Photo via Bellator

A large part of me wants to dislike Bellator Kickboxing. The part that suspects Scott Coker tanked Glory kickboxing's deal with Spike when he talked Glory into co-promoting a card called Bellator Dynamite—every time a kickboxing bout rolled around we were treated to two MMA fighters in big gloves putting on a very boring fight. It could have been a misguided move by Glory, or it could have been the Machiavellian Coker genius, but either way Bellator Dynamite was dismal. Bellator Dynamite 2 takes place this evening with Bellator Kickboxing offering the grapple-free portion of the night in place of GLORY (hosting its own star studded event on Fight Pass on Saturday) and as much as it pains me to admit, this iteration of Dynamite looks pretty fun.

The most interesting story on the MMA portion of the card is Michael Chandler. Chandler was the hottest prospect in Bellator when he stopped Eddie Alvarez in an action packed fight back in 2011. He hit hard, he was aggressive, he seemed to be getting to grips with the stand up game, and he could wrestle with the best of them. Unfortunately he fell off hard and failed to learn the craft to best use his athletic gifts. In the rematch with Alvarez the smoother boxer had the jumpy power puncher flinching and whiffing on any feint or hint of a target. A couple of tough losses to Will Brooks back-to-back made Chandler look like a man on the cusp of being a cautionary “what could have been” story. Patricky Freire lacks the crisp left hook of his brother but makes up for it with enthusiasm and a passion for jumping knees. It should be a decent tear up and that alone is worth your time on this quiet Friday evening.

The main event of the MMA card is Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson in a fight he is supposed to win against Satoshi Ishii. Ishii has done a decent job of picking up wins over the severely aged heavyweights of the world: Jeff Monson, Tim Sylvia, Kerry Schall and Pedro Rizzo. On the other hand, he holds the distinction of being knocked out by Mirko Cro Cop twice in 2014. Jackson, meanwhile, had a one fight return to the UFC, beating on Fabio Maldonado before being bitterly brought back into Bellator in his conviction to continue his confounding contractual confusion. His sole quality victory since 2011 came when he was handed a questionable decision over Muhammad Lawal back in 2014, which you can add to the pile with his hotly disputed decision victories over Murilo Rua, Murilo Bustamante, Matt Lindland and Lyoto Machida. Many of Jackson's biggest victories seem to have come by benefit of the doubt.

But what interests me most about Bellator Dynamite is the quality of talent they have been able to sign as kickboxers. As Glory struggles to get fighters of the caliber of Tyrone Spong and Gokhan Saki back into their ring, the time is right for Scott Coker to swoop in with the burlap sack marked “Viacom Cash”. Joe Schilling is a terrific fighter for Bellator to have on the books because he is so highly regarded as a kickboxer and even if he is not the best in the world right now he has proven himself capable of hanging with and beating guys like Artem Levin and Simon Marcus. Schilling is also as game as they come. He made that claim that so many kickboxers do, that he would compete in MMA and kickboxing seriously, and unlike just about every other kickboxer he had a proper go at it. He is not a very good MMA fighter but Bellator loves him and he's a great kickboxer so Schilling might be the man who benefits most from this expansion.

Schilling's opponent should, quite frankly, be an easy day at the office. Hisaki Kato is fighting Schilling because he was able to knock Schilling out in the latter's last MMA bout. Kato has no kickboxing record to speak of and despite the result of that fight was getting shown up badly by Schilling on the feet, as one would expect.



It was the usual Schilling push kicks and knee raises into punches. Schilling is a master of using faked front kicks into shifting punches.

Except Schilling quickly found himself getting taken down. When he finally returned to the feet at the start of round two, he was twitchy and setting his weight ready to sprawl each time Kato moved. Kato threw a running superman punch from a couple of acres down the way and caught Schilling clean for a knockout. The idea of the same punch catching Schilling by surprise in a context where Schilling knows his man can only strike is surreal. Schilling should mop up here in the main event and I suspect that's the idea, but Joe is always fun and an unusual fighter to watch and it is worth tuning in just to see how misleading Bellator can be about Kato's record in the process.

The highlight of the night should be Raymond Daniels though. One of the most flash fighters in any field of combat sports today, Daniels impressed me enormously last year as he completely reversed expectations against Nieky Holzken. I have used Daniels' first fight as an example of the effect of a ring on the side on, kick heavy karate/American kickboxing style before. Once he got to the ropes he was forced out of his stance and from there, Holzken beat him senseless. Every time Holzken cut the ring, Daniels hit the deck.

But in the rematch, Daniels looked like a man who had spent his time in exactly the right areas. Rather than squaring up, Daniels was standing firm in his stance and staying side on. Utilizing the stone wall/shoulder roll style defense that is so common in the best defensive boxers. It worked beautifully. I immediately thought of Champ Thomas, the carnival boxer who wrote a great set of books on this style of boxing and who goes on a rant in one about Muhammad Ali's putting on the ear muffs on the ropes. Thomas insisted that a fighter should not collapse his stance and should remain in the stonewall. If the opponent stayed back, the fighter moved. If the opponent came in, the fighter clinched.

Holzken looked a little put off by this and let up the pressure when the two approached the ropes. This allowed Daniels to hit Holzken with hard punches and pivot off. For the first two rounds Daniels was outpointing Holzken and avoiding all the trouble along the ropes that he had faced in the first fight.

As the bout progressed Daniels made the mistake of squaring up in the old style once again and immediately got hit with a winding body shot.

An ill-timed back kick in the corner saw him eat another.

Suddenly a flurry came in and a cut was opened on the underside of Daniels' left eyebrow, which bled directly into his eye, and the bout had to be waved off. The finish of the bout was unfortunate because it didn't reflect the actual exchanges and ringcraft of the bout up to that point at all, but those are cuts for you.

No one Daniels can meet in Bellator Kickboxing will be on the level of Holzken, which could mean an easy road to a title of some kind or it could mean that Daniels stagnates. We all thought he was being thrown to the lions in a quick rematch against Holzken but he took the lessons from the first fight and looked better than ever. Daniels went from taking a one sided beating from Holzken to besting him for two and a half rounds in the space of six months. He is clearly a fighter who grows through strife and works best when he is pushed. Hopefully Bellator steer clear of giving him the Michael Page treatment in hopes of highlight reel knockouts.

Despite there being no UFC event this weekend, Glory and Bellator should provide more than enough to satiate the appetite of the fight addict.

Pick up Jack's new kindle book, Finding the Art, or find him at his blog, Fights Gone By.

Check out these related stories:

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