It didn’t take long for Andrey Koreshkov to rebound from losing his Bellator welterweight title.
On Friday evening, Koreshkov faced off against surging contender Chidi Njokuani in the main event of Bellator 182 in Verona, N.Y. Njokuani was riding a seven=fight win streak including four in a row inside the Bellator cage but Koreshkov brought that to an abrupt end, pummeling “Chidi Bang Bang” in the very first round. After an entertaining back-and-forth on the feet, Koreshkov got Njokuani down and brutalized him with savage ground and pound until the referee had no choice but to jump in and save Njokuani who was covering up for dear life. With the win, Koreshkov puts himself back in the mix for a title shot in Bellator’s suddenly deep welterweight division.
In the co-main event, Brennan Ward looked to be getting back on track after suffering a brutal knockout of the year candidate in his last fight against Paul Daley, but the resilient Fernando Gonzalez hung tough and showed veteran savvy, pulling out a sensational comeback win. Ward controlled the first two rounds with wrestling and effective striking. Going into the third round, Bellator commentator Jimmy Smith noted that Gonzalez needed a big performance in the third round to have a chance. “The Menifee Maniac” delivered, securing a guillotine choke when Ward shot in, eliciting the tapout at 1:02 of the third round.
Also on the Spike TV portion of the card, undefeated prospect A.J. McKee Jr. kept his perfect record, winning a tepid decision over Blair Tugman and Bruna Ellen edged out a narrow split decision win over Veta Arteaga.
On the undercard, two-time NCAA D-I All-American Chris Honeycutt mounted an impressive comeback against Kevin Casey. Casey had a deep choke locked in at the end of the first round and after the round ended, making Honeycutt wobbly on his way back to the stool. But in the second round, Honeycutt ragdolled Casey, taking him down and pounding Casey out from mount.
Also, Colleen Schneider suffered a knee injury during her bout with Kate Jackson, tumbling to the canvas after being unable to walk back to her corner after the first round.