Bellator new Signings thread

Bellator will probably pick up Danny Sabatello. I really don't know how good he can be though.

He's not at a weight where pure wrestlers really run roughshod. Don't go me wrong, at every single weight class, the top of every division has wrestlers applying their craft and bringing home titles, etc. But generally speaking, wrestling has a bell curve of dominance. At 135 there are a lot of wrestlers who have had tremendous amounts of success. But most those guys used wrestling as an ancillary tool. BWs have shorter limbs, it's harder to wrap around and secure good takedowns, they're not as strong and explosive at their lower weights to get people to the ground, they're not as strong or as heavy to hold people down the ground and prevent scrambles, and even when they do hold people the ground at the lighter weights, people don't hit very hard even when standing, so it's much harder to pack real concussive power when doing ground and pound because you don't have the power coming from your legs. As a result, bantamweight has really always been a boxing division, and I think some people really like that, if you like quickness and footwork, striking technique, high volumes of strikes landed but usually less powerful strikes landed. That's why I think, while wrestlers at higher weights can usually get away with not learning striking, lower weights like Bantam, Feather, if you plan on fighting in these you have to learn to strike. Featherweight is a little bit better, but again it's still very hard. Lightweight is another division where striking is very prevalent but you start to see many elite lightweights who can implement an exclusively or heavily wrestling-based/influenced gameplan and have success. And that may be getting take downs, but against BJJ guys it can even be just avoiding going to the ground whatsoever. Then Welterweight is the wrestler's division, has always been and will always be. At this weight fighters still don't truly have KO power. Yes, knock outs happen, they happen at all levels, but it often comes from accumulation of strikes, strikes over time, eating combinations, the one punch eraser isn't as common still. However, you're at the weight where you can easily take someone down, hold someone down, and beat on them. Or stop the takedown if you want to avoid the ground, keep it on the feet. So the power and explosiveness to effectively wrestle scales up exponentially from flyweight to welterweight even though weight scales linearly. From welterweight to heavyweight, the power per punch scales exponentially even though the ability to take increasingly powerful punches scales linearly. All these higher divisions have long histories with many many wrestling-based champions, so it would be very dumb to say that wrestling isn't still incredibly dominant, and far more so at the higher weights than the lower weights. That said, there's diminishing returns on wrestling abilities at some of these higher weights because especially for heavyweights, if you land one punch flush it's good night. So you can do a lot of good work on the ground but if you get caught once on the feet it's for naught. So that's why I call it a bell curve, it's not really a bell curve, obviously at the higher weights its way more effective than at the lower weights, but roughly speaking.

He really lacks the agility and athleticism that a Aljo or Darrion Caldwell has on the feet. The word that comes to mind is clumsy. No one he has faced has stopped him from getting takedowns at some point, but I think no one he has faced so far should have been expected to prevent him from getting takedowns. And so far it seems like if he faces a tough opponent with some jiu jitsu skill, he really can't close fights.
 
CorninginChristianburg said:
Bellator will probably pick up Danny Sabatello. I really don't know how good he can be though.

