Bellator MW champion Rafael Carvalho ducking John Salter on Twitter, argument ensues

TheBrownRanger

Brown Belt
@Brown
Joined
Jun 21, 2013
Messages
4,650
Reaction score
1,223
Was doing some digging around on Twitter for Bellator news and found this.

Bellator Middleweight champion and lineal UFC/WEC champ Rafael Carvalho seems to be taking a page out of fellow champion Michael Bisping's book and doing some ducking of his own.







I don't blame Carvalho for avoiding the Salter fight considering how he brutalized Halsey. Carvalho vs Salter would be a very interesting style match-up.
20160617083622_04_Salter_1DX_7101.JPG
 
Last edited:
Oh man bellators middleweight division is so sad. Salter just beat a guy that was 0-3 overall now, just give the shot to tokov and pray he beats carvallo at this point
 
Oh man bellators middleweight division is so sad. Salter just beat a guy that was 0-3 overall now, just give the shot to tokov and pray he beats carvallo at this point
Get Salter out of the way first because the guy is a good fighter...Than let Tokov come and take the belt
 
Oh man bellators middleweight division is so sad. Salter just beat a guy that was 0-3 overall now, just give the shot to tokov and pray he beats carvallo at this point
Tokovis definitely one to watch out for but I would put him at about Grove/Honeycutt/Babene level as far as the contender line goes.

I would put is as:
C: Rafael Carvalho
1. Alexander Shlemenko
2. John Salter
3. Hisaki Kato
4. Melvin Manhoef
5. Chris Honeycutt
6. Kendall Grove
7. Anatoly Tokov
8. Gregory Babene
9. Ben Reiter
10. Francisco France

The division isn't really that bad, there's two or three contenders in this division. UFC LHW and Bellator HW are much worse in my opinion.
 
Tokovis definitely one to watch out for but I would put him at about Grove/Honeycutt/Babene level as far as the contender line goes.

I would put is as:
C: Rafael Carvalho
1. Alexander Shlemenko
2. John Salter
3. Hisaki Kato
4. Melvin Manhoef
5. Chris Honeycutt
6. Kendall Grove
7. Anatoly Tokov
8. Gregory Babene
9. Ben Reiter
10. Francisco France

The division isn't really that bad, there's two or three contenders in this division. UFC LHW and Bellator HW are much worse in my opinion.
I would add Rafael Lovato Jr. instead of Francisco France.
 
Rafael might be thinking that he could be fighting mousasi and would like to sit out.

I'd have him fight salter in October or so. Whoever wins, wins then if Bellator signs mousasi, they could give him an immediate shot In his hometown in 2018. No reason to let the champ sit out. It's not like Mousasi vs Rafael is the fight people want to see.
 
Last edited:
Tokovis definitely one to watch out for but I would put him at about Grove/Honeycutt/Babene level as far as the contender line goes.

I would put is as:
C: Rafael Carvalho
1. Alexander Shlemenko
2. John Salter
3. Hisaki Kato
4. Melvin Manhoef
5. Chris Honeycutt
6. Kendall Grove
7. Anatoly Tokov
8. Gregory Babene
9. Ben Reiter
10. Francisco France

The division isn't really that bad, there's two or three contenders in this division. UFC LHW and Bellator HW are much worse in my opinion.


You think thats a better div than UFC LHW div? o_O

Even with Rumble leaving and the LHW div being weak its a div that has Jon Jones, DC, Glover, Gus, Manuwa, Shogun, Misha.
 
Carvalho could win the fight if it stays on the feet, but if Salter gets him down, it's going to end very badly for him.

They're just keeping the belt warm for Lovato Jr. anyways.
 
Tokovis definitely one to watch out for but I would put him at about Grove/Honeycutt/Babene level as far as the contender line goes.

