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It wasn’t the prettiest night, but Logan Storley delivered an emphatic victory for his home state crowd.
On Saturday night, Storley faced off with Brennan Ward in the main event of Bellator 298 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Coming off a loss to the current welterweight champion, Yaroslav Amosov, Storley needed a big win and he delivered, stopping Ward with strikes in the second round.
Ward came out of the gates strong, putting pressure on Storley and tagging the former interim champion with his jab, but Storley’s takedowns and ground-and-pound proved to much for Ward. After a competitive first round, Storley landed a big power-double on Ward in the second, potentially injuring his opponent’s arm in the process. Storley certainly dominated the action from that moment on, unleashing powerful strikes from the top that Ward struggled to defend, instead screaming at his opponent “Stand up, motherf*****! I’ve got one arm!” Storley did not oblige, instead moving to mount and then backmount, punishing Ward with heavy shots until referee Jason Herzog intervened.
The win moves Storley to 10-2 inside of Bellator with his only professional losses coming against Amosov. After the fight, the South Dakota native said he wanted to see how the rest of the division shakes out first, but that he still probably needs at least one more win before he’s back in the title picture.
Elsewhere on the card, things were not nearly as exciting. In the co-main event, Valentin Moldavsky got back in the win column with a dominant but passive unanimous decision over Steve Mowry. Mowry simply had no answer for the wrestling and top-position control of the former Bellator interim heavyweight champion, and Moldavsky took full advantage, laying on Mowry for most of the fight, a tactic which elicited boos from the crowd and didn’t exactly make a strong case for Moldavsky to get right back in the heavyweight title picture.
In the middleweight main card fight, Aaron Jeffery rebounded from his first Bellator loss with a hard-fought unanimous decision win over Dalton Rosa. Rosa had early success with his grappling and clinch-wrestling but it was Jeffery’s low kicks and cardio that won they day as he kept putting the pressure on Rosa and nearly scored a finish in the closing seconds of the fight.
In a featured featherweight bout on the main card, James Gallagher had a successful return to the cage, eking out a split decision win over James Gonzalez in his first fight in 21 months. Gonzalez proved to be a tough matchup for the 26-year-old Irishman, but Gallagher was able to repeatedly get takedowns and control the fight from top position for the first two rounds and then survive a strong showing from Gonzalez in the third. Ultimately, that was enough to sway two judges, though the fans in attendance were less pleased, booing “The Strabanimal” all during his post-fight speech.
In the main card opener, Sidney Outlaw got back on the winning track, taking a unanimous decision win over Islam Mamedov. Outlaw dropped Islam Mamedov early in the fight and then used his superior grappling to control the Russian fighter for much of the rest of the bout, take a clear if unexciting decision win and delivering Mamedov his second loss inside the Bellator cage.
Check out the full results of Bellator 298 below.
Main Card
Logan Storley def. Brennan Ward via TKO (punches) — 4:05, Round 2.
Valentin Moldavsky def. Steve Mowry via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Aaron Jeffery def. Dalton Rosta via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
James Gallagher def. James Gonzalez via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).
Sidney Outlaw def. Islam Mamedov via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Preliminaries
Justine Kish def. Diana Avsaragova via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27).
Enrique Barzola def. Jaylon Bates via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Lucas Brennan def. Weber Almeida via KO (knee) — 3:32, Round 3.
Kasum Kasumov def. Josh Hill via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27).
Vladimir Tokov def. Jairo Pacheco via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).
Leandro Higo def. Nikita Mikhailov via Submission (guillotine choke) — 2:50, Round 2.
Alfie Davis def. Aalon Cruz via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Katerina Shakalova def. Dayana Silva via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27).
Sullivan Cauley def. Hamza Salim via Technical Submission (arm-triangle choke) — 4:24, Round 1.
Marcirley Alves def. Jerrell Hodge via TKO (punches) — 3:53, Round 1.
Jordan Oliver def. Andrew Triolo via Submission (arm-triangle choke) — 1:05, Round 1.
Postlims
Michael Blockhus def. Eli Mefford via TKO (punches) — 2:43, Round 1.
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