December 31, 2022 8: 50 am ET
A.J. McKee made it a tidy sweep for Team Bellator at Rizin FF 40: Rizin vs. Bellator
The previous Bellator featherweight champ beat Rizin FF light-weight champ Roberto de Souza by consentaneous choice in the primary occasion of Saturday’s card, which pitted the leading names from the leading companies versus one another. With the win, Bellator beat Rizin FF 5-0 in their cross-promotion face-off.
Team BELLATOR MMA 🏆
5️⃣ battles and 5️⃣ wins. What a night for BELLATOR Plocal @ScottCoker and the whole BELLATOR group.
🇺CHELOR’SDEGREE🇸 Full Replay at 8pm ET/PT on @SHOSports#RIZINvsBellator#BellatorvsRIZIN#RIZIN40 pic.twitter.com/Hi1qXtVK1b
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) December 31, 2022
The occasion took location at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, near Tokyo, Japan. The primary card airs on Showtime bymeansof tape-delay at 8 p.m. ET.
McKee (20-1) and de Souza (14-2) perhaps put on the finest battle of the primary card. The 2 went back and forth on both the ground and feet. It was a high-paced bout.
In Round 1, McKee looked to develop supremacy on the feet, however de Souza pulled guard and required him into grappling. Against his corner’s guidance, McKee didn’t appearance to get back on his feet and invited the ground work. The rest of the round, it was McKee landing ground-and-pound from top and keeping defensively sound, while de Souza looked to set up submissions from bottom.
A wild ending to round 1!
This is why JMMA guidelines, guideline!
[ #RIZIN40 | #RIZINvsBellator ] pic.twitter.com/ilQwCWxI7h
— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English) December 31, 2022
Things truly chose up in Round 2. De Souza stood with McKee and the 2 traded shots, at times getting wild in their exchanges. It was relatively even on the feet, and then de Souza handled to get the battle to the ground and get the back around the midway point. De Souza had excellent control, however didn’t appearance to get close in any of his submission efforts. With about a minute