Fight Facts: Bellator 273 ‘Bader vs. Moldavsky’

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR FIGHTS: 3,035
TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR EVENTS: 275

Bellator MMA went on stage for its first show of the year without having to counterprogram the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A heavyweight belt found itself slowly unified by the end of the night, and the returning champion already has his next test booked. Bellator 273 featured the first underdog main card sweep in nearly a decade, a couple of young whippersnappers impressing the masses early and the uncrowned king of split decisions doing what he does best.

Who Saw That Coming? The final four victors at Bellator 273 all closed as betting underdogs, making this event’s main card the second in company history to spring upsets across the board. The first: Bellator 73 in 2012.

They Saw That Coming: A trio of competitors in Dalton Rosta, Nikita Mikhailov and Lucas Brennan all entered Bellator 273 as huge betting favorites at -850 or higher. They all won their fights.

Benevolent Matchmaking: Three fighters came to Bellator 273 with unbeaten records: Rosta, Brennan and Sullivan Cauley. All three escaped with their records intact, while the latter two prevailed by first-round stoppage.

Let’s Forget This Happened: Registering a successful defense of his heavyweight strap while unifying it by beating Valentin Moldavsky, Ryan Bader is the third heavyweight champ in Bellator history to defend his title – when facing Cheick Kongo, he retained it due to the no contest. The first two were Cole Konrad and Vitaly Minakov, while no champ has defended more than once.

They Call Me MISTER Split: Snapping a three-fight skid, Benson Henderson pulled off the massive upset by beating Islam Mamedov on two of three judges’ scorecards. Through his career, “Smooth” has been involved in eight split decision calls, and he has come out on top in six of those.

A Forgotten Sensation: By falling to Henderson, Mamedov had his 20-fight unbeaten streak ended in defeat. He had not suffered a loss since getting knocked out in the first round by “Tiger” Alexander Sarnavskiy in July 2009. At that time, only four of the other 19 fighters on the card including his opponent had made their professional MMA debuts.

Went on Far Too Long: Due to an accidental eye poke from Henry Corrales, his match with Aiden Lee went to the scorecards after less than a minute of action in Round 3. The resulting technical decision marked the fifth such occasion in company history, and the second in nearly five years.

Cool Stuff, Sleek Stuff, Neat Stuff: Sabah Homasi lifted his career finish rate to 81% by hitting an early arm-triangle choke on Jaleel Willis to kick off the main card. “The Sleek Sheik” had not registered a submission win since 2014, in a fight also under the Bellator banner.

Post-UFC Level of Competition: In his Bellator debut, Enrique Barzola put an end to a 10-fight stretch where he went the distance in every fight. The Peruvian ex-UFC fighter earned his first knockout triumph since 2014 when he stopped Darrion Caldwell with strikes in the third round.

TKO or KO, It Still Hurt: In 36 seconds, Christopher Gonzalez lamped Saad Awad with a head kick and follow-up punches to earn the first true knockout of his career. He previously forced Roger Huerta to tap to strikes in 2021 for his other win recorded as a TKO.

Speedy Gonzalez: The knockout for Gonzalez clocked in to tie as the eighth-fastest in Bellator lightweight history. It is the third-quickest stemming from a kick among those in that division.

Assassin Assassinated: Awad lost for the 11th time since first joining the Bellator roster in 2009. His 11 defeats are a new company record, breaking the tie with Georgi Karakhanyan. “Assassin” is now one of six Bellator fighters to get knocked out four times, and no competitor has suffered a fifth.

The Three Judges Meet Hercules: Unable to force a stoppage, the unbeaten Rosta settled for winning a decision over Duane Johnson. “Hercules” burst on to the scene with three knockouts, but since then, he has won by unanimous decision in each of his last three.

The Force is Strong with This One: At 21 years of age, Brennan is a perfect 6-0 as a pro with all six wins coming in the Bellator cage, including four by submission. Only 15 fighters throughout company history have landed more submissions as members of the Bellator roster than “Skywalker.”

Utilizing Force Speed: Each of Brennan’s four subs has come in the opening round. There are only five competitors who have surpassed that feat throughout Bellator history: James Gallagher and Alexandre Bezerra (five each), Caldwell and Aviv Gozali (six each) and Goiti Yamauchi (seven).

More Than a Pilot: In front of his home crowd on the card opener, Sullivan Cauley pounded out Ben Parrish to lift his young record to 3-0. “Sully” has never seen the second round since turning pro, with all three victories coming by first-round knockout.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into Bellator 273, Mamedov had never lost on the scorecards (22 fights), Willis had never dropped consecutive bouts (18 fights) and Caldwell (20 fights) and Blaine Shutt (13 fights) had never been knocked out.

Revenge of Mom’s Spaghetti: Tempting fate by walking out to “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, Mamedov ended up coming up short to Henderson. Over in the UFC, the track accompanies an abysmal win percentage of .333.