Fight Facts: Bellator 239, Bellator 240

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all the interesting information and cage curiosities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR FIGHTS: 2,683
TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR EVENTS: 243

Bellator MMA spread a doubleheader across the pond with a whopping 35 fights. Bellator 239 and Bellator 240 featured a record number of fights going the distance, an undefeated contender making moves up the ladder and a former champion carving a path back to title contention.

Bellator 239

ELEVEN: Eleven fights at Bellator 239 were decided by judges’ verdict, breaking the all-time record for the most decisions at a single Bellator event. The previous record was 10 at Bellator 209 and Bellator 223.

IS IT LUCK?: Bellator 239 also set the record for the most split decisions in one night in the promotion’s history with five. Bellator 206 held the previous record of four.

WELCOME TO THIS WORLD: Three highly touted former kickboxers competed at this event: Gaston Bolanos, Denise Kielholtz and Gabriel Varga. Only Kielholtz emerged with a win, while the other two dropped split decisions.

GOLDEN BOY: Yaroslav Amosov remained undefeated at 23-0 with a decision win over Ed Ruth. The only fighter in major MMA competition that owns a better unbeaten record is current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov (28-0).

UKRAINIANBOUND PACHYDERM: The win on the scorecards was only the fifth for Amosov, lowering his finish rate to 78 percent. Three of his last four performances have gone the distance.

TRAGEDY’S A’ COMIN’: In dropping a decision to Myles Jury, Brandon Girtz suffered his seventh loss under the Bellator banner. The only fighters who have dropped more bouts are Georgi Karakhanyan (eight), Derek Campos (eight) and Saad Awad (10).

TIMMY THE CAT: Timothy Johnson starched Tyrell Fortune at 2:35 of the opening frame, handing the decorated collegiate wrestler his first loss. All nine of Fortune’s career bouts have taken place in the Bellator cage.

HATS OFF: A massive underdog at +550, Johnson defeated the -800 favorite in Fortune to earn one of the largest betting upsets of the year in a major organization. It trails only Roxanne Modafferi’s +650 victory over -1000 Maycee Barber at UFC 246.

JAVY WAS A RACECAR DRIVER: Javy Ayala stepped into the Bellator cage for the 11th time, maintaining his position with the second-most heavyweight bouts in company history. Cheick Kongo holds the most (15).

EYE CANDY MAN: The defeat for Ayala was his fifth inside the Bellator cage, tying “Eye Candy” for the heavyweight record held by Josh Burns and Eric Prindle.

MR. KNOWITALL: Kyle Crutchmer hit Scott Futrell with an anaconda choke in the opening frame of their contest, thereby advancing his unbeaten record to 6-0. His submission was the 10th successful anaconda choke in organizational history.

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Bellator 240

NATURE GIRL: The main event between Leah McCourt and Judith Ruiz marked the first time a non-title or non-tournament women’s bout has ever headlined a Bellator card. McCourt prevailed by decision.

FRIZZLE FRIED: After he finished Kyle Kurtz with third-round punches, all five of Charlie Ward’s wins in the Bellator cage have come by knockout. With his victory, he ties Hector Lombard for the second-most knockouts in Bellator middleweight history. Only Alexander Shlemenko (six) sports more.

PRELUDE TO A CRAWL: Before going three full rounds with Austin Clem, Aaron Chalmers had never before gone the distance in his short six-fight career. He had only reached the third round once, when he was submitted by a heel hook from Corey Browning in 2019.

THE NECK IS GETTING SLIPPERY: Brent Primus hit a neck crank on Chris Bungard to get the tap in under two minutes. It was the 10th submission of its kind in company history and the first in just over a year.

BRENT THE FISHERMAN: The submission win for Primus marked his eighth stoppage across his 10 wins. All of those finishes have come before the four-minute mark of the opening frame.

THE RETURN OF BECINGTON RAWLINGSBY: Bec Rawlings snapped a lengthy losing streak by taking a decision over Elina Kallionidou. The last time “Rowdy” had prevailed in an MMA fight was in March 2016, when 19 of the other 37 competitors on the Bellator 240 card had yet to make their professional debuts.

SHAKE HANDS WITH RICKY: Ricky Bandejas flattened Frans Mlambo with one punch in the second round, earning the third clean knockout of his Bellator career. He is the first 135-pound fighter to score three KOs in company history, with Eduardo Dantas the only other bantamweight celebrating more than one.

FISTICUFFS: Oliver Enkamp recorded the fifth spinning backfist knockout in organizational history when he smashed Lewis Long in the opening round of their encounter. Shlemenko performed his sixth against Melvin Manhoef in 2015, but he tested positive for banned substances and had his win overturned to a no-contest.

POWER MAD: Enkamp was the first welterweight in the history of the promotion to pull off a spinning backfist knockout.

MAMA DIDN’T RAISE NO FOOL: Win or lose, Justin Moore has still never reached the scorecards. Will Fleury put him away with a first-round arm-triangle choke. In fact, Moore has never seen the third round in any of his 14 career bouts.

YEAR OF THE DUNCAN: Chris Duncan finished Mateusz Piskorz in the second round of their 160-pound catchweight bout. All six of Duncan’s finishes have come inside the distance.

THEY CAN’T ALL BE ZINGERS: Coming into Bellator 239 and Bellator 240, five fighters had never suffered a defeat, 10 fighters had never dropped decisions and two fighters had never been finished.