The first-ever Bellator Heavyweight champion Cole Konrad will finally defend his title this weekend at Bellator 70, and the sportsbooks have the NCAA wrestling champ as a huge favorite to defend his title.
Also on the fight card will be the Bellator Lightweight tournament final between Rick Hawn and Brent Weedman, and a semi-final Bantamweight tournament fight between Hiroshi Nakamura and Luis Nogueira.
Konrod is currently handicapped as an MMA odds -1650 favorite to defend his title at 5Dimes. His elite wrestling pedigree is expected to dominate his opponent for either a submission or a decision win. Eric Prindle is a one-dimensional striker who will need to land a big shot to have a chance of winning the Bellator Heavyweight title and paying on the 5Dimes +930 upset option.
Weedman will be looking to get to the Lightweight tournament final with a win over Rick Hawn. Oddsmakers at 5Dimes are offering +310 on Weedman, while Hawn currently comes at a price of -400 at . Hawn has only lost one split decision in his 14 fight career and should be better than Weedman regardless of where the fight goes.
In the Lightweight tournament semi-final fight Luis Nogueira is a -250 favorite at 5Dimes to beat Hiroshi Nakamura, who will currently pay +200 at . Nakamara is a skilled judo fighter but will likely come up short in any stand-up portion of the fight; and if he ends up on his back Nogueira has the submission skills to end the fight there as well.
Rounding out the Bellator 70 main card is a Lightweight feature fight between MMA veteran Rich Clementi and Dereck Campos. Clementi’s experience of 42 MMA wins are enough for him to be an MMA odds -185 favorite at 5Dimes, while the Campos upset is currently worth +160 at .
