Following in the footsteps of legendary promotion Venator FC, Bellator will be taking its show to Italy this weekend. Bellator 152 will be airing live on Spike from Torino with a five-fight main card. The main event should be a good one despite a late change, as Patricky ‘Pitbull’ Freire takes on Kevin Souza in a lightweight bout. Originally, the elder ‘Pitbull’ was set to face Derek Campos until an injury forced Campos from the bout just days ago. Scrambling to find a replacement, the organization signed Souza, who recently opted not to re-sign with the UFC following the completion of his contract. Normally a massive featherweight, Souza won’t find himself outsized in this bout despite moving up a weight class. The late replacement actually holds a 4″ height and 3″ reach advantage over ‘Pitbull’. Preparation is another question, as Souza takes the bout on less than a week’s notice. However that should only come into play should Freire choose to pursue a wrestling gameplan, which he likely wasn’t preparing to do against Campos. Being in Italy, the card naturally has the greatest Italian in MMA history, Alessio Sakara, on it as well. Somehow, Sakara is only 34 years old, even though it seems like he’s been around forever and taken a ton of punishment in his MMA career. Sakara will fight in his home country for the first time in over a decade, and he brings a bit of momentum with him. Back in September, Sakara picked up his first win since 2010. If he can survive the first round against Brian Rogers — which is no small feat considering Rogers has 9 first round finishes, and Sakara has been TKO’d 4 times in the first — he could give the hometown fans something to cheer about. The other three fights on the card look more like Bellator prelims than fights that should be airing on Spike, but Antonio McKee Jr. is a promising prospect who has already shown more of a propensity for violence in three pro fights than his father did in 37. There’s also a female Russian fighter making her Bellator debut on this card who hasn’t done anything of note except for be attractive, which ranks about a 6 on the Coker scale (Kimbo/Dada and Royce/Ken 74 rank as 10’s, for reference). MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened the betting lines for Bellator 152 today at Several Bookmakers. Check them out: ——————– Bellator 152: Pitbull vs. Souza April 16, 2016 | Pala Alpitour | Turin, Italy MAIN CARD (Spike TV, 3pm ET) Kevin Souza -115 Patricky Freire -125 Over 1.5 -165 Under 1.5 +125 – Alessio Sakara +170 Brian Rogers -230 Over 1.5 +135 Under 1.5 -175 – Danilo Belluardo +600 A.J. McKee -1200 Over 1.5 +140 Under 1.5 -180 – ——————– Brad’s Analysis: If Kevin Souza had more than a week’s notice for this fight, I’d definitely like him to keep ‘Pitbull’ on the end of his punches and probably win a decision. As it stands, I’m torn. I think ‘Pitbull’ will have enough with his wrestling that an unprepared Souza will be worn down and drop the latter half of the fight. They key for ‘Pitbull’ will be not absorbing too much damage early, which he’s gotten much better at in recent fights. I’ll side with the guy who has known he was going to fight for more than five days, and if I can get a dog price on him because people like the matchup, I may have to bite. Brian Rogers has been more measured of late, but I think he’d be best served resorting to his old style of going all out early against Alessio Sakara. Rogers is much faster, hits harder, and Sakara has never had a particularly stout chin. As much as it would be nice to see Sakara win in Italy, I think they booked this fight a little too much on the fun side as opposed to the “get the hometown guy a win” side. For the other fights: McKee smashes again. Yankovic is fighting an opponent with no pro fights, so she probably wins easily, but will be incredibly overpriced.
