Bellator Fighting Championships presented
Bellator 78: Good vs Tsarev on Friday, October 26, 2012, at the Nutter Center at Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio, near Dayton. The main card aired live on MTV2.
Former Bellator welterweight champion Lyman "Cyborg" Good and undefeated Alexander Shlemenko protégé Andrey "Spartan" Koreshkov advanced to the finals of the Bellator Season 7 Welterweight Tournament with knockout victories.
In the main event, Lyman Good took out Andrey Koreshkov's teammate Michail Tsarev after capitalizing on Tsarev's attempt to call for a timeout due to what he perceived as an eyepoke. Referee Greg Franklin, brother UFC fighter Rich Franklin, started to intervene after Tsarev complained, but then changed his mind and backed off. Good unloaded on Tsarev with punches up against the cage. Tsarev fell to the ground and Franklin called off the fight. It was unclear on the instant replays if Good had actually eyepoked Tsarev or simply caught him with a legal glancing blow to the eye. Either way, the referee made the call and Good won, leaving Tsarev completely dejected.
Andrey Koreshkov won much more decisively in the co-main event with a knockout of former DREAM champion and Strikeforce title contender Marius Zaromskis. In fact, the finish was so decisive that it was borderline criminal on the part of referee Jerry Poe. Koreshkov dropped Zaromskis with a left hook to the temple that should've marked the end of the fight. Instead, Poe allowed Koreshkov to deliver at least 10 more punches to the face of a defenseless Zaromskis, whose eyes remained open but was clearly out of it. This was one of the worst late stoppages of the year in MMA, right up there with the mauling that Chris Weidman was allowed to put on an unconscious Mark Munoz in the UFC.
Complete Results After the Break