Former UFC fighters Ryan Bader and Benson Henderson were big winners at Bellator 273 Saturday night.
Bader unified the heavyweight title in the main event live on Showtime. Henderson, meanwhile, scored a co-main event victory.
“Darth” earned a decision over Valentin Moldavsky, using his well-rounded skills to secure the win. The 38-year-old improved to 29-7 in his career.
“Obviously, it was a really close fight and at the end there I’m like man that’s a toss up,” Bader said. “I felt like I did more damage but it felt so good considering the last fight was a fight I lost. But it was a back and forth, even fight the whole five rounds. It’s just anticlimactic to go out there and have an exciting heavyweight championship five-rounder with a tough dude in Arizona. I wanted that bad.”
Henderson, meanwhile, earned a split decision over Islam Mamedov. The former UFC champion teased a potential retirement only days after saying he wanted to make another run at the title.
“Fighting in front of my adopted hometown Phoenix, Arizona, it’s amazing,” Henderson said. “Last time I didn’t give Arizona a very good show. This time, I thought I had a better performance so win or lose I knew that I could live with that. Just having a good performance, not a great performance but having a good performance, as opposed to having a bad performance, win or lose you always feel good after great performances.
“We’re seeking perfection. If you write a book, all these journalists, all these moviemakers, they want to make them part of a movie then make an amazing movie. If you want to, then you have to do your absolute best out there and that’s why I’m always after a better performance.”
Henry Corrales downed Aiden Lee and Sabah Homasi bested Jaleel Willis.
On the prelims, Enrique Barzola stopped former Bellator champion Darrion Caldwell and Chris Gonzalez did the same to Saad Awad.
Bellator 273 Results
Ryan Bader def. Valentin Moldavsky via unanimous decision to unify the heavyweight titles
Benson Henderson def. Islam Mamedov via split decision
Henry Corrales def. Aiden Lee via technical decision
Sabah Homasi def. Jaleel Willis via submission (arm-triangle choke) at 1:42 of Round 1
Enrique Barzola def. Darrion Caldwell via TKO (strikes) at 3:01 of Round 3
Chris Gonzalez def. Saad Awad via TKO (strikes) at :36 of Round 1
Dalton Rosta def. Duane Johnson via unanimous decision
Nikita Mikhailov def. Blaine Shutt via TKO (strikes) at 3:23 of Round 3
Lucas Brennan def. Ben Lugo via submission (arm-triangle choke) at 2:27 of Round 1
Sullivan Cauley def. Ben Parrish via TKO (strikes) at 4:35 of Round 1
