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Zoila Frausto ends the 22-fight winning streak of Megumi Fujii

By Zach Arnold | October 28, 2010

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Call me stunned, but actually I’m not. Going into the fight, Frausto was by far the better striker and she had a huge size advantage. The question was whether or not Fujii would be able to get her on the ground and submit her. Against Lisa Ward that was possible. Against Zoila Frausto, who is almost 30 pounds heavier and taller, that was a tall order to ask for.

Here’s how the Florida judges scored the fight:

Hector Gomez – 48-47 for Frausto
John Rupert – 48-47 for Fujii
Rich Green – 49-46 for Frausto

Bellator color commentator Jimmy Smith scored it 49-46 for Fujii. I scored it 48-47 in favor of Frausto. The big attribute, if you want to call it that, for Fujii in the stand-up war was ‘cage control.’ However, it was very clear from the get-go that in the stand-up battle, Frausto was a much more accurate and powerful striker. Fujii let her hands drop several times and as Mr. Smith himself pointed out, once Frausto applied pressure to Fujii you could see her striking angles disappear. Apply pressure by moving forward and you win. That’s what happened.

Fujii didn’t try for a takedown in the first three rounds, something which shocked just about everyone. When she did try for a takedown in round four, Frausto simply stood tall and used her size and balance to stuff it. With about 30 seconds left in round five, Fujii finally got Frausto on the ground and the crowd cheered very loudly. However, it was too late to do much and the Frausto already won the fight. Jorge Gurgel told Frausto that she had won all four rounds heading into round five and Jimmy Smith didn’t think that was a good thing to say. Little did he know that Gurgel was right about the way the judges scored the fight.

Watching the fight was interesting for the tactical war, but I fully understand that in Strikeforce or UFC the fans would have unmercilessly booed watching this for 25 minutes. I give credit to the Bellator audience in Florida — they were booing a little in round three but by the end of the fight they were very respectful and applauded both women.

Should Fujii have went for takedowns earlier in the fight? Probably so, but it seemed clear from the get-go that the size advantage was simply too much for her to overcome. This definitely seemed to be on her mind throughout the fight. Fujii walks around at 118 pounds and fights at 115. Frausto walks around at 145-150 and makes the cut to 115 pounds. Physically impossible to overcome that size advantage.

The story of Frausto winning the tournament is nothing short of remarkable. She was brought in to basically put on a good fight and make Rosi Sexton look good. Instead, she blasted Sexton and KO’d her. Sexton was being groomed as one of the top fighters for the 115-pound tournament. Frausto’s win catapulted her into the tournament and from there she did what she needed to do to win. (I still think she lost to Jessica Aguilar, and that seems to be the natural title fight coming up.)

As for the main event on tonight’s Bellator show between Hector Lombard and Alexander Shlemenko, the less said the better. Eddie Alvarez vs. Roger Huerta this fight was not. When the fight started, Lombard was heavily cheered. By round three, the fans were booing. By the end of the fifth round, the fans were annoyed. Lombard dominated and controlled the fight but Shlemenko showed enough heart and defense to stall Lombard in order to go the distance. Lombard did not show the explosiveness that he has in past fights against weaker opponents. All three judges scored 49-46 in favor of Hector Lombard. Lombard said after the fight that he didn’t make excuses but “I don’t feel 100%.” Afterwards, Lombard grabbed the microphone and said, “Jacare, I want your belt.” Yes, the Bellator 185-pound champion called out the Strikeforce 185-pound champion.

At the end of tonight’s Bellator telecast, the announcers noted that the next season will start in 2011 with Featherweight, Lightweight, Welterweight, and Middleweight tournaments for season four.

Topics: Bellator, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

11 Responses to “Zoila Frausto ends the 22-fight winning streak of Megumi Fujii”

  1. EJ says:

    Did they say when they when and were they will air the next season?, because i’d like to see it live and not have it be pre-empted every week.

  2. smoogy says:

    You’re blind. Fujii had Frausto cornered and landed the left cross all night. Zoila’s face was a mess.

  3. Zack says:

    Rich Green should be stabbed.

    Ed. — Let’s try ‘admonished.’

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    With this being Bellator’s last show of the “season”…. The big question now is…. What’s next?

    1) Will they continue into the 4th season as promised?

    2) It’s easy to assume the FSN deal alone is not sufficient enough to pay the expenses. Are they capable of getting a new TV deal?

    3) If they do have a 4th season, who do all of their champions fight? I think they have like 7 or so champions now. Except for Pat Curran vs. Eddie Alvarez (which isn’t that good of a fight), none of their champions have any sort of challenger.

  5. Jonathan says:

    Everyone loses. Everyone will eventually lose. Jose Aldo, for as dominant as he looks right now, will lose. So will A. Silva, and GSP and Velasquez. I think we all know this, but maybe we don’t always realize it until it happens.

  6. frankp316 says:

    Expect Zoila to vacate the title. She said before and after the fight she has no plans to fight at 115 again. BTW, Megumi won 48-47. Anyone who gave Zoila round one based on the last 30 seconds needs to stop watching fights. Fights aren’t scored like that.

  7. Steve4192 says:

    Personally, I thought the fight was close enough that either fighter could have won the decision without it being a ‘robbery’.

    The only thing that surprises me is that the judges don’t penalize Frausto for her habit of fighting with her back to the cage. She has spent 90% of her last two fights with her back foot firmly planted on the base of the cage. In men’s MMA, that kind of passive approach is usually a death sentence in terms of how the judges score the fight.

  8. notthface says:

    “Frausto was a much more accurate and powerful striker.”

    Powerful? Maybe. More accurate? definitely not. If she connecting on more than 20% of her punches, I’d be surprised. People gave it to her because they were frustrated that Fujii didn’t take her dow, assumed if it was standing that Frausto won, and don’t know anything about boxing and thought that big swings that hit nothing means your doing something. This was basically a boxing match and Fujii cornered her and out-struck her at least 2-to-1.

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