A great night of fights tonight at Bellator 90 in Salt Lake City Utah, most of the fights on this card were finished early, with 5 TKO/KO's, 2 submissions and only 2 decision's registered this evening. The night was capped off with a very quick and exciting main card that featured a co-main event between Mo Lawal and Emanuel Newton and a main event between Rad Martinez and Shahbulat Shamhalaev.

Ben Saunders vs. Raul Amaya
Saunders Showed good patience tonight, not rushing in on the very dangerous and powerful Amaya where he absolutely destroyed his opponent with a beautiful headkick KO early in the 1st round, Dropping amaya like a robot who just lost power. Saunders Moves onto the welterweight final with an highlight reel KO victory.

Mikhail Zayats vs. Jacob Noe
this fight was a straight forward victory by the skilled Russian, Zayats completely dominated Noe from the start, taking Noe down and oppressing Noe with his stifling top game. Zayats was finally able to get Noe to give up his arm, submitting him with a slick armbar midway through the 1st round. 

Douglas Lima vs. Bryan Baker
Douglas Lima, who is also Saunders ATT teammate also notched an impressive victory over Brian Baker, Baker seemed tentative from the onset, maybe giving Lima a little too much respect. Lima laid some heavy leg kicks on baker keeping him at a distance, when Lima finally trapped Baker against the fence, he KO's Baker with literally the first and only punch thrown by either fighter in the fight. Lima now moves on to fight Ben Saunders again in the welterweight final.

Emanuel Newton vs. Muhammed Lawal
Wow what can I say, as a fan I've been waiting for this for a while, King Mo Lawal, as good as he is, his striking game is seriously flawed, in my opinion I have always found that Lawal mugged too much and dropped his hands way too often, never giving his opponents any respect, and he got away with it for a while, but tonight he paid the price in his light heavyweight semi-final bout against Emanuel Newton. Lawal was doing his usual Roy Jones Jr / Floyd Mayweather Jr. impersonation, exchanging heavy blows between the two, with Lawal landing the heavier shots at first, however, Newton was finding his range, and Lawal was throwing his usual haymakers and dropping his hands after each one, Newton picked up on this pattern and after exchanging with Lawal and just grazing each other, Newton had the smarts to throw a spinning back fist with his left hand that landed flush on Lawal's chin, it was literally like someone flipped his off switch, he dropped like a log right into awkwardly Newton's arms. Lawal can certainly talk a good game, but hopefully he realizes now that, using that overconfident Mayweather/Jones jr. shoulder rolling boxing style just doesn't work in MMA unless you're Anderson Silva. In boxing, there are no spinning backfists or headkicks to worry about.  Newton said prior to the fight "I'm going to shock the world" and he did tonight.

Rad Martinez vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev
Shahbulat Shamhalaev is one nasty little guy with some serious power. In the first round Martinez seemed weary of Shamhalaev's power, spending his time looking for the takedown which he got about halfway through the 1st round landing a few elbows. In the second the Russian showed a patient striking game, using his excellent speed to land some heavy shots and leg kicks on Martinez that eventually staggered Martinez early in the second round, Shamhalaev then jumped on Martinez, landing more heavy blows and completely starching Martinez, legs and arms stiff, KO'ing the hometown favorite Martinez , winning the featherweight final, a shot at the title and a $100,000 USD payday.

MAIN CARD:

• Shahbulat Shamhalaev def. Rad Martinez via KO (Punches) R2, 2:12
  - Season 7 featherweight tournament final
• Emanuel Newton def. Muhammed Lawal via KO (spinning back fist) - R1, 2:35
  - light heavyweight tournament semifinal
• Douglas Lima def. Bryan Baker via KO (punch) - R1, 2:34
  - welterweight tournament semifinal
• Mikhail Zayats def. Jacob Noe via submission (armbar) - R1, 3:38
  - light heavyweight tournament semifinal

PRELIMINARY

• Ben Saunders def. Raul Amaya via KO (head kick) - R1, 2:56
  - welterweight tournament semifinal
• Travis Marx def. Chase Beebe via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Jesse Juarez def. Jordan Smith via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
• Sean Powers def. Dave Allred via submission (rear-naked choke) - R3, 2:10
• Lionel Lanham def. Joe Rodriguez via TKO (strikes) - R1, 0:49
• Shanon Slack vs. Josh Tyler - (not aired) *to be updated

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