He's not at a weight where pure wrestlers really run roughshod. Don't go me wrong, at every single weight class, the top of every division has wrestlers applying their craft and bringing home titles, etc. But generally speaking, wrestling has a bell curve of dominance. At 135 there are a lot of wrestlers who have had tremendous amounts of success. But most those guys used wrestling as an ancillary tool. BWs have shorter limbs, it's harder to wrap around and secure good takedowns, they're not as strong and explosive at their lower weights to get people to the ground, they're not as strong or as heavy to hold people down the ground and prevent scrambles, and even when they do hold people the ground at the lighter weights, people don't hit very hard even when standing, so it's much harder to pack real concussive power when doing ground and pound because you don't have the power coming from your legs. As a result, bantamweight has really always been a boxing division, and I think some people really like that, if you like quickness and footwork, striking technique, high volumes of strikes landed but usually less powerful strikes landed. That's why I think, while wrestlers at higher weights can usually get away with not learning striking, lower weights like Bantam, Feather, if you plan on fighting in these you have to learn to strike. Featherweight is a little bit better, but again it's still very hard. Lightweight is another division where striking is very prevalent but you start to see many elite lightweights who can implement an exclusively or heavily wrestling-based/influenced gameplan and have success. And that may be getting take downs, but against BJJ guys it can even be just avoiding going to the ground whatsoever. Then Welterweight is the wrestler's division, has always been and will always be. At this weight fighters still don't truly have KO power. Yes, knock outs happen, they happen at all levels, but it often comes from accumulation of strikes, strikes over time, eating combinations, the one punch eraser isn't as common still. However, you're at the weight where you can easily take someone down, hold someone down, and beat on them. Or stop the takedown if you want to avoid the ground, keep it on the feet. So the power and explosiveness to effectively wrestle scales up exponentially from flyweight to welterweight even though weight scales linearly. From welterweight to heavyweight, the power per punch scales exponentially even though the ability to take increasingly powerful punches scales linearly. All these higher divisions have long histories with many many wrestling-based champions, so it would be very dumb to say that wrestling isn't still incredibly dominant, and far more so at the higher weights than the lower weights. That said, there's diminishing returns on wrestling abilities at some of these higher weights because especially for heavyweights, if you land one punch flush it's good night. So you can do a lot of good work on the ground but if you get caught once on the feet it's for naught. So that's why I call it a bell curve, it's not really a bell curve, obviously at the higher weights its way more effective than at the lower weights, but roughly speaking.

He really lacks the agility and athleticism that a Aljo or Darrion Caldwell has on the feet. The word that comes to mind is clumsy. No one he has faced has stopped him from getting takedowns at some point, but I think no one he has faced so far should have been expected to prevent him from getting takedowns. And so far it seems like if he faces a tough opponent with some jiu jitsu skill, he really can't close fights.
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Motta is the only one from the bunch to look promising tbh.
 
careto said:
Motta is the only one from the bunch to look promising tbh.
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Yeah, I mean in all fairness I think contender series thus far has more of been a way to fill out cards, with most elite talents getting signed straight away, especially that we now have weekly UFC. Since they changed from 8 weeks to 10 weeks, you really get the feel that some fights, sometimes entire cards, are really scraping the barrel for talent. The pro-MMA scene is still not that big, probably not big enough for 10 weeks, 10 fighters per week. Some maybe down the line will keep developing but right now no one from the show is knocking on the door of a title shot. It only exacerbates things that Dana is looking for a very specific style, and that style may be entertaining, but it may not be the most conducive to success.

I'd also be down to sign Sousa. We have a lot of middleweights that gotta eat. Increasingly few fighters to feed to them. And if he wins himself, good on him, he becomes a prospect as well.
 
CorninginChristianburg said:
Yeah, I mean in all fairness I think contender series thus far has more of been a way to fill out cards, with most elite talents getting signed straight away, especially that we now have weekly UFC. Since they changed from 8 weeks to 10 weeks, you really get the feel that some fights, sometimes entire cards, are really scraping the barrel for talent. The pro-MMA scene is still not that big, probably not big enough for 10 weeks, 10 fighters per week. Some maybe down the line will keep developing but right now no one from the show is knocking on the door of a title shot. It only exacerbates things that Dana is looking for a very specific style, and that style may be entertaining, but it may not be the most conducive to success.

I'd also be down to sign Sousa. We have a lot of middleweights that gotta eat. Increasingly few fighters to feed to them. And if he wins himself, good on him, he becomes a prospect as well.
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Yes, just look at the upcoming card...its like Felder vs Dos Anjos headlining a regional card. But UFC fanboys will swear to you that those fights are the ones that always deliver, or that you must hate MMA if you dont watch it, etc.

I think Bellator should stay away from DWCS rejected fighters, unless they are like an Anglickas or Vanderford kind of thing, that nobody knows why they were rejected. Otherwise, I think there is plenty of talent out there to build up on their own.
 