I would put is as:
C: Rafael Carvalho
1. Alexander Shlemenko
2. John Salter
3. Hisaki Kato
4. Melvin Manhoef
5. Chris Honeycutt
6. Kendall Grove
7. Anatoly Tokov
8. Gregory Babene
9. Ben Reiter
10. Francisco France

The division isn't really that bad, there's two or three contenders in this division. UFC LHW and Bellator HW are much worse in my opinion.
I know that tokovs record is a bit deceiving as i have seen many fights he should have finished in the 1st round but always goes to a lackluster dec , thats why i say we must pray he wins lol but tokov is fresh blood in a division that desperately needs somthing other then carvallo/storm/manhoef, kato is another guy i would obviously love to see in there but think he may just need one more w, lovato jr will likely be the champ once all this plays out, or ruth perhaps
 
Just make Carvalho vs Salter and Tokov vs Kato as title eliminator. The logical option should be Shlemenko but he is fighting for M-1 soon... And i doubt that Bellator would give him a title shot comming of a win outside the company
 
Just make Carvalho vs Salter and Tokov vs Kato as title eliminator. The logical option should be Shlemenko but he is fighting for M-1 soon... And i doubt that Bellator would give him a title shot comming of a win outside the company
Or perhaps a loss, considering that he's fighting Halsey again.
 
You think thats a better div than UFC LHW div? o_O

Even with Rumble leaving and the LHW div being weak its a div that has Jon Jones, DC, Glover, Gus, Manuwa, Shogun, Misha.
- When reading the UFC rankings, I actually forgot about Jon Jones lmao. It's been so long since I've seen him fight and his last fight with OSP wasn't worth remembering.
- Gus and Glover, meh. I feel Gus hasn't evolved much and had a really shit performance against Blachowicz. I've always seen Glover as somewhat of a gatekeeper, who the hell is Jared Cannonier anyways? I don't think either of these two will win the belt as long as Cormier and Jones are in the way.
- Manuwa is alright, Cormier is just an awful match-up for him. Assuming that fight happens as rumored, Corm-yay gets it. Manuwa had a hard time with Rumble on the ground
- I love Shogun but I can't picture a scenario where he beats either Jones or Cormier. The PRIDE fanboy in me would love to see him get another shot at the title though.
- I need to see Cirkunov get a top ten win before I count him as an elite fighter. Not writing him off but Krylov didn't have much good wins either. Below #10 of Light-Heavyweight at UFC is where things get really bad.

I would say Bellator MW has more contenders than UFC LHW (Salter, Shlemenko, Kato). It's really subjective though so I see your point. I'm more interested by # of contenders and possible match-ups rather than depth.

UFC Lightweight has a ton of fighters and I don't bother watching half of those guys fight.
 
Tokovis definitely one to watch out for but I would put him at about Grove/Honeycutt/Babene level as far as the contender line goes.

I would put is as:
C: Rafael Carvalho
1. Alexander Shlemenko
2. John Salter
3. Hisaki Kato
4. Melvin Manhoef
5. Chris Honeycutt
6. Kendall Grove
7. Anatoly Tokov
8. Gregory Babene
9. Ben Reiter
10. Francisco France

The division isn't really that bad, there's two or three contenders in this division. UFC LHW and Bellator HW are much worse in my opinion.


Such a ridiculous statement. You realize Manhoef is 4? You realize Grove is 6? Like this is an insanely bad top 10. I like France a lot but that dude is limited as hell same with everyone in the list basically.
 
Such a ridiculous statement. You realize Manhoef is 4? You realize Grove is 6? Like this is an insanely bad top 10. I like France a lot but that dude is limited as hell same with everyone in the list basically.
I agree with you to some extent. I'll take back my statement about UFC LHW. Gus, Glover and Shogun are good fighters and names, I just don't think they're a big threat to the title.

As far as Bellator Heavyweight, Javy Ayala is easily top 5 in that division, even when there is no champion present. All they have is Kongo, Fedor, Lashley, and Mitrione.
 
I think Shlemenko gets next shot (if he beats Halsey).

The guy is extermely active he could fight Halsey and be ready to fight again whenever Carvalho is ready to defend.
 
Salter just won the ADCC West Coast trials, beating really high level grapplers and world nogi champions in Josh Hinger and DJ Jackson. It's crazy how he's just come on like he has.
 
I agree with you to some extent. I'll take back my statement about UFC LHW. Gus, Glover and Shogun are good fighters and names, I just don't think they're a big threat to the title.

As far as Bellator Heavyweight, Javy Ayala is easily top 5 in that division, even when there is no champion present. All they have is Kongo, Fedor, Lashley, and Mitrione.

Mis-read that as UFC HW division. It's on par with Bellator's HW division that's true. I still put their HW better but it is a lot of old farts.
 
Back
Top