The Bellator 137 event last night on SPIKETV featured a main event pitting middleweight champion Brandon Halsey versus UFC veteran Kendall Grove. Hasley dominated Grove for three and a half rounds before the referee stopped the fight, but the middleweight belt would go vacant as Halsey did not make the required 185-lb weight limit.
This puts the middleweight title in limbo at Bellator, and it is a weight division where the talent level is truly woeful. Halsey had expressed a desire to fight at 205 lbs prior to this fight, so whether he will even remain in the wait class is up in the air. Halsey was the class of the field. Grove now falls to 2-2 overall in Bellator, and nothing he did in this fight would warrant a title shot again. There is former champion Alexander Shlemenko, who held the belt for a longtime and will want a rematch, but his recent win over Melvin Manhoef was overturned to a no-contest due to some questionable blood test results and he may be facing a suspension. Ben Reiter moved to an impressive 16-0 record, and he is coming off a win last night over Benji Radach.
Former bantamweight titlist Eduardo Dantas defeated veteran Mike Richman by winning two of the three rounds with the judges. Dantas had not fought since October of 2014 when he lost the bantamweight title to Joe Warren, so with this win he avoids a two-fight losing streak and can make a bid for a title rematch. Complicating matters is the fact that Warren has since lost the belt to Marcos Galvao, and the organization maybe inclined to do a third meeting between Galvao and Warren before Dantas gets his chance. In other bantamweight action, stud wrestler Darrion Caldwell moved his record to 7-0 with a win over veteran Rafael Silva. A Caldwell-Dantas matchup could be next up for both men if Bellator decides to match Galvao and Warren for a third time for the belt next.
At welterweight, Curtis Millender flashed his talent, using his 6 ft. 3 in. frame to take it to veteran Fernando Gonzalez, but Gonzalez stayed calm throughout the fight, and he landed a fight ending guillotine in the final round to score the come from behind win. Gonzalez now moves to 4-0 in Bellator, winning this one though he was coming in as a slight underdog.
