Fight Facts: Bellator 245, Bellator 246

Fight Facts breaks down 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: 2,726
TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR EVENTS: 248

Editor's note: A statistic has been updated on Sept. 15 upon the reclassification of a result from 2010.

Bellator MMA said goodbye to the Paramount Network with a doubleheader consisting of 15 intriguing fights. Unfortunately for the promotion, the two cards swirled in controversy. Bellator 245 on Friday and Bellator 246 on Saturday featured an unusual distinction about fighters missing weight, an ultra-rare inverted heel hook and a Gracie doing what Gracies do best.

COVID CONTINGENCY: Five Bellator events have been held consecutively at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Prior to this stretch, the company had never held more than two back-to-back cards in the same building.

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Bellator 245

WHERE WAS THE DQ?: When the event ended, two fights were ruled no contests due to accidental groin shots. Tyrell Fortune kneed Jack May in the groin to force a stoppage, and Raymond Daniels landed two spinning back kicks to Peter Stanonik’s groin to conclude that fight. No card in major MMA history had ever seen groin strikes end more than one bout before.

YOU’RE JUST HERE SO YOU DON’T GET FINED: Three fighters came in missing weight by several pounds: Gabrielle Holloway, Amanda Bell and Vinicius Zani. All three lost by unanimous verdict.

REVENGE OF THE SCALE: Across eight women’s featherweight bouts that featured a fighter missing weight, the heavier of the two has lost seven of eight. Both Holloway and Bell exceeded the 146-pound cap and dropped decisions. Only Alexis Dufresne has succeeded after coming in heavy at the division, tapping Marloes Coenen with a triangle armbar at Bellator 155 in 2016.

LEARNING THE PUZZLE: On three occasions throughout his career, Lyoto Machida has competed against an opponent for the second time. All three of these rematches have seen Machida lose, following his split decision defeat to Phil Davis.

WHAT DO YOU WANT ON YOUR TOMBSTONE?: Taylor Johnson scored the only finish of the night when he tapped out Ed Ruth. In Johnson’s six career wins, all six have come within the first two rounds, including five in Round 1.

BOP IT, TWIST IT, PULL IT!: Johnson’s submission an inverted heel hook, “Tombstone” scored the second inverted version of that maneuver in Bellator history. The first came at Bellator 15 in 2010, when Patricio Freire tapped Will Romero with this elusive move.

IT’S TIME TO BUZZ THE TOWER: The inverted heel hook is a rare move, as across all other major MMA promotions, we have officially seen it only three other times: Merritt Warren over Ousmane Thomas Diagne at Strikeforce Challengers 4 in 2009, Ed Herman over Kyle Noke at UFC on Versus 5 in 2011 and Rousimar Palhares over Steve Carl at World Series of Fighting 9 in 2014.

HIT THE EAZY BUTTON: Alex Polizzi made his successful Bellator debut by taking a decision against Rafael Carvalho. “Eazy” has now won all seven of his professional bouts, with this his first match to go the distance.

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Bellator 246

A NEW CHAPTER: The bantamweight championship affair between Juan Archuleta and Patrick Mix is the first since the inaugural title bout in 2010 to not involve Eduardo Dantas, Joe Warren or Darrion Caldwell.

RHYMES WITH STACIE: Landing a modified heel hook/kneebar on Jon Fitch, Neiman Gracie notched his seventh submission as a Bellator fighter. In doing so, he stands alone with the second-most submissions in company history, while he trails Goiti Yamauchi (eight).

BUT HOW GOOD OF A COOK IS HE?: After his loss to Gracie, Fitch retired. The 18-year vet leaves the sport having won the World Series of Fighting and Professional Fighters League titles, while also vying for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Bellator MMA thrones over the years. Throughout his career, Fitch recorded wins over names including Thiago Alves, Jake Shields, Yushin Okami and Paul Daley to name a few.

THE SCISSOR SISTER EMERGES: Liz Carmouche earned her first submission win since July 2012 when she tapped out DeAnna Bennett in the third round. Nine of the other 13 competitors on the card had yet to make their professional debuts when she won her last fight by sub.

HAWAIIAN CHOKE: Putting Derek Campos to sleep with a rear-naked choke, Keoni Diggs advanced his spotless record to 9-0. Seven of the Hawaiian’s nine wins have come by stoppage.

THE BELL WAS AN ALARM CLOCK: Diggs’ finish came at 4:59 of the third frame, tying Jason Fischer’s 4:59 rear-naked choke technical submission of Taylor Solomon for the latest finish in a Bellator three-round fight.

HE STILL KNOCKED OUT MELVIN: Campos suffered his ninth defeat inside the Bellator cage, tying him with Georgi Karakhanyan for the second-most in organizational history. Saad Awad holds the top spot with 10.

DEREK THE DOMINATED: Eight of Campos’ nine Bellator losses have come inside the distance, giving him the most stoppage losses in promotional history.

TAMING THE WILD STALLION: The submission loss for “The Stallion” his fourth as a Bellator fighter; the only man with more submission defeats on his ledger is Brylan Van Artsdalen (seven).

EVEN A DEMIGOD-KING CAN BLEED: Needing three rounds to emerge with a split decision win over Pat Casey, Daniel Madrid won the first decision of his career. The first 17 wins of “Demigod” had all come by stoppage – other than a lone disqualification – and this bout was just his third to go into the third round.

THE MAN FORMERLY KNOWN AS JERED: Taking out George Tokkos with a punch and a knee, Ty Gwerder kept his perfect 100 percent knockout rate intact. Each of his first four wins came by first-round knockout, and this reached the third frame.

EYE FOR AN EYE, MY FRIEND: The first match on the card went to a technical decision after Davion Franklin landed multiple strikes to the back of Ras Hylton’s head. This is the fourth bout in promotional history to end this way, and all four of the results have been unanimous.

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN: Coming into Bellator 245 and Bellator 246, Mix had never been defeated (13 fights), Ruth (10 fights), Casey (eight fights) and Tokkos (five fights) had never lost consecutive bouts and Polizzi had never won on the scorecards (six fights).