Bellator X: Joe Soto defeats Yahir Reyes.
Joe Soto left no doubt who was the king of Bellator's featherweight division, pummeling Yahir Reyes into submission for most of their 9-minute, 11-second title match.
Reyes, a Central Valley native (Porterville) who now trains in the Bay Area, needed about a minute to pin the Tijuana fighter to the canvas in both the first and second rounds. Once pinned, Reyes looked utterly helpless to survive a double-fisted barrage from the crowd favorite Soto. His face swollen and his mind slow to respond to the referee's promptings, Reyes was finally obligated to tap out late in the second round.
Soto earned $175,000 for the victory.
Neither fighter was expected to make Bellator's featherweight final, a dream come true for CEO Bjorn Rebney, who hoped that his March-Madness style tournament format would produce at least one Cinderella. Friday's main event featured two: Reyes, who upset Esteban Payan with a spinning backfist knockout and Soto, who upset previously-undefeated Brazilian Wilson Reis.
In the main undercard bout, Reis was the heavy favorite but nearly succumbed to crowd favorite Roberto Vargas of San Bernardino. Reis attmpted to keep the fight on the canvas and, to his credit, largely succeeded. Vargas utilized his longer reach to land the better punches, both from his knees and from his feet. But neither fighter landed a decisive blow or came close to submitting the other, and the split decision went to Reis by the narrowest of margins (29-28 on two cards, 28-29 on the other). The jeers rained so loudly that Reis' post-fight interview was inaudible from the arena floor.
In a 155-pound undercard, San Bernardino fighter Saad Awad didn't need even a full round to produce the evening's most entertaining result with Diego Garijo of Mexico. Awad quickly opened a vicious gash over Garijo's left temple that had blood spilling over both fighters. But Garijo stayed on his feet and eventually worked the stand-up fighter Awad into a chokehold on the canvas. There, Garijo finally forced Awad into submission with 15 seconds left in the round.
A pair of Victorville fighters also shared the undercard. Light heavyweight Lamar Jiles was disqualified in the second round of his bout, the first of the evening, with Newport Beach's Nick Moghaddam [details in tomorrow's editions]. Middleweight Bryan Baker fared much better against Matt Horwich of Portland, Oregon. He won in a unanimous decision, landing some solid punches to Horwich's face in an otherwise sedentary match.
The other results: 170-pounder Jesse Juarez (Torrance) def. Mikey Gomez (Cerritos), unanimous decision; heavyweight Travis Browne (Honolulu, Hawaii) def. Mychal Clark (Tacoma, Washington), unanimous decision; 155-pounder Israel Giron (Mexico City) def. Phil Brown (Riverside), submission.
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