Bellator 128: Warren Takes Bantamweight Crown From Dantas

Joe Warren BellatorTHACKERVILLE, Okla. – The Bellator Bantamweight Title has been unified and it belongs to Joe Warren after he won by a unanimous decision over Eduardo Dantas at the Global Event Center at Winstar World Casino and Resort on Friday. The score was 48-47 on all scorecards in an extremely close fight that was difficult to score but went in favor of the Colorado native.

The contrasting styles of the fighters made for an exciting five-round fight that was too close to call as it went to the judges. When the fighters were on their feet, the younger Dantas clearly had the advantage and showed himself to be the better striker. However, Dantas really had no answer all night for the grinding, ground and pound style of Warren that allowed him to control much of the fight and eventually the scorecards. The fight ended with the Brazilian attempting to fight off another grinding takedown attempt by Warren who has won five straight fights and is now the sole Bantamweight Champion at 12-3. Dantas six-fight win streak was snapped as he fell to 16-4.

Welterweight Michael Page remained unbeaten, surviving a fight that made it out of the first round for the first time in his career, defeating Nah Shon Burrell in a unanimous decision that was scored 30-27 by all judges. Page wasn’t able to capitalize often on his reach advantage but was clearly dominant when the two were on their feet. Burrell was unable to grind Page to the mat for any sort of an advantage throughout the fight as Page had answers for his offensive attack. Page improves to 7-0 while Burrell falls to 10-5.

Emeliano Sordi wasted no time locking in a guillotine choke on Bubba McDaniel that forced the tap only a minute into their fight. Sordi improved to 13-4 with his fourth straight win while McDaniel drops to 22-9 as his two-fight win streak was snapped.

Another first round submission victory belonged to Alexander Sarnavsky who finished Dakota Cochrane midway through the first round of their fight. Sarnavsky came in with a flying knee that sent Cochrane to the mat, as Cochrane tried to recover, Sarnavsky locked in back control and a rear naked choke that led to the tap. Sarnavsky gets back into the win column and improves to 28-2 while Cochrane’s Bellator debut dropped him to 17-7.