Bellator Lightweights Freire, Imada, Woodard, Chandler Advance

Filed under: Bellator

Patricky Freire, Toby Imada, Lloyd Woodard and Michael Chandler won on Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the Bellator Fighting Championships lightweight tournament, as MMA fans watching on MTV2 were treated to a sensational night of fights, with nothing but exciting contests and no fights going the distance.

In the main event, Freire beat former World Extreme Cagefighting lightweight champion Rob McCullough by third-round technical knockout. It was a great fight: The first round was an action-packed thriller, with Freire badly hurting McCullough with punches and then nearly finishing him with a rear-naked choke. But McCullough did a great job of surviving on the ground and getting back to his feet and actually getting the upper hand in the final seconds of the first round. The second was exciting, too, and Freire again had McCullough in trouble on the ground but ended up having McCullough take the upper hand at the end of the round. But in the third round Freire eliminated all doubt, landing a huge right hook that knocked McCullough to the ground, then a couple more punches to finish it.

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