Lombard, Frausto Victorious at Bellator 34

Bellator 34 featured two title fights, one of which was the final bout in a tournament to crown a first-ever Bellator 115 lb. women’s champ. Each bout went the full five rounds, with Hector Lombard outworking Alexander Shlemenko, while Zoila Frausto took a razor-thin decision over the previously unbeaten Megumi Fujii.

In the main event of the night, Lombard defended his middleweight title against Shlemenko, who lasted longer than many anticipated, which isn’t saying much considering that Lombard tends to make short work of all of his opponents. It didn’t appear that the fight would go long at the outset, as Lombard literally came charging out to start the fight and swarmed Shlemenko with strikes, trying to overwhelm his normally-calm opponent.

To his credit, Shlemenko survived the initial onslaught, though it was eventually his inability to defend the takedowns of Lombard that cost him any chance of coming away with the upset. When Lombard wasn’t able to KO his opponent, he settled for a consistent striking attack balanced with takedowns and stifling ground control, though he often got stood up for inactivity during the fight.

The judges unanimously saw the fight for Lombard, with all three giving the fight to him via 49-46 scorecards. With the win, Lombard moves to 27-2-1 in his professional career.

As mentioned earlier, the other title fight went five rounds, as well. However, this bout, between Megumi Fujii and Zoila Frausto for the new Bellator women’s 115 lb. title, ended with a much more surprising result.

Fujii was thought to be a very safe favorite against Frausto, who has shown good striking technique and power, but even herself conceded that she wanted no part of grappling with the previously-undefeated Fujii. Besides that, Frausto was thought to have been outstruck by Jessica Aguilar, who herself is not known to be a wonderful kickboxer, in their fight. Coming off that bout, which many (including myself) thought she should have dropped on the judges’ scorecards, Frausto had a lot to prove.

And she did just that. She went five full rounds with Fujii, defending most of the takedown attempts that were thrown at her and patiently counter-punching as Fujii noticeably slowed down during the later rounds. This fight was no sure thing either, but it definitely couldn’t have been called a robbery, no matter which fighter was given the decision. Even that Frausto gave Fujii such a close fight over five full rounds was enough to prove that, dubious decision or not, she was good enough to be in the final bout of the tournament.

Her reaction to winning the title also made for a great moment, as she was clearly overwhelmed with joy over the accomplishment, which she no doubt has made countless sacrifices to make possible (as all fighters do). No matter your stance on who won, the tournament was a solid showing of how women’s MMA has continued to develop, and in my view, was one of the highlights of the current Bellator season.

In other fights, Mike Bernhard defeated Dragan Tesanovic by unanimous decision, despite eating plenty of leg kicks and having difficulty finding the range with his aggressive strikes throughout the fight. Meanwhile, Raphael Davis took a unanimous decision over former King of the Cage champion Tony Lopez, who was making his Bellator debut.

Also winning by unanimous decision were Frank Carillo and John Kelly, who defeated Moyses Gabin and William Kuhn, respectively. Ralph Acosta took a split decision from Tulio Quintanilla, while Dan Kramer stopped Igor Almeida by a doctor stoppage and J.P. Reese TKOed Bounmy Somchay in the only two non-decision wins during the event.

With that, Bellator’s third season comes to a close, with season four coming in 2011.

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Tags: Alexander Shlmenko, Bellator, Bellator 34, Bellator Fighting Championships, Hector Lombard, Megumi Fujii, Zoila Frausto