“It’s telling that, as an MMA writer, I was far more attentive to a rap battle event than Bellator 149. I regret nothing. Judging by the Twitter reaction, the only thing I seemed to miss by having the fights peripheral and muted was Mike Tyson’s spurts of hilarious commentary. Other than that, the best punches of the day were in a verbal, rhymed form.
This isn’t to say the card was completely devoid of meaning on Friday at the Toyota Center in Houston. However, solid showings from Emmanuel Sanchez and Justin Wren — who was inexplicably buried on the lineup — did little to reconcile an event that was otherwise the cheapest, lowest of low-browed MMA shows in recent memory. What were the selling points, again? Was it watching “Dada 5000” in his toughest matchup since he fought “Dude” in his backyard, or was it the trilogy match 20 years in the making between fighters who have not been relevant since they fought each other 20 years ago?
I get the freak-show angle and even enjoy it in some ways. I’ll take Genki Sudo versus “Butterbean”-style fights all day…”