MMA in San Jose: Bellator bringing back Fedor Emelianenko

By DOM SANTOMIERI for the San Jose Mercury.

SAN JOSE — Hometown promotion Bellator MMA, run by San Jose native Scott Coker, returned to the SAP Center on Saturday for a main card and a huge announcement.

Coker has once again brought Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko to a U.S. promotion, in a multi-fight, multi-year deal. Bellator announced that Fedor will fight UFC veteran Matt Mitrione in a three-round bout on Feb. 18 in San Jose.

The main event was a five-round contest for the Bellator lightweight belt between Michael Chandler (19-3) and Benson Henderson (31-7). Chandler came out like a madman in the first, and found his rhythm with a body kick followed by a right hook which he used to punish Henderson up against the cage. He cemented the round in his favor when he threw Henderson with a huge German Suplex that will grace highlight reels for years to come. Chandler won the first clearly, possibly a 10-8 round.

The second round was a much slower affair, with Henderson taking that clearly. The next three were close affairs, but the final score came out to a very reasonable but still close 48-47 for Chandler by split decision to retain the lightweight title.

When asked about how close the score came out to, Chandler said, “Benson Henderson is a serial split decision guy. He held onto the UFC lightweight title winning split decisions. So it’s nice to take one once in awhile. I normally lose these.”

However close the judges felt about the bout Saturday, hopefully the rematch will be sooner rather than later. Chandler capped off his night in San Jose by calling out local lightweight veteran and former champion Josh Thomson as his next challenger in the middle of the SAP center.

The rest of the main card was decent, with local fighter Keri Anne Melendez, wife of UFC veteran Gilbert Melendez, making her pro MMA debut. She won her bout in 47 seconds with a beautiful right hand that dropped her opponent cold.

The third entertaining fight on the card was highlighted by local standout Adam Piccolotti, who trains in Half Moon Bay and AKA in San Jose, extending his win streak to 9-0. Normally an aggressive submission artist, he fought veteran Brandon Girtz to an impressive decision win almost exclusively on the feet.

“Girtz has a great wrestling game, and I didn’t want to gas myself out just trying to take him down. Plus, I like to get out there and put on exciting fights,” Piccolotti said his performance. With this win, he officially moves up in many people’s’ eyes from prospect to contender. When asked who was next, he said he wants “The winner of Campos versus Pitbull 2” which should put him in line for a title shot.

Saturday’s main card and prelims were full of up and coming prospects as well as established names within MMA. Hopefully Coker can use his big signings within the last year like Mitrione, MacDonald, and now Emelianenko to promote his rising local and homegrown talent and provide some stiff competition to the UFC.