By Jim Edwards

The Save Mart Center in Fresno, California was the site of Bellator 156 and was headlined by a bantamweight title fight which saw the crowning of a new Brazilian champion.

Marcos Galvao was defending his belt for the first time since winning it back in March 2015 at Bellator 135 where he defeated Joe Warren for the strap. His first defense as champion saw him face a man who he had lost to previously back at Bellator 89; his fellow countryman and former Bellator bantamweight champion, Eduardo Dantas. Unfortunately for Galvao, tonight was not the night for retribution and history repeated itself. 

Both men started the fight very tentatively and chose to stay well out of range while exchanging infrequent single shot jabs and leg kicks. Though both threw similar volume, Dantas landed the more accurate and powerful strikes of the two and easily took the opening five minutes. 

With the first two minutes of round two starting to take a similar pattern, Dantas began to put more combinations together and he had success with two straight rights that bloodied the nose of the champion. Before the end of the round, Dantas landed a stiff kick to the body but before he could really follow up on it the round came to a close.

In round three Dantas really began to start pouring it on Galvao who simply had no reply for his timing, footwork and speed. Dantas repeatedly landed flurries on Galvao whose face really started to wear the impact with his eyes closing and his nose pouring with blood. It was a brutal five minutes for the champion to endure and was five minutes to score 10-8 on the scorecards.

Before round four began, the cageside doctor took a look at Galavao's right eye and after a brief inspection deemed him able to continue. Unfortunately, this prolonged break still didn't change the flow of one-way traffic and Dantas once again used his superior handspeed to sting Galavao at will to both the head and body with crisp shots.

The final five minutes was a cake walk for Dantas who simply wound the clock down. He jabbed, he moved and he even threw in a few taunts down the home straight. Galavao survived to hear the final bell but this wasn't a competitive fight. Dantas unsurprisingly took the decision on all three scorecards without losing a round. Eduardo Dantas for the second time in his career and became the Bellator bantamweight champion of the world.

In other action, the co-main event of the evening saw Chidi Njoukani take on late replacement Thiago Jambo in welterweight action. The first two rounds saw the fight take a slow pace with Njoukani getting the better of the exchanges but unable to land any big significant strikes. That all changed in the third round though and with Jambo noticeable slowing down, Njoukani landed a lightning fast kick to the midsection that sent him straight to the canvas. After a brief flurry of ground and pound, the fight was called off and Njoiukani had win number fifteen in his professional career.

The main card opened with Fresno's own Chris Honeycutt picking up a unanimous decision victory over Mikkel Parlo 30-27, 30-27, 29-28. Despite being better known for his wrestling, Honeycutt decided to keep the fight standing and he picked Parlo apart on the feet for the entire fifteen minutes landing 111 strikes to the Dane's paltry 33. This was Honeycutt's first win in the Bellator middleweight division on his debut at 185lbs.

Finally, in the biggest upset of the evening, John Salter handed Brandon Halsey his second straight defeat after he locked in slick triangle choke after four minutes and three seconds of the opening round.

Salter rocked and cut Halsey early with a big head kick and it was all downhill from there for 'Bull'. After a brief stoppage to check his cut, Halsey was rocked again by another head kick and shortly after he looked for an ill-advised takedown. Within seconds of Salter being on his back, he threw up his legs and locked in the submission. Halsey had nowhere to go and was forced to tap out.

Here are the full results for Bellator 156:

Main Card (Spike)

Eduardo Dantas def. Marcos Galvao by Unanimous Decision (50-45, 50-44, 50-43)
Chidi Njokuani def. Thiago Jambo Goncalves via KO (Strikes), Round 3 – 2:39

John Salter def. Brandon Halsey via Submission (Triangle Choke), Round 1 – 4:03
Chris Honeycutt def. Mikkel Parlo via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Preliminary Card (Online Stream)

Ben Reiter def. A.J. Matthews via Unanimous Decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
Carrington Banks def. C.J. Keith via Unanimous Decision (30-25, 30-26, 30-26)