Bellator 221: What's next for the key winners and losers

Steven Muehlhausen

Bellator 221: What's next for the key winners and losers image

Bellator 221 went down on Saturday night at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., right outside Chicago, with the main event delivering, as Patricio "Pitbull" Freire knocked out Michael Chandler in 61 seconds to capture the lightweight championship and add it to his featherweight belt. The co-main event saw Douglas Lima punch his ticket to the finals of the Welterweight Grand Prix, scoring one of the best KOs of 2019 over Michael "Venom" Page.

Also, A.J. McKee defeated Pat Curran by unanimous decision and former WWE star Jake Hager submitted T.J. Jones.

Now that Bellator 221 is in the books, here's what should be next for the key winners and losers from the show.

Join DAZN and watch more than 100 fight nights a year

Winners

Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire: The second 'champ-champ' in Bellator history has a couple of different options he can choose from. To some, the ending of the fight happened prematurely. While an argument can be made that the referee should have given Chandler a chance to gather his bearings due to him being a notoriously slow starter and putting himself in these positions, he appeared to be out after one of the short uppercuts. Still, a lot of money can be made in a Chandler rematch for late summer.

The Brazilian can also drop back down to featherweight. If he makes that move, it has to be against McKee, as the animosity between the two reached a fever pitch during Thursday's press conference and their post-fight press conferences. 

Freire-McKee can always be one of the last first-round bouts in the Grand Prix like what happened in the welterweight bracket with champion Rory MacDonald. 

But a Chandler rematch is the way to go.

Douglas Lima: The former two-time 170-pound titleholder's made it look easy in his first two Grand Prix contests, submitting former champion Andrey Koreshkov and then sparking Page with an uppercut for the ages. 

At this stage, Lima has to be considered the favorite to win the tournament, earn the $1 million prize from 50 Cent and walk out the welterweight champion. 

But, for now, the 31-year-old can get some rest, kick his feet up and await the winner of the other semifinal bout which takes place at June's Bellator 222 when MacDonald faces Neiman Gracie.

A.J. McKee: While the crowd didn't particularly care for McKee's strategy against Curran and booed the fight from the halfway point through the final bell, McKee put on the best performance of his young career. 

The 24-year-old showed great patience and didn't play into Curran's game. Curran wanted McKee to rush in, so he could counter-attack. McKee had none of it. He was content on using his reach advantage and picking his spots on when to get in and get out.  

The game plan worked to perfection to give McKee the easy decision win, improving his record to 14-0 — all of them inside the Bellator cage. 

A title shot against Freire is the only option for the phenom, whether it's in the featherweight tourney or away from it. The only thing missing from McKee's ledger is a victory over a marquee opponent. Thoroughly dominating a former two-time featherweight champion would put every question to bed.

Jake Hager: A solid sophomore outing for the former WWE heavyweight champion. He did exactly what he said he would do: Put Jones on his back and dominate. Hager won via first-round submission. Yes, he did leave the choke in too long and that is something Hager cannot do going forward, as referees will be watching out for it.

Bellator is in an interesting position with Hager. You do want him to continue to grow as a competitor. On the other hand, he's 37-years-old. He's more towards the end than the beginning of his fighting career. 

The promotion shouldn't put him in there with one of their top heavyweights this soon, but Hager should no longer be facing guys with little cage experience. He needs to be put in there with someone who has six or seven fights under his belt. Who is that person? I have no idea, but he's out there. You're only going to know how good he is by putting him on a little bit of a faster track from here on out.

Losers

Michael Chandler: The former three-time lightweight champion handled the loss with style and grace. Of course, he feels like the referee stopped it too early. And as we stated above, perhaps he did. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor and fighter safety needs to be at the forefront. 

But enough controversy is there for Chandler to get another crack at Freire. The question is what Freire will do? He either goes back to 145 pounds or takes on Chandler one more time. If Freire chooses the former and drops the title because the belt can't be sitting in limbo and not be defended, then a new champion should be crowned, and it should involve one of the greatest fighters in Bellator history.

Michael Page: Not the way 32-year-old wanted to suffer his first loss, but he can take a lot from it. Page looked good in the first round and clipped Lima at the beginning of the second before getting bent over backward and KO'd.

Page told the media at his post-fight presser that he would be returning in September. An affair with Koreshkov fits the timeline of both guys, considering the Russian fought at the end of March and is looking for a high-caliber foe. Page certainly fits the bill. 

Pat Curran: A tough loss for the former featherweight titleholder. But for not competing for over 18 months, Curran had his moments. The Illinois native took McKee down in the second and landed some good shots. But McKee's style proved to be too much for Curran to overcome.

With the Featherweight Grand Prix not beginning until the fall, "Paddy Mike" should take another fight in the interim. A bout with Derek Campos fits Curran's needs. Both guys are coming off losses and it would promise to be an action fight.

T.J. Jones: Even though he lost inside one round, Jones endeared himself to fans, but also Bellator president Scott Coker with his carefree attitude, being a good talker and having natural charisma. 

Coker hinted on Twitter that he would be keeping Jones around and it wouldn't be a one-and-done. Bellator should keep the father of six and beef plant worker as the organization is thin at heavyweight and having guys with Jones' traits are hard to find. 

 

 

Like Hager, Bellator should find someone on the regional circuit for Jones to face if they decide to keep him around since he's only had two fights.

 

Steven Muehlhausen

Steven Muehlhausen Photo

Steven Muehlhausen is a contributing writer for DAZN News. He writes features and news stories, and provides analysis relating to the world of boxing. Over the past five years, he has interviewed some of the biggest names in combat sports, including Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Terence Crawford, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Bill Goldberg.