Gegard Moussi put on a brilliant show four months ago in Dublin. That it’s not a performance of epic length makes it all the more magnificent. The Bellator MMA middleweight champion needed less than a minute and a half to beat an undefeated opponent in the Bellator 275 main event.
Austin Vanderford, in recognition of his credit (and eventual downfall), attacked that night at 3Arena, closing the gap from the start and delivering massive punches. But Mousasi had the answers to everything thrown at him, and those answers almost immediately overwhelmed Vanderford. However, as lightning fast as the fight approached the 1:25 TKO end of Round 1, Mousasi was in no hurry. Effective composure was the hallmark of the 36-year-old Dutchman’s two-decade career and once again that virtue won him over overnight.
It also gives the low-scoring champion a hearty review from one of the sport’s most popular figures.
“[Mousasi] is the most underrated fighter in MMA right now”, retired former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov tweeted that night.
Mousasi (49-7-2) has a chance to play to the full extent of the title when he covers Bellator 282 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Friday (9pm ET on Showtime, opening at 6pm) afternoon on the Bellator YouTube page). The one who challenged him this time was another undefeated heavyweight boxer, Johnny EblenVanderford fans work out at the American Top Team gym in South Florida.
Mousasi is on a 4-fight winning streak and has won 12 of his past 13 fights, extending his stint in the UFC. And for some of the boxers who faced him in that run, Nurmagomedov’s endorsement holds true.
“No one believes in what he does, because his technique is so ordinary, nothing flashy,” said the former UFC light heavyweight champion. Lyoto Machida, who has faced Mousasi twice, winning a unanimous decision in a UFC fight in 2014 and losing a split judgment in 2019 in the Bellator cage. “But it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t kick as high as others, or he doesn’t jump his knees. It doesn’t matter. The important thing is that he plays well everywhere, all-round and very calm. can fight anyone and yes fought everyone, and he won. “
Mousasi owns victory against a long list of champion level fighters, from Dan Henderson arrive Vitor Belfort, Chris Weidman arrive Rory MacDonaldMachida is coming Douglas Lima. Mousasi is in his second reign at Bellator and before that was a champion in three other fighting organizations, including Strikeforce.
“He should definitely be on the list of the best boxers to ever live,” said Lima, a former Bellator weightlifter who lost to Mousasi in 2020 in a 185-pound title fight. “He’s been fighting the top competitions all his life. He hasn’t beaten Mark Hunt at heavyweight, something like that? “
Yes, he did. Competing against the 265-pound “Super Samoan” in an appropriately named 2009 tournament during the Dream promotion, the Super Hulk Grand Prix, Mousasi excelled in the first round.
But the list of awards is simply that for Mousasi – a list. It is not important to him.
“I don’t care — about the belt,” Mousasi said after defending the title in February. “I came here to make money.”
The narrow-minded focus of the person doing it may have something to do with why he is so chronically underappreciated. Mousasi has forged a quiet career in building a fight and, after doing what he does best in a cage or ring, simply collects his check and goes home.
“Mousasi is like Fedor Emelianenko, very quiet, doesn’t talk much,” Machida said, referring to the stoic Russian heavyweight legend. That puts him back a bit, in terms of advancement, but at the end of the day, as a boxer, he has the skills to get the results he’s after. So what can people say about him? “
Unusually, Mousasi had something to say about himself shortly after beating Vanderford. “I feel like the best middleweight in the world right now,” Mousasi told reporters. “I never said that [before] because I never thought I was the best. “
That’s daring bravery for someone competing in the same weight class as a UFC champion Israel Adesanya. And Mousasi, even while making a case for himself, realized that in a sport with various promotions operating in separate vaults with rare serves, giving Opinion about the pecking order of weight classes is like playing fantasy sports. “Talking about it,” he said, “is like talking about how I want to be Santa.”
Mousasi’s four years in the UFC came before Adesanya entered the Octagon. When Mousasi knocked Weidman out by knee in 2017, it was his fifth straight win, four of them in the finish. He’s 4th in the official UFC middleweight rankings, and he thinks he’s next to challenge the champion then. Michael Bisping. But the UFC gave the title to Robert Whittaker instead of.
So Bellator is for Mousasi, who in less than a year won the championship. And not much to say about it.
“We have people in the sport who talk a lot but aren’t even that good, but people recognize their names and they’re the ones fighting to win titles and big money,” said Lima. . “And then there’s a guy like Mousasi who talks in the cage with his punches and kicks. The ability to control distance, timing, composure, aggression, knockdown defense, his jiu-jitsu – all of that makes him a hard worker to fight. He trains hard, I know, but he makes it like a walk in the park . I wish people would respect that more.”
