Fight Facts: Bellator 296 ‘Mousasi vs. Edwards’

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: 3,327
TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR EVENTS: 298

Bellator MMA gave Parisian fans their money’s worth in terms of actual fight time, with an event that brought a near historic number of judges’ decisions. One noteworthy stoppage ended getting called back thanks to instant replay, issuing swift justice that otherwise tends to go unheard. Bellator 296 featured the lowest finish rate of any of its shows with more than 10 fights on it, a former champion playing spoiler in the biggest fight for a Frenchman and another ex-champ who is not ready to call it quite yet.

Giving Judges Their Reps: Throughout the course of the night, 10 of the 14 matches heard the final bell, including both five-round affairs. This places Bellator 296 in a third-place tie for the most fights to reach the scorecards in company history. Bellator 291’s 12 claim the pole position.

Slow and Certainly Steady: With just three official stoppages across the 14 bouts – not counting the result overturned to a no contest – the finish rate of Bellator 296 of 21.4% sits as the lowest for any Bellator card with more than 10 fights. The only show with a lower rate came at Bellator 245 (12.5%), when one of eight scraps ended inside the distance.

The Other Brother: For the first time in his career, Fabian Edwards competed beyond the third round, taking home a 25-minute unanimous decision victory over Gegard Mousasi. He has competed the full time allotment in six of his last seven fights.

Mansour the Cat: As an alternate, Brent Primus upset Mansour Barnaoui to advance to the lightweight grand prix semifinals. It marked the first time the former champ had ever won a fight beyond Round 3.

Officials 1, Barnaoui 0: Throughout a career that began in February 2011, Barnaoui has just once won a fight by decision. It came in May 2011 against fellow Bellator 296 competitor Yves Landu. Since then, all five fights that heard the final bell ended unsuccessfully for the Frenchman.

Breathing Life into Lima: Douglas Lima won for the first time in his new weight category of middleweight by procuring a decision over Costello van Steenis. The ex-welterweight kingpin notched his 15th Bellator win, joining a club whose membership now consists of just eight fighters.

35 Going on 25: The fight inside the Bellator cage was Lima’s 22nd. Just five competitors have entered that cage more times than him: Michael Chandler, David Rickels, Saad Awad, Patricky Freire and Patricio Freire.

Time to Get One Back: Lima has involved the judges in each of his last six matches dating back about four years. He is currently on a 15-fight run of bouts that have all gone beyond the first round, win or lose.

Gouti, the French Champagne: One of just three French fighters to prevail against foreign opponents, Thibault Gouti notched the lone stoppage on the main card by punching out Kane Mousah. “GT” boosted his overall finish rate to 76% with the crowd-pleasing performance.

Old Denise, New Tricks: Denise Kielholtz earned just her second pro decision win by outworking Paula Cristina dos Santos Silva. In the process, she snapped a career long three-fight skid.

Mission Control Overdrive: After three rounds of wild grappling exchanges, Luca Poclit emerged as the victor over Oliver Enkamp on the scorecards. The Moldovan broke a fight-five stoppage streak by being unable to finish his fellow submission specialist.

Do That More Often: In the bout between Saul Rogers and Davy Gallon, referee Jacob Montalvo erred in stopping the fight early to rule a technical submission via brabo choke at 2:12 of Round 1. A replay review allowed the overseeing commission to overturn the result shortly thereafter, making it one of seven such no contest results in organizational history.

Tough Name, Great Fighter: At a pre-planned 141-pound catchweight, Sarvarjon Khamidov dominated and submitted Kevin Petshi in Round 3. The Tajikistan native now posts a stellar pro record of 15-0, while recording stoppages in both of his Bellator outings.

Fabulously Effective: After a three-round drubbing, Fabacary Diatta had his hand raised against Scotland’s Keir Harvie. The Aubervilliers, France, native saw his overall finish rate drop to 33%, with seven of his last eight outings reaching the final horn.

You’ve Broken My Camara: Romain Debienne dispatched Bourama Camara in the second round to earn his first win as a Bellator fighter. While his career stoppage rate sits at just 56%, four of his last five victories have come via clean knockout.

‘Gugu’ for Short: Light heavyweight Jose Augusto Azevedo Barros topped Simon Biyong on the judges’ tallies to record his first professional decision win. The Brazilian had never before competed any longer than 12:06 in an MMA fight.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into Bellator 296, Mousasi had never dropped consecutive bouts (59 fights), Christopher Gonzalez had never lost on the scorecards (10 fights) and Camara had never been finished (seven fights).