Eddie Alvarez held on to his Bellator lightweight belt beating Pat Curran by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 49-46) over five brutal rounds at Bellator 39.
Bellator 39 Results: Eddie Alvarez Dominates Pat Curran
Curran landed first with a right hand but Alvarez answered with a hard leg kick and a lead right hand. Alvarez circled Curran then landed a straight right. Body punch from Eddie. Curran landed two lefts. A third. Made Alvarez miss. Curran with a leg kick. Alvarez grabbed a leg and tripped Curran to the mat but the challenger hopped right back up. Alvarez went all out for a take down and ate a knee to the body. Leg kick from Curran. Alvarez backed Curran up, winging body punches and uppercuts. Left from Curran. Alvarez caught a Curran kick and followed up with a series of punches to the face with his free hand, backing Curran to the fence. They separated and Alvarez worked the body. Curran landed a couple of lefts to close the first round.
Alvarez came out showing lateral movement in the second. Alvarez shot in and Curran sprawled and landed a knee. Curran with a push kick. Alvarez charged in behind some combos. Alvarez looking for the uppercut but Curran avoided it. Alvarez pushed Curran into the cage and landed to the body and knees to the legs. Curran landed a right and broke the clinch. Alvarez answered with a straight right. Another. Hook-uppercut from the champ. Alvarez forced another clinch. Knee from Curran. They separated. Leg kick from Curran. Alvarez scored with body shots then ate a left. Alvarez with a right. Forced the clinch again. Knee from Curran. Alvarez with a take down but Curran fought back up.
Alvarez opened the third round landing bombs but Curran stood in the center of the cage answering with leg kicks. Alvarez fired body shots, eats a knee. Alvarez with a right. Alvarez switched stances and landed with both hands. Curran answered with a combination. Alvarez forced a clinch, Curran fought free. 1-2 to the body from Alvarez. Inside leg kick from the champ. Alvarez mixing body punches and head shots. Alvarez slammed Curran with a double leg. Curran scrambled to his feet.
Going into the fourth it seemed clear that Alvarez had won all three rounds, requiring Curran to get a KO or submission to win.
Alvarez opened the championship rounds with body punches and another clinch. Curran traded punches in the exchanges but Alvarez seemed to be getting the better of them. Curran with a hard knee. Alvarez turned up the heat with body punches and head shots from a lot of odd angles. Curran, bloodied, was forced to cover and back up but he never stopped answering with his counter shots. Alvarez landed a take down in the final seconds.
The final round opened with Alvarez stalking Curran with lateral movement then shooting in for a take down. Curran fought back to his feet, giving up his back briefly but ultimately getting free. Alvarez landed five shots to Curran’s one. Curran landed some body kicks and left hands but Alvarez was landing at will with everything but the kitchen sink: lead rights, body shots, uppercuts, knees and leg kicks. Hard uppercut-left hook combo seemed to stagger the bloodied Curran. Curran got a take down with thirty seconds leftAlvarez stood up as the fight ended.
Champion Alvarez brought a six fight win streak into the bout, having gone undefeated since joining the promotion in 2009. Alvarez’ last defeat was a submission loss to Shinya Aoki on New Year’s Eve 2008.
Curran pulled off three straight upsets in the Bellator 2010 tournament, beating Mike Ricci, Roger Huerta and Toby Imada to earn this shot. He had to pull out of an October challenge to Alvarez and Huerta took his place. But Alvarez beat Huerta badly to set up this bout.
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