The Accor Arena in Paris hosted a powerful heavyweight clash last night between the two best fighters in the category at Bellator 296. Fabian Edwards, number two in the division, defeated Gegard Mousasi by unanimous decision, the first in the ranking, in a fight that was very strategic on the part of both. After the victory, the British starred in a tense face to face with Jhonny Eblen, middleweight champion, announcing their next showdown in Dublin on September 3rd.
Both fighters began testing each other in the first minutes of the match. Mousasi hit a low blow which forced them to stop the fight for two minutes. Edwards recovered and began throwing kicks, to which the Iranian-born fighter responded. The second assault was also very strategic, but they hadn’t quite gotten into the fight. Mousasi nailed again another illegal blow and had to stop again. It did not take long for the British to recover. In the next round, it would be Edwards the one who would connect a blow to the Iranian’s eyes. Again the match had to be stopped. They exchanged hands without arriving clearly. Mousasi began to impose himself, but the British attacked the counterattack.
Mousasi tried to subdue Edwards in the fourth round, but was unsuccessful, ending up on the ground until the bell rang. They closed the fight in the same way, without very defined attacks and neither of them came with greater danger. There was no clear dominance, but the Briton attempted the submission in the last round.
The Iranian-born fighter adds his second consecutive defeat, and had just lost his Middleweight World Championship to Johnny Eblen in June of last year at Bellator 282. Edwards, on the other hand, gets his third victory by beating the number one in the division. A blow on the table from the British, despite the fact that he did not shine especially on the octagon. When the crash was over, Edwards and Johnny Eblenthe middleweight champion who took the belt from Mousasi, they staged a tense face-to-face and announced their next match on September 23 in Dublin.
