Bellator 88: Maiquel Falcão is knocked out in middleweight title fight

A. Shlemenko (left) defeated Falcão (right) and won the belt. Photo: Bellator

The Brazilian Maiquel Falcao He tried, but the Bellator middleweight belt belongs to Alexander Shlemenko. In the 88th edition of the event, held in the early hours of this Friday (08), in Duluth, in the United States, the Russian managed to recover from a bad first round and with blows to the belt he defeated the Tupiniquim athlete by technical knockout in the second assault.

The result broke Falcão's streak of four consecutive MMA victories, while Shlemenko recorded his 47th career victory.

Despite Falcão's setback, Bellator 88 was not just a defeat for Brazil. Rio's Marlon Sandro encountered many difficulties against another Russian athlete, Akop Stepanyan, but left the event's circular cage with victory. After a balanced first round, the European fighter had an advantage in the second half, but Akop ended up losing a point for holding on to the cage.

In the third round, Marlon opened the game, managed to knock Stepanyan down on two occasions and won the fight by majority decision of the judges (29×27, 28×28, 29×27). With the victory, Marlon advances to the semifinals of the organization's featherweight GP.

In the 100% Brazilian Bellator duel, also valid for the featherweight tournament, better for Alexandre Popó. The fighter from São Paulo, based in the United States, managed to lock Junior PQD in an armbar and advance in the GP.

Check out the complete results from Bellator 88 below:

Alexander Shlemenko defeated Maiquel Falcao by technical knockout in R2;

Marlon sandro defeated Akop Stepanyan via majority decision;

Magomedrasul Khasbulaev submitted Fabricio Guerreiro with a kata-gatame in R2;

Mike Richman defeated Mitch Jackson via TKO R1;

Alexandre Popó finished Junior PQD with an armbar on R1;

George Hickman submitted Stephen Upchurch with a rear naked choke in R1;

Clay Harvison defeated Ururahy Rodrigues via TKO in R3;

Ronnie Rogers defeated Shane Crenshaw via unanimous decision;

Joe Elmore defeated Jerrid Burke via knockout in R2;