Worldwide MMA Preview – Bellator 170 and Titan FC 43

Bellator are in Inglewood, California on Saturday night (2am GMT) for Bellator 170 and the card headlined by Tito Ortiz and Chael Sonnen who will meet at light heavyweight. Ortiz began his Bellator career well with a quick submission victory over former Bellator middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko and then a split decision over Stephan Bonnar. Those two victories led to him getting a title shot against Liam McGeary in September 2015 where he was choked out in the first round. He is 41 years old and has had a career plagued with injuries so this must be one of his final fights. Sonnen’s last MMA fight was a defeat to Rashad Evans back in 2013 but he has competed in some grappling matches to keep himself in shape. It is impossible to tell what condition both of these men will be in when they enter the cage, but hopefully they can deliver a fun fight.

In the co-main event, Paul Daley will take on Brennan Ward at welterweight. Daley has had a long career and fought all over the world and he performed very poorly in his last outing, a decision loss to Douglas Lima in London, but he seemed to be carrying an injury in that bout. Prior to that loss he was undefeated in Bellator and heading for a title shot. Brennan Ward looked great since dropping down to welterweight until a quick leglock from Cyborg Santos shocked him last year but he bounced back to knockout Saad Awad in the first round and get back to winning ways. The winner of this fight could be next in line for a title shot at welterweight if they are impressive.

In the middleweight division, Ralek Gracie will return over six years after his last MMA fight to take on Hisaki Kato. Gracie built up a 3-0 from 2007 to 2010 which included a decision victory over Kazushi Sakuraba. Kato shot to prominence with a spectacular knockout of Joe Schilling and he is currently coming off a first round stoppage victory over AJ Matthews.

Also on Saturday night (Midnight GMT) is Titan FC 43, the card is streaming live on UFC Fight Pass and is headlined by a flyweight title fight between Jose Torres and Pedro Nobre, they will be competing for the title that was vacated by Tim Elliott when he joined the The Ultimate Fighter. Jose Torres is a young fighter with a lot of hype around him. He won 2 consecutive amateur world championships and is so far a perfect 3-0 as a professional. His last fight was an interim title fight in Titan and he stopped Abdiel Velazquez with strikes in the second round. Pedro Nobre was the last person to challenge Tim Elliott for his Titan title. Nobre built up an excellent record in Brazil and has only been defeated twice in over 20 fights, he bounced back from the Elliott loss with a split decision victory over Sid Bice.