Bellator XV Results - Ryan Thomas Makes The Most Of A Second Chance

Thursday evening the first round of both the Bellator featherweight and welterweight tournaments came to a close.

The final bout of the featherweight tournament kicked off the Fox Sports Net broadcast.  Top prospect Patricio "Pitbull" Freire was able to dispatch of William Romero with relative ease.  Romero needed to keep the fight standing and try to explode on Freire early, but instead he ended up clinched against the cage and taken down.

Once the fight hit the ground Pitbull began working to lock in a toe hold which Romero fought off.  Pitbull then switched to a heel hook which was close to getting the tap from Romero but again he was able to fight it off.  Finally, Pitbull pulled the opposite leg across and sunk in a deep heel hook that forced Romero to scream and tap.

Following the win it was announced that Freire would take on the other Brazilian semi-finalist in Wilson Reis.  That makes the other semi-final a clash between Joe Warren and Georgi Karakhanyan.

The triple-header of welterweight clashes then kicked off with Ryan Thomas' attempt to right the wrongs of his last fight against highly touted prospect Jacob "Tick Tock" McClintock.  Thomas fought one week earlier, losing after a controversial stoppage in his bout against Ben Askren.

McClintock tried to flurry early, forcing Thomas to move backward.  After a failed armdrag attempt "Tick Tock" took Thomas' back standing and eventually once they went to the floor.  Thomas defended the choke and was eventually able to scramble to top position where he began working to do damage.  Other than a near triangle choke by McClintock it was all Thomas from that point forward.  After several warnings from the referee for McClintock to defend himself the bout was ended and Thomas was awarded the TKO victory.

Welterweight tournament favorite Dan Hornbuckle made quick work of open tryout winner Tyler Stinson in the third bout of the evening.  For the brief early part of the first round where the men were standing Stinson was able to land a few decent punches and hold his own.  Soon they went to the ground with Hornbuckle on bottom where he quickly went for an armbar and transitioned to a triangle choke to force the submission.

The final bout of the evening was also the only one to go to decision as Steve Carl was able to outlast Brett Cooper.  For all three rounds the men went from standing to the floor back to standing while each having moments where it appeared they were taking over the fight.  After a final round that saw Cooper take over the fight with a flurry of big blows from top position SB Nation's scorecard read 29-28 Cooper.  The judges saw it differently though and Steve Carl was awarded the unanimous decision victory.

The expected match-ups for the second round are Thomas/Askren 2 and Hornbuckle/Carl.