Bellator Middleweight Champion Alexander ‘Storm’ Shlemenko will be returning to action on September 26th to defend his title against Brandon Halsey as the headliner of the Bellator 126 card. Look for Shlemenko to open the favorite at the books for this five round bout when the lines open.
Shlemenko enters the match with a good bit of egg on his face. In his last outing, on the Bellator PPV card held in May, he was put to sleep by veteran MMA star Tito Ortiz in less than 3 minutes as he attempted a foray into the Light Heavyweight division for a superfight. For Shlemenko, it snapped a 13 fight winning streak where he faced average competition, and competed outside the Bellator cage in other promotions overseas. It will be interesting to see if the new regime at Bellator under Scott Coker continues to allow the practice of having their champions fight in other leagues.
It will be interesting to see what the line will be for this bout, as Shlemenko usually is listed as a wide favorite. Since Hector Lombard left Bellator for the UFC, no one has been able to really give Shlemenko a real test, and he has looked like a dominant champion. But the Ortiz match showed the cracks in his game that are still there and prevent him from being labelled world class.
A bludgeoning and diverse striker, Shlemenko was taken down and submitted by Ortiz fast. Yes, not just any wrestler can take Shlemenko down, as has been proven by the Bellator roster, it will take a bigger man with some skill, but once on the ground, Shlemenko still knows nothing.
Is Halsey that type of wrestler? It is difficult to say, as Halsey has just 7 career MMA fights, while Shlemenko has close to 60 fights worth of experience, but he has finished 3 fights on the ground, is a Division I wrestler and may have the muscle necessary to hold Shlemenko down. Halsey did defeat Shoney Carter in his 2nd fight, and though Carter is long faded, he is a diverse striker with over 80 fights, so he has handled this type of opponent before. The main advantage for Shlemenko is the 5 rounds of a title fight. If Halsey applies a lot of pressure early, he is sure to fade over the 25 minutes.
