Fight Facts: Bellator 284 ‘Gracie vs. Yamauchi’

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: 3,169
TOTAL NUMBER OF BELLATOR EVENTS: 286

Bellator MMA continued its once-a-month Summertime event approach to post up inside the five-sided Sanford Pentagon in South Dakota. The promotion brought a slew of hot prospects into the event to appeal even with no belt on the line, and a fantastic stylistic matchup headliner played out differently than most would have expected. Bellator 284 featured a pair of magical mullets, a former champ getting her mojo back and a strange rematch with a repeated outcome.

Rocking the Mullet: Aaron Jeffery and Pat Downey came into their matches against Austin Vanderford and Keyes Nelson, respectively, while sporting mullets. The two mulleted gentlemen scored first-round finishes, with neither man needing more than 90 seconds to record his victory.

Revisit the Glove Discussion: At Bellator 283 in July, Lorenz Larkin landed illegal elbows on Mukhamed Berkhamov and the match resulted in a no contest. An eye poke from Valentin Moldavsky to Steve Mowry stopped their Bellator 284 fight for another no contest. This marks the first series of back-to-back Bellator cards to feature no contests since Bellators 231 and 232 in 2019.

Undefeated Massive Favorites = Bellator Prelims: The first four pro fights at this event all included betting favorites of -1000 or above. These overwhelming favorites Sullivan Cauley, Pat Downey, Bailey Schoenfelder and Mitchell McKee all recorded stoppages within two rounds.

Great Goiti: In the main event, Goiti Yamauchi flattened Neiman Gracie with an elbow and follow-up punches. The 29-year-old out of Yamauchi Team sports a finish rate of 86%, with stoppages in 10 of his last 11 wins under the Bellator banner.

Yamaouchie: Overall, Yamauchi notched his 12th finish as a Bellator fighter. He is now one shy of the promotion’s record, held in a three-way tie by Michael Chandler, A.J. McKee and Patricio Freire.

Spot Checking the Fact Check: Yamauchi is now one of a small number of fighters to record both a knockout and a submission at two different weight classes with the promotion. Of note, while he did compete in a third category of featherweight and land one of each, that knockout came after he missed weight by over six pounds.

Iliminated Any Doubt: By a close decision, Ilima-Lei Macfarlane topped Bruna Ellen on the scorecards. The win snapped the Hawaiian’s lone career losing streak, while notching her 11th victory on the roster, extending her record among all Bellator women.

So Much Potential for Gokhan: Gokhan Saricam’s split decision win over Said Sowma put him on a four-fight win streak with the organization, accounting for all of his wins under the Bellator banner. Only 12 heavyweights in Bellator history have won more times than Saricam.

A New Secret Contender: After three hard-fought rounds, Marcos Breno successfully debuted with Bellator by snagging a decision over Josh Hill. Before this fight, Breno had only involved the judges in one of his past 14 wins.

Vitamin Nice: Beating Justine Kish for the second time in just under six months, DeAnna Bennett recorded another unanimous decision over her rival. “Vitamin D” boosted her career decision rate to 69% with her win, and she has not recorded a finish since September 2014.

Justine Judged: Throughout a career that includes seven walks to the Ultimate Fighting Championship cage as well as three appearances in Bellator, Kish has now reached the final bell in 11 of her 14 total fights.

Didn’t Sully His Name: In 99 seconds, Cauley lifted his young unbeaten record to 4-0 by knocking out Tyson Jeffries with a flush knee. “Sully” has earned all four of his wins by first-round knockout.

Dualling Careers of Downey and Nickal: Storied wrestler Downey made his first splash in MMA by facing late replacement Keyes Nelson, and snagged an arm-triangle choke in 36 seconds. His opponent Nelson has now suffered four defeats without a pro win on his ledger, with all four losses coming in the opening frame.

Sounds Like a TNT Drama: Schoenfelder and McKee came into Bellator 284 with undefeated 2-0 records, and both men got their hands raised at night’s end. Schoenfelder tapped Mark Currier, and McKee put Tony Ortega away, both in Round 2 for their longest career fights to date.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into Bellator 284, Gracie had never been finished (14 fights); Gracie, Sowma (11 fights) and Vanderford (12 fights) had never dropped consecutive bouts and Ortega had never been stopped with strikes (nine fights, one injury TKO).