Lightweight tournament starts this weekend at BFC 77, Cosmo Alexander on undercard

The fourth and final tournament for Bellator season 7 kicks off this weekend with the lightweights taking to the cage at BFC 77.  The event takes place at the Reading Theatre at the Sovereign Center in Reading, PA with an undercard webstreamed on Spike.com, a main card televised on MTV2.

Dave Jansen on rightThe main fight in the tournament getting attention is 16-2 WEC vet Dave Jansen vs. 14-1 Russian fighter Magomed Saadulaev.  Saadulaev is a submission expert with eight wins by such, six by decision with his only loss to date being an arm-triangle choke to Arni Isaksson in October 2010.  Since then Saadulaev has picked up three wins in a row with his most recent being a guillotine choke of Laszlo Soltesz almost a year ago.  Jansen went 1-2 in the WEC but those two losses were his only losses, since then he went 3-0 in BFC with wins over Scott McAfee, Ashkan Morvari, and most recently Jacob Kirwan.

Rich ClementiThe most recognizable face in the tournament is UFC vet Rich Clementi, at 44-22-1 by far the most experienced fighter in this tournament.  Clementi went 2-4 in 2011 but so far in 2012 is 2-0 with wins by guillotine choke over Derek Campos and Robert Washington.  Alexander Sarnavskiy will pose a challenge for Clementi as the M-1 Challenge vet so far hasn’t been defeated in twenty fights, most recently defeating Maykel Becerra by KO in May also bringing his 2012 record to 2-0.  The difference is Sarnavskiy has only gone to a judges’ decision twice with one time being a two-round fight while Clementi has faced the judges seventeen times.

Rene NazareRicardo Tirloni vs. Rene Nazare also looks interesting as Tirloni is coming off his first loss in four years, a KO at BFC 62 that ended his eleven-fight win streak.  Nazare started out impressive with ten wins in a row but suffered defeats in his last two fights, both by decision.

Marcin Held with submissionRounding out the main card 13-2 Marcin Held takes on the least experienced but undefeated Murad Machaev.  Held is 13-2 overall, 2-1 in Bellator, and rides three wins in a row while Machaev is 9-0.

Cosmo AlexandreSurprisingly Cosmo Alexander is still on the undercards of Bellator.  Alexander is a champion kickboxer who is 3-1 in MMA, all four fights being in Bellator with his loss being his debut and his most recent being a TKO of Harry Johnson.  Alexander this night faces Mike Bannon, a 4-0 submission specialist fighting out of Pennsylvania.

Undercard (Spike.com)

LW: Emanuel Brooks vs.Darrel Horcher
LHW: Carmelo Marrero vs.Lew Polley
MW: Duane Bastress vs.Lewis Rumsey
LW: Cosmo Alexander vs.Mike Bannon
FW: Eric Albright vs.Brett Martinez
Flyweight: Matthew Lozano vs.Dave Morgan

Main card:

LW tournament: Dave Jansen vs.Magomed Saadulaev
LW tournament: Marcin Held vs.Murad Machaev
LW tournament: Rene Nazare vs.Ricardo Tirloni
LW tournament: Rich Clementi vs.Alexander Sarnavskiy