Fight Facts: Bellator 265

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of 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: 2,946
TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR EVENTS: 267

Bellator MMA headed up to Legacy Fighting Alliance territory to stage an event inside the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. The promotion proved it did not need to put a belt on the line to put on an entertaining card full of dramatic finishes. Bellator 265 featured more last-second stoppages than any past event, a triplicate of massive favorites prevailing and one of the fastest brabo chokes in company history.

Twinsies: Within two weeks of one another, Bellator and the Ultimate Fighting Championship held their 265th numbered events, not counting those that were canceled. The grand total of Bellator events is 267 plus their co-promoted Monster Energy and NASCAR cards; the UFC has staged 573 shows, although the UFC began in 1993 while Bellator debuted in 2009.

Protect Yourself at All Times: Three of the nine bouts throughout the night ended within three seconds of a round bell sounding. This is the highest number of buzzer-beating stoppages on one night in Bellator history, with no prior event seeing more than one bout end in this time range.

Shocking Results, All: A trio of matches closed with betting favorites of -1000 or above for this card, as Logan Storley (-1650), Archie Colgan (-1700) and Bailey Schoenfelder (-1000) all came in heavily favored and won their respective bouts.

Kongator: Tapping out Sergei Kharitonov at the end of the second round, Cheick Kongo got his hand raised for the 13th time as a Bellator fighter, thereby extending his own record for the most victories in Bellator heavyweight history.

Les Six: Six of Kongo’s 13 Bellator wins have come inside the distance, putting the Frenchman in a tie for second with Javy Ayala for the most in divisional history. Tyrell Fortune sits in the top spot with eight stoppage victories as a Bellator heavyweight.

Like “Shogun” Rua and Pride Fighting Championships: Although long considered just a UFC castoff, Kongo has now appeared 17 times under the Bellator banner since signing with the league in 2013. In comparison, Kongo competed 18 times inside the Octagon from 2006 to 2013.

A Different Era: The submission loss for Kharitonov was his first in nearly a decade, when Josh Barnett landed an arm-triangle choke on him in September 2011. At that time, the only other fighters on the card that had made their professional debuts at that point were Kongo and Deven Fisher.

Do Not Bother: The elevated co-main event between Storley and Dante Schiro saw Storley come in as a -1650 favorite, although some books had the South Dakota native as high as -5000. Storley managed to squeak by with a wrestling-heavy split decision.

Marcelo Mashing: In the first round, Marcelo Golm laid waste to Billy Swanson to earn his first win on the roster. Golm still maintains a perfect 100% finish rate in his career, while never needing more than 6:17 to dispatch a foe in victory.

Remember Merab Dvalishvili: At exactly the five-minute mark, Jornel Lugo put Keith Lee to sleep to force a stoppage at the end of the first round. The fight marked the second time a fighter had succumbed to a submission at the horn in Bellator history, with the first Devin Powell’s consciousness-depriving guillotine choke of Marcus Surin in 2019.

Lugo Can’t Lose: With his win, Lugo is now a perfect 7-0 as a pro while earning his fourth victory in the Bellator cage.

Meathead, Dead from the Neck Up: Still early into a pro career that began in March, Colgan has won all three of his pro bouts by stoppage after putting Sidney Ben Simons away with strikes in the opening frame.

Rock Brabster: Duane Johnson pulled off a brabo choke on Fisher in 64 seconds. By doing so, “The Rock” picked up the second-fastest submission of its kind in Bellator history, behind Akonne Wanliss’ 56-second submission of Tim Barnett in 2019. It also became the second performed by a Bellator middleweight, with the first by Zak Cummings in 2010.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into Bellator 265, Johnson had never recorded a submission (seven fights), Lee had never been finished (11 fights) and Simons had never been knocked out (five fights).