Bellator 87 is live this Thursday, January 31st with the prelims starting at 8pm and the main card airing at 10pm. This card will be hosted by the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The main card will feature the opening round of the season 8 Lightweight Tournament so keep an eye on the fighters who advance as they will be fighting each other in upcoming Bellator cards. Enjoy the fight predictions and Bellator 87 card.
Spike.com Preliminary Card: 3-3-0
Catchweight 139lbs – Nick Kirk (9-1) vs. Tony Zelinski (3-2) – Kirk via decision Wrong - Zelinski won via spilt decision
Catchweight 165lbs – John Schulz (4-0) vs. Amir Khillah (10-5) – Schulz via decision Wrong - Khillah won via submission
265lbs – Jason Fish (2-2) vs. Karl Etherington (7-0) – Etherington via submission Correct plus method
155lbs – James Reese (8-4) vs. David Shepherd (5-2) – Reese via decision Correct plus method
170lbs – Sam Quito (11-4) vs. Ben Lagman (6-2) – Lagman via TKO Wrong - Quito won via submission
155lbs – Sevak Magakian (12-3) vs. Jason Fischer (5-1) – Fisher via submission Correct plus method
Spike TV Main Card: 3-1-0 Total MMA Predictions: 80-49-0 = 62%
155lbs – Will Brooks (8-0) vs. Ricardo Tirloni (15-3) – Brooks via decision
Brooks is making his Bellator debut in this fight against a very dangerous Tirloni. Brook’s last fight was with Dream so he shouldn’t get rattled by the big crowd or TV cameras. Tirloni is now on his 3rd run at winning the Bellator Lightweight Tournament. Brooks has explosive striking, great grappling and some very solid defence. Tirloni is a 1st degree BJJ black belt and has some good striking, but he did suffer a KO loss to Rick Hawn back at Bellator 62. Both men will come out striking and once Brooks starts to get the better of the exchanges, Tirloni will go for a takedown and that’d where this fight becomes tricky. Tirloni has great BJJ, but Brooks has recently fought some very good grapplers and came out on top every time so Brooks should do the same in this fight. Correct plus method
155lbs – Thiago Michel (11-3) vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy (21-1) – Sarnavskiy via submission
Sarnavskiy came to Bellator with an undefeated record only to have that taken away by a dominant grappling performance from Rich Clementi. After that fight Sarnavskiy put on a much better performance against the striker Tony Hervey winning a unanimous decision. Michel is a dynamic striker with a lot of speed, but he hasn’t had much success in Bellator winning and losing by spilt decision. Michel has 3 career losses, 2 of which are by submission, and Sarnavskiy has 11 of 21 wins via submission. That will be a factor for this fight as Sarnavskiy should be able to get takedowns and work for a submission. On the feet Sarnavskiy should be able to hold his own enough that he doesn’t get knocked out and even lands strikes of his own. Correct plus method
155lbs – Saad Awad (12-4) vs. Guillaume DeLorenzi (10-1) – DeLorenzi via TKO
Patricky Freire was originally expected to take on DeLorenzi in this fight but he had to pull out due to an undisclosed injury. Awad who was expected to face Jason Fischer on the undercard stepped up and filled in for Freire against a very dangerous DeLorenzi. Both men have terrific stand-up, but Awad tends to use his hands more and DeLorenzi likes his leg kicks. If this fight stays on the feet expect DeLorenzi to gain an advantage early, but if Awad is able to get this fight to the ground and keep it there he might be able to sink in a submission. DeLorenzi only career loss was via 1st round submission to Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver, so Awad should definitely try to get this fight to the ground. DeLorenzi should be able to stuff Awad’s takedowns and blast him on the feet with leg kicks and punches. Wrong - Awad won via TKO
155lbs – Lloyd Woodard (12-2) vs. David Rickels (11-1) – Rickels via decision
Rickels is dropping down from Welterweight to fight at 155lbs for the first time to take on the equally impressive Woodard. Both men like to use their strength and power to overwhelm opponents while also looking for submissions. Rickels has only lost 1 career fight and that was at 170lbs via split decision to Karl Amoussou. Woodard has only ever lost to top competition with his career losses coming against Lightweight Champion Michael Chandler via unanimous decision, and Rick Hawn via KO. Woodard did struggle at times getting back to his feet when he fought Patricky Freire, which should be a huge factor as he’s going up against a bigger man who’s also better at wrestling. This will be a back and forth battle but Rickels should have the strength advantage and don’t expect the drop in weight to affect him. Rickels will trade punches with Woodard, but he’ll also make sure he spends more time in top control. Correct plus method
Bellator 88 is next Thursday, February 7th with the main card featuring the opening round of the season 8 Featherweight Tournament. The main event will be a Middleweight matchup between the hard hitting Alexander Shlemenko and the black belt Maiquel Falcão. Feel free to comment on the fight picks and check back in for more UFC and Bellator predictions.
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