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On September 19 Bellator is treating the MMA community to one hell of a main event, when Doug ‘The Rhino’ Marshall takes on long time MMA and kickboxing vet Melvin Manhoef. For those that are unaware, both fighters have a fan friendly style of staying in the pocket and hurling vicious hooks, uppercuts and knees with the worst of intentions. While MMA can be a very random sport with surprising outcomes, it’s almost impossible to imagine a fight between these two that doesn’t result in fireworks.
Melvin Manhoef has been a favorite fighter of mine to watch for a long time and if you’ve seen him fight it’s not hard to figure out why. In an evolving landscape many MMA fighters focus on getting the win more so then putting on exciting fights. That is clearly not the case with Melvin. Always one to take a risk in search of the KO, Melvin fights his opponents like they just stole something from him.
Sadly many American fans might not be as familiar with
Melvin and his normal berserker style because his most high profile fights in
the states were loses to Robbie Lawler and Tim Kennedy, respectfully. Don’t let
those losses fool you though, Melvin has KO’ed some of the very best in the
business as well, adding the scalps of Mark Hunt, Kazushi Sakuraba, Evangelista
Santos (twice) and former Pride Grand Prix Champion Kazuo Misaki. A match up
with Doug Marshall is a great way to attempt to reintroduce the America
audience to one of the more exciting fighters Holland has to offer. However,
this is far from a showcase fight. Doug Marshal has proven he’s also a
dangerous, exciting and capable fighter in his own right.
Doug Marshall has also been around for a long time, cutting
his teeth in the early days of the WEC. In those days Doug was punching out the
competition as a heavyweight and earned a nice win against fellow Bellator
Heavyweight Lavar Johnson before losing to a surging James Irvin for the WEC
Heavyweight Title. After that, fight Doug moved to light heavyweight and
captured the WEC title and successfully defended it until he ran into Brain
Stann. When Doug got the call to compete in Bellator he went on an impressive 4
fight winning streak earning him a shot at current Bellator Middleweight Champ
and master of post fight interviews Alexander Shlemenko. Unfortunately, the
fight didn’t go Doug’s way and now he’s getting the opportunity to regain some
of his past momentum.
On paper the matchup is fantastic. Both fighters’ styles
mash well together to create what could be not only fight of the night but
potentially fight of the year. Also, both fighters could really use this win.
Doug needs to show the Bellator fans that the loss to Shlemenko shouldn’t
discount him as a contender and a good showing against Melvin can do just that.
Whereas Melvin is making his Bellator debut and getting a big KO win over the
last challenger for the Middleweight
belt will go a long way to proving that he’s ready for his own title shot.
Personally after analyzing the fight I’m leaning towards Melvin being able to
get the KO win here. Doug had been on a hot streak and, besides the loss to
Shlemenko, has been looking better than ever while throwing down in the
Bellator cage. Marshall has, however, lost a number of times due to KO. In a
firefight I give a slight edge to Melvin, but with two guys like this and the
power they contain in their fists, it really is anyone’s fight to win.
The It’s MMAzing crew will be at this event live from the
Save Mart Center in Fresno, CA. Also on tap you have returning Bellator vet
Brian Rogers taking on newcomer Rafael Carvalho, prospect Goiti Yamauchi against
Martin Stapleton and lastly a heavyweight tilt when Javy Ayala meets Raphael
Butler. Make sure to tune in on Spike to watch the main card and Spike.com to
catch all the prelim action beforehand. Remember to follow our Twitter account
as we live tweet from the event and make sure to catch our 100th
episode of It’s MMAzing radio as we break down the card.
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