Bellator now have a new champion at 170lbs, with unbeaten Russian Ramazan Kuramagomedov talking home Welterweight gold in the main event of Bellator Champions Series Dublin.
Kuramagomedov faced then champion Jason Jackson at the top of a bill of a stacked show at the 3Arena Dublin, which also see Paul Hughes make his promotional debut, and Sinead Kavanagh face Arelene Blencowe in an intriguing rematch.
The main event certainly lived up to expectations. It was always believed that the contest would be a close affair but Kuramagomedov quickly established a solid foothold in the contest, keeping Jackson on the mat for most of the opening three rounds. Jackson then opted to employ the same tactic as Kuramagomedov and found much success with it in the last two rounds but it was ultimately too little too late.
There was a lot of hype surrounding the PFL signing Paul Hughes earlier this year and the Fight Academy Ireland athlete made the first walk of his promotional tenure in the co-main event.
Bobby king came across to upset the party and although Hughes took the first round, it wasn't without King having some success of his own and making sure Hughes knew he was going to bring the fight.
With twenty seconds left on the clock in round two, Hughes establish a very dominant position on the floor and landed a flurry of Hughes strikes to the head of King and the referee stepping in to wave the contest off.
Arelene Blencow managed to silce the 3Arena just minutes before the Hughes debut however, when she stopped Sinead Kavanagh in the second round of their bout.
Norbert Novenyi was handed his first professional loss at the hands of Dalkton Rosta, who took the bout by way of majority decision.
Elsewhere on the card there were also big wins for Darragh Kelly, Nathan Kelly Michelle Montague and Nate Kelly.
Find the full list of results, below:
Ramazan Kuramagomedov (13-0) defeated Jason Jackson (18-5) via unanimous decision to become the new Bellator Welterweight World Champion
Paul Hughes (12-1) defeated Bobby King (12-7) via second round TKO at 4:50
Arlene Blencowe (16-10) defeated Sinead Kavanagh (9-7) via second round guillotine at 3:02
Dalton Rosta (9-1) defeated Norbert Novenyi (7-1) via majority decision
Darragh Kelly (6-0) defeated Mathias Poiron (7-2) via first round guillotine at 1:29
Preliminary Card Results:
Kasum Kasumov (16-1) defeated Matheus Mattos (14-3-1) via unanimous decision
Nathan Kelly (11-2) defeated Jose Sanchez (13-3-1) via first round front naked choke at 3:42
Khasan Magomedsharipov (10-0) defeated Tyler Mathison (6-4) via unanimous decision
Sarvarjon Khamidov (16-0) defeated Marcirley Alves (12-4) via unanimous decision
Shinobu Ota (7-3) defeated Roger Blanque (5-6) via first round north south choke at 2:18
Michelle Montague defeated Karolina Sobek via first round read naked choke at 2:41
Nate Kelly defeated Paul Nolan via first round tap arm bar at 1:49
