Bellator 136 goes down tonight in Irvine, California and features a lightweight title fight on top. Champion Will Brooks will make his first defense of the full title (he also had an interim title) against Dave Jansen in what should be an interesting fight. The main card features three other fights as well, all of which should provide entertainment.
The prelims will be streamed on Spike.com and start at 7pm ET, with the main card kicking off at 9pm ET on Spike TV. There are also five untelevised fights that will go down after the main card. Yeah, weird.
Brooks (15-1, 7-1 Bellator) originally won the interim title by beating Michael Chandler by decision at Bellator 120. He then had to beat him again for the vacant “full” title after Eddie Alvarez left. He did so, in one of the weirder finishes you’ll ever see in MMA, at Bellator 131. Check out Zane Simon’s recent interview with Brooks here.
Jansen (20-2, 7-0 Bellator) won the season seven lightweight tournament, but then was out of the cage for almost 18 months. He returned and defeated Rick Hawn last October and is finally being granted his title shot now. Check out Steph Daniels’ recent interview with Jansen here.
The bookmakers have Brooks as a huge favorite, and rightfully so. He should be able to keep his title in an entertaining battle.
The co-main event is a slugfest between Glory fighter Joe Schilling (2-3, 1-0 Bellator) and Rafael Carvalho (10-1, 1-0 Bellator). Schilling brought the thunder in his Bellator debut where he obliterated Melvin Manhoef. Carvalho stopped Brian Rogers in his debut, and has won nine of his 10 bouts by TKO. This is pretty dead-even odds-wise, with good reason. Schilling doesn’t have much of a ground game so Carvalho could take it there, but he seems to be a banger. So this could be a war.
Also featured on the main card is a lightweight bout between Marcin Held (20-3, 9-2 Bellator) and Alexander Sarnavskiy (30-2, 5-2 Bellator), and a heavyweight bout between former Bellator champ Alexander Volkov (24-4, 6-1 Bellator) and Tony Johnson (8-2, 1-0 Bellator). Held/Sarnavsky is pretty even in the sportsbooks, while Volkov is a sizable favorite over Johnson. Check out Steph’s interview with Held here.
Here’s a look at the current card:
Will Brooks vs. Dave Jansen
Rafael Carvalho vs. Joe Schilling
Marcin Held vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy
Tony Johnson vs. Alexander Volkov
Prelims
Fabricio Guerreiro vs. John Teixeira
Saad Awad vs. Rob Sinclair
Joey Beltran vs. Brian Rogers
Jay Bogan vs. Justin Governale
Postlims (?)
Marcos Bonilla vs. A.J. McKee
Jonathan Santa Maria vs. Steve Ramirez
Luc Bondole vs. Chris Herrera
Chad George vs. Mark Vorgeas
Cleber Luciano vs. Aaron Miller
About the author
