated Dave Menne, Yushin Okami, and Aaron Riley. All impressive wins but a victory over Lombard would be the icing on the cake of his career. Should be a good fight but I don't expect Vitale to come out victorious. Lombard is to big and strong and has far to good of striking for Vitale to get the win. Lombard should be to much for Vitale.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

Dave Menne has had a rather spotty MMA career. I'm not sure how to gauge Vitale's win over Menne since it was well past Menne's prime. I'll admit that I haven't seen much of Vitale and am looking forward to this fight, but I agree with you, Jon, Lombard should be too much. He's a great striker and grappler. I'm unsure of Vitale's credentials in BJJ, but Lombard should have the advantage being a Judoka and black belt in BJJ. It actually appears that roughly half of Vitale's "submission" victories have come via strikes. So that's not helpful to me either.

 

[INDYjon22]

If my memory serves me correctly Vitale does have some judo credentials but isn't nearly good enough in judo for it to even have an impact on Lombard. Lombard is a top 10 Middleweight as far as I am concerned and while Vitale may be a good fighter I just don't think he has the skills to defeat a guy like Lombard. Regardless, it should be an interesting fight and adds depth to the Bellator Middleweight division. All pluses for Bellator.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

I'm just curious if their plan is to make Lombard defend that crown of his once every year. That seems to be the going rate for defense of his MW title. One of those was against Kalib fucking Starnes who should never be allowed to fight again. I don't mind these "non-title" fights, but it seems rather odd that they would have them. If it's at MW, what the hell is the point?

 

[INDYjon22]

I love Bellator but the way the manage their belts is a bit ridiculous. In theory the champions will only defend their championships once a year because they only put it on the line against the winners of the tournaments, which is nice in theory but still leaves a massive void during the summer when the titles aren't defended and all the champions do is either fight in Japan or have "super fights". I hope they sort that out because Vitale/Lombard would be a nice title fight between two guys who hold belts. This way of doing business is also ineffective if the champion would lose, none have so far, but imagine if one of the champions did lose and it wasn't for the belt. But, I don't think Bellator will have to worry about that with this fight.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

Well not to mention that Lombard is fighting Doerksen for the CFC MW title on Friday. I'm not exactly sure what Bjorn Rebney is trying to accomplish here, and I do understand that they fight the winners of the tournament, but one of these champs is BOUND to lose a "non-title" fight. This is MMA. Even GSP lost to Serra. It seems counter-productive. Personally, I think the only viable promotion that they should be having non-title, super fights with is Tachi Palace Fights.

Bellator is in a precarious situation now that Zuffa owns StrikeForce. Gone are the hopes of a Melendez-Alvarez superfight. The ratings for Bellator are already dipping heavily on MTV 2 and, unless Rebney does something, I don't imagine that MTV 2 will pick it up again.