[Brad.Taschuk]

Another nice tournament coming from Bellator. Haven't seen the ratings for Bellator 61, but with the NCAA tournament being in full swing, I would be shocked to see them down from last week. Ratings probably won't pick up until the tournament is over, but I've given up on the average UFC fan tuning in to Bellator at this point anyways, so that doesn't faze me anymore.

So, onwards... Pitbull! Rick Hawn!

Two weeks into Bellator’s Sixth season and yours truly is 6 of 8 when it comes to picking the first round fights. Nothing spectacular, but that sort of success rate is pretty decent when it comes to the sport of MMA, and if you’re the betting type it’ll likely net you some money. So let’s try to keep that going, and finally score the thus far elusive (or allusive, if you will) perfect week. This Friday begins the search for Michael Chandler’s first challenger in the Lightweight division, while former champion Eddie Alvarez is off getting a big name fight against Shinya Aoki.

Matchmaking messiness in the division aside, the Lightweight tournament continues Bellator’s trend of consistently making their divisions deeper and more talented. Whereas previous iterations of the 155 bracket have had a few solid fighters (Alvarez & Jorge Masvidal in Season One, Pat Curran & Roger Huerta in Season Two, Chandler & Patricky Freire in Season Four), in some cases it wasn’t discovered until during or after the tournament how good some of those men were.

http://www.fightlockdown.com/article...ghtweight.html

Thoughts?

[MKZ]

Now that's a tournament. I agree with ya on finals, Pitbull and Hawn seem like safest bet but I wouldn't be surprised to see Weedman and Tirloni make some waves.

It's a shame Alvarez is not in this tourney. I would fucking kill to see Pitbull vs Alvarez.

[vikingpride]

Yeah those picks look about right.

Though i think i'm picking Tirloni to pull an upset. Hawn's never made 155 before and i see Ricardo being slightly quicker on the feet. And by the later rounds i see Hawn having cardio issues which will hurt his TDD and give Triloni a chance to work on the ground.

Trionli and Weedman are def the wildcards of this tourney though. Just based on the fact that Ricardo still hasn't faced a ton of top comp (outside of Bendo) so it's hard to gauge exactly where he is. And Brent is alot like Kampmann in the fact that he has talent pretty much everywhere, but often forgets to fight to with any kind of real strategy.

[MKZ]

Whatever the result is going to be, Chandler will have his hands full. Pitbull and Hawn are already proved names, and if the rest is going to be able to go through a tourney with such people, then they sure as hell are legit contenders.

[e-thug]

Good breakdown as always Taschuk and I see it very much the same way you do.....Will certainly have to see how Hawn's cut to 155 goes but I think Pitbull has to be the favourite to take it all.

[Brad.Taschuk]

Originally Posted by vikingpride

And Brent is alot like Kampmann in the fact that he has talent pretty much everywhere, but often forgets to fight to with any kind of real strategy.

I was going to type this exact thought into my paragraph, but it ended up being too long-winded (even for me) to escape the cutting roon floor.

He also kinda looks like Martin. Blond dude with a shaved, oddly alien-shaped head.