Bellator closes out season five Saturday, Nov. 26, in Atlantic City

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — With no UFC or Strikeforce card this weekend, maybe Bellator Fighting Championships will get more of the media attention they deserve. If there are pro MMA bouts on television in North America, it will get attention, no matter how big or small the show is or how well-known the fighters are. We love our MMA here in this country continent.

Bellator 59 will close out the promotion’s fifth season this weekend with their heavyweight and bantamweight tournament finals from Caesars in Atlantic City.

Heavyweight Tournament Finals

Facing off in the heavyweight finals will be Brazil’s Thiago “Big Monster” Santos (10-1) and Team Death Clutch’s Eric Prindle.

Santos burst onto the Bellator scene on October 8 with a first round rear-naked choke submission over Josh Burns at Bellator 53 in what was a heavyweight tournament reserve bout.

Three weeks later at Bellator 56 Santos replaced an injured Mike Hayes against UFC vet Neil Grove in the tournament semifinals. And once again Santos walked away winning with a first round rear-naked choke submission, this time in just 38-seconds.

Prindle, age 35, qualified for the heavyweight tournament in April scoring a first round TKO over Josh Burns at Bellator 40.

In the quarterfinal round Prindle won a unanimous decision over Abe Wagner at Bellator 52 on Oct 1. Four weeks later in the semifinals at Bellator 56 Prindle knocked out Ron “The Monster” Sparks just 40-seconds into the first round.

Bantamweight Tournament Finals

In Bellator’s season five bantamweight tournament finals undefeated Cuban Olympic wrestler Alexis Vila (11-0) will square off with 22-year-old Brazilian Eduardo Dantas (12-2).

Vila, 40, shocked the MMA world when he scored a first round knockout over Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren in the quarterfinals in September. Vila returned in October defeating Marcos Galvao in the semifinal round via controversial split decision.

Dantas entered the season five bantamweight tournament in September scoring a first round knockout over BJJ black belt Wilson Reis at Bellator 51 in the quarterfinals. He returned in October at Bellator 55 to earn a split decision victory over Ed West in the semifinal round.

Michael Costa injured

A planned welterweight match-up between Michael Costa and Lyman Good has been scrapped from the line-up after an injury forced Costa from the card.

A lightweight bout between Poland’s Marcin Held (11-2) and TUF 8 veteran Phillipe Nover (5-3-1) has been moved from the preliminary card to the MTV2 televised card as a replacement.

Borges-Gordan added to prelims

Also, a 175-pound catchweight bout between Portugal’s Lucas Pimenta Borges (4-0) and Ring of Combat veteran Doug Gordan (11-10) has been added to the prelims to fill the Spike.com stream.

Bellator 59 will air LIVE on MTV2 Saturday, Nov. 26, starting at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT). The preliminary card will stream LIVE on Spike.com starting at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT).

The full Bellator 59 fight card is as follows:

MAIN CARD (Televised on MTV2)

• Heavyweight Tournament Final Fight: Thiago Santos (10-1) vs. Eric Prindle (9-1)
• Bantamweight Tournament Final Fight: Alexis Vila (11-0) vs. Eduardo Dantas (12-2)
• Lightweight Feature Fight: Patricky Pitbull (9-2) vs. Kurt Pellegrino (16-6)
• Lightweight Feature Fight: Marcin Held (11-2) vs. Phillipe Nover (5-3-1)

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com)

• Catchweight (175 lbs.) Feature Fight: Karl Amoussou (12-4-2) vs. Jesus Martinez (6-1)
• Welterweight Feature Fight: LeVon Maynard (11-8) vs. Chris Wing (3-1)
• Catchweight (175 lbs.) Feature Fight: Lucas Pimenta (4-0) vs. Doug Gordon (11-10)
• Featherweight Feature Fight: Brylan Van Artsdalen (5-2) vs. Scott Heckman (8-3)
• Middleweight Feature Fight: Brandon Saling (6-4) vs. Gregory Milliard (1-2)