Bellator 45 Preview: Hale vs. M'Pumbu

On Saturday night, Bellator Fighting Championship will visit Lake Charles, Louisiana to put on Bellator 45. Here's the fight lineup for the show:

Main Card

• Light Heavyweight Tournament Championship bout:  Richard Hale vs.  Christian M'Pumbu
• Featherweight Tournament Final bout:  Patricio Freire vs.  Daniel Straus
• Middleweight bout:  Karl Amoussou vs.  Sam Alvey

Local Feature Fights

• Heavyweight bout:  Shawn Jordan vs.  Johnathan Hill
• Welterweight bout:  Luis Santos vs.  Nicolae Cury
• Lightweight bout:  Renê Nazare vs.  Kelvin Hackney
• Middleweight bout:  Tim Ruberg vs.  Michael Fleniken
• Catchweight (140 lbs) bout:  Joseph Abercrombie vs.  Ben Parpart

 

In the headline bout, Richard Hale will match up against Christian M'Pumbu for the Light Heavyweight Tournament Final, as well as the LHW belt. Hale is coming off of a close decision victory over D.J. Linderman, but is probably best known for his inverted triangle submission win over Nik Fekete at Bellator 38. M'Pumbu is coming off an impressive knockout win over Tim Carpenter at Bellator 42, coming on the heels of a TKO victory over Chris Davis at Bellator 38. M'Pumbu, who is still somewhat of an unknown in the MMA community, holds a notable win over UFC Heavyweight fighter Stefan Struve. The fight between Hale and M'Pumbu should be a classic matchup of a grappler, who will try and get the fight to the canvas, and a stand up striker looking to add another knockout to his record.

Bellator 45 also features the other "Pitbull" brother, Patricio, trying to avenge the Freire family name in his fight against Daniel Straus. Patricio's brother Patricky lost a somewhat controversial bout to Michael Chandler last weekend in Atlantic City, NJ (read about it HERE). Patricio last fought against Wilson Reis, a fight that was slow-paced and methodical until the third round when Freire hit Reis with a brutal knee, and then finished him with punches quickly thereafter. Daniel Straus is currently on a 12-fight win streak, and won his lost fight by guillotine submission against Kenny Foster at Bellator 41. The match will be the Featherweight (145 lbs) Tournament Final match, and would ensure the winner a fight versus FW Champ Joe Warren for the belt (for Freier, this would be a rematch).

Tune in to MTV2 at 9PM ET to watch Bellator 45. Also, be sure to check out Cageside Seats the following day for a recap of the event.