Bellator should honestly sign Theodorou, I think he beats everyone at MW apart from Moose and maybe Tokov.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
Bellator should honestly sign Theodorou, I think he beats everyone at MW apart from Moose and maybe Tokov.
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Why did he leave the UFC? I think he is good, would probably by fringe top 5 in Bellator, im not sure about top 3.
 
careto said:
Why did he leave the UFC? I think he is good, would probably by fringe top 5 in Bellator, im not sure about top 3.
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The Brunson fight didn't do him any favours and Dana hated his style.

Salter is the next top contender and I don't see any way he would beat Elias.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
Bellator should honestly sign Theodorou, I think he beats everyone at MW apart from Moose and maybe Tokov.
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I don't think they will. They should of kept Honeycutt for depth.

Bellator should sign Ismailov 16-2 if he beats Shtyrkov. He has a win over Aleks E recently.
 
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Ooh, I'd be super down for Theodorou to Bellator to feed to our boys. He's a big name who would look great on a resume when we put him through wrestlers row. I think give him to Vanderford first, because Vanderford has the best BJJ, let him soften him up a little bit. Then Eblen, Johnson, and Rosta in that order.

By the way a cool article about Isaiah Hokit. Basically, he came to Bellator by way of recommendation from the folks at bodyshop. Good luck to him, expect to see him debut sometime soon.
https://www.fresnobee.com/sports/article246864007.html
 
tehMoose said:
I don't think they will. They should of kept Honeycutt for depth.

Bellator should sign Ismailov 16-2 if he beats Shtyrkov. He has a win over Aleks E recently.
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Ismailov is still under ACA contract as far as I know. He's one of their biggest draws so they won't let him go easily and he makes good money with them.

CorninginChristianburg said:
Ooh, I'd be super down for Theodorou to Bellator to feed to our boys. He's a big name who would look great on a resume when we put him through wrestlers row. I think give him to Vanderford first, because Vanderford has the best BJJ, let him soften him up a little bit. Then Eblen, Johnson, and Rosta in that order.

By the way a cool article about Isaiah Hokit. Basically, he came to Bellator by way of recommendation from the folks at bodyshop. Good luck to him, expect to see him debut sometime soon.
https://www.fresnobee.com/sports/article246864007.html
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Elias would beat all those guys tbh.
 
CorninginChristianburg said:
I don't think so. But that's why they figure that out in the cage. Make it happen and then we'll see.
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He's never really had much of an issue with wrestlers. They wouldn't be able to take him down at all easily and then they have to figure out his funky striking. Elias has only ever lost to Brunson, Tavares and Santos, who are all a different level to those guys and even then it was always close.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
He's never really had much of an issue with wrestlers. They wouldn't be able to take him down at all easily and then they have to figure out his funky striking. Elias has only ever lost to Brunson, Tavares and Santos, who are all a different level to those guys and even then it was always close.
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Because he's faced 2? He lost to Brunson. He beat Trevor Smith but in addition to being old, Smith just never really adapted his game to the modern techniques, he's never been particularly good. He's faced a lot of jiu jitsu guys but not a lot of wrestlers. Theodorou doesn't typically have knockout power, so they'd have the full length of the fight to get it to the mat. He isn't even really a volume striker, his strike counts are always pretty low. His TDD% in the UFC was 59%. That's not horrendous but I think that's actually statistically below average? It's either exactly average or slightly below average. Tavares and Santos are different types of fighters. I think if they just take the Brunson blue-print and run with it, they'll be fine.
 
CorninginChristianburg said:
Because he's faced 2? He lost to Brunson. He beat Trevor Smith but in addition to being old, Smith just never really adapted his game to the modern techniques, he's never been particularly good. He's faced a lot of jiu jitsu guys but not a lot of wrestlers. Theodorou doesn't typically have knockout power, so they'd have the full length of the fight to get it to the mat. He isn't even really a volume striker, his strike counts are always pretty low. His TDD% in the UFC was 59%. That's not horrendous but I think that's actually statistically below average? It's either exactly average or slightly below average. Tavares and Santos are different types of fighters. I think if they just take the Brunson blue-print and run with it, they'll be fine.
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Brunson has speed and power on the feet that they don't have though.
 
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