In the main event at Bellator 132, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire retained his featherweight title with a rear naked choke finish of Daniel Strauss deep into the fourth round of their title bout.
Strauss was the underdog at the books, but through three rounds, the rugged former champion may have been ahead on the cards as he likely won two of the three opening rounds of the fight, but Freire came out in the fourth with a sense of urgency at precisely the right time. Strauss was on the ground trying a sloppy kimura that Freire parlayed into back position. From there, he loosened up Straus with strikes and then applied the choke. Very impressive, and for his efforts, Freire is likely looking at a third battle with nemesis Pat Curran for his next bout.
Also at featherweight, Georgi Karakhanyan erased Bubba Jenkins forward momentum in less than two minutes, as Jenkins was wrapped up in a guillotine while attempting a takedown. Karakhanyan was retuning to Bellator after a solid run that saw him go (9-1) in his last 10 bouts. His last outing was a loss to WSOF’s Rick Glenn, and it was unclear what level of motivation the veteran had left, but he answered that question with a standout finish of a tough wrestler who had won four fights in a row prior.
Houston Alexander and Virgil Zwicker went three more rounds. That is six rounds of slobberknocking the two have shared, and though Zwicker pulled a win out here, it was a split decision and Alexander did a lot of solid figting in the trenches.
The final main card fight saw Fernando Gonzalez snare his second Bellator victory in a row over Marius Zaromskis. In his last outing, he made short work of UFC vet Karo Parisyan, and in this fight, he was facing a similar veteran of high level fights. This time over 15 minutes, Gonzalez showed that he is a fighter who is coming into his own late in his career, and Gonzalez controlled practically every minute of the fight to earn the comfortable UD.
Here is a older highlight video on Georgi Karakhanyan, who returned to Bellator after four years with a highlight real performance. Get to know Georgi a little bit:
