The lines are up for Bellator 134, coming to us live on Spike TV this Friday, and the main event sees light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton getting no respect, as the lines see opponent Liam McGeary favored at (-190), with Newton returning (+150). The five-round bout has the over/under set at 1.5 rounds, with the over paying (-180) and the under at (+140).
Newton has never really gotten any respect with Bellator, and he has been able to fight well with that hanging over his head. He has a ton of experience, and at this point he is Bellator’s light heavyweight champion and he is heading into his third title defense since winning the title. To win the belt he defeated Attila Vegh, a man who had beaten him earlier in his career, and his duo of fights with Bellator poster boy “King Mo” Lawal saw Newton win definitively and in varied ways.
First he KO’d Lawal face first with a stinging first round KO, then he outlasted Lawal in a five-round fight were he was clearly the better fighter. He fights with a crowd pleasing style, and though his reliance on the spinning back fist has become repetitive.
But McGeary is in some ways like a large size Colin McGregor, or at lest that is what Bellator is hoping for. At 6 ft. 6 in., McGeary presents match up problems for everyone in the division, and he will have a wide height and reach advantage over Newton. He may in fact have more upside in the cage than McGregor, as the UFC star has two losses due to his lack of a ground game, while McGeary is undefeated and has flashed a scary ground game as well. All six of McGeary’s Bellator fights have ended in the first round.
Newton is going to get hit early on, his style is not highly defensive, and McGeary will be looking to finish the fight early. Newton has taken tough opponents deep in fights where his experience late in fights will see him in familiar territory. But he has to figure out a way to get close to McGeary and hurt him, or he could lose his advantage deep in fights because he has sustained too much damage. Newton is known as “The Hardcore Kid” so it would be a sign that McGeary is the real deal if he gets him out of there in the 1.5 round “under”.
