LOMBARD AND HESS POUND THEIR WAY TO MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP AT BELLATOR IX

LOMBARD AND HESS POUND THEIR WAY TO MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP AT BELLATOR IX

Bellator IX Semi-Final Action Sends Lombard and Hess to the Bellator
Championship Fight

Monroe, Louisiana – May 30, 2009 – In front of an electrified and vocal
crowd in Monroe, Louisiana, Hector Lombard and Jared Hess put on dominating
performances to earn their way to the first ever Bellator Middleweight world
championship. Opening the semi-final action was the Cuban Olympian and
knockout artist Hector “Shango” Lombard taking on Army Ranger and combatives
expert Damien Stelly.  Out of the gates both fighters let punches fly with a
go-for-broke start that ended with Lombard mounting Stelly and implementing
a ground and pound strategy that eventually resulted in a referee stoppage.
While Stelly fought gallantly, he wasn’t able to break free from Lombard’s
mount and the referee stopped the fight via TKO with the ultra tough Hector
Lombard moving onto the finals in under three minutes. 

Headlining the night, the Oklahoman all-around tactical machine Jared Hess
faced the legend killer and unpredictably versatile Yosmany Cabezas.  Nearly
going the three round distance, this match demonstrated how tough both
competitors are with Hess dominating the fight with ground and pound while
Cabezas consistently looked for an edge on Hess.  Although Hess defiantly
took the first two rounds with Cabezas physically showing signs of his
beating, the Cuban powerhouse Cabezas never gave up even with fists
showering upon him.  With only 30 seconds left in the match, the referee
called it a TKO victory for the relentless Oklahoman tornado Jared Hess.
Both Hess and Lombard collected the $50,000 purse and will move onto the
Bellator Middleweight world championship bout and compete for the $100,000
grand prize in Hollywood, Florida on June 19th at the Seminole Hard Rock
Hotel and Casino.  All the Bellator Middleweight semi-final action can be
seen on Saturday, May 30, 2009 exclusively on ESPN Deportes and on
Bellator.com on Wednesday, June 3, 2009. 

“The Hector Lombard, Jared Hess final truly pits our two top Middleweights
against each other.  Lombard standing is an amazingly powerful force and
Hess on the ground is non-stop action and strikes.  This should be a great
final,” remarked Bellator Fighting Championships CEO Bjorn Rebney. “This
deafening Monroe, Louisiana crowd was treated to a fantastic night of action
that was just a preview of the championship finals that these two
powerhouses will demonstrate at Bellator XII in June.”

With the stunning undercard battles, Nick Ring returned to the cage after a
three year hiatus, not showing an inch of ring rust, to submit Isidro
Gonzalez in less than one minute via guillotine submission.  Alex Andrade
returned to Bellator action for retribution and got just that by dominating
Christian Fulgram with a furious throwing of rights and lefts resulting in
the referee to call it in just over two minutes.  In a battle of the
heavyweights, LSU football star Shawn Jordan impressed his loyal fans by
taking out fellow Louisianan Jayme McKinney in 30 seconds into the second.

All of the Bellator IX action will air on ESPN Deportes Saturday, May 30.
The full fight card results are below:

Bellator IX Middleweight Semi-Final Tournament bouts:

185 lbs. – Yosmany Cabezas (8-2) vs. Jared Hess (8-0-1) Hess by TKO at 14:26

185 lbs. – Damien Stelly (9-3) vs. Hector Lombard (19-2) Lombard by TKO
(strikes) at 2:56

Bellator IX Non-tournament bouts:

185 lbs. – Isidro Gonzalez (16-13) vs. Nick Ring (8-0) Ring by submission
(guillotine) at 0:39

145 lbs. – Shad Lierley (5-2) vs. Nate Murdock (6-5) Lierley by unanimous
decision

185 lbs. – Christian Fulgram (10-3) vs. Alex Andrade (8-5) Andrade by TKO at
2:01

HWT – Shawn Jordan (1-0) vs. Jayme McKinney (5-4) Jordan by submission at
5:30

175 lbs. – Dan Keenan (0-1) vs. Chan Leonhardt (3-1) Leonhardt by KO at 3:03

155 lbs. – Chas Skelly (3-0) vs. Mike Braswell (4-3) Skelly by split
decision

Bellator Fighting Championships’ premiere season consists of 12 two-hour
events broadcast weekly in primetime on Saturday nights on ESPN Deportes.
The English-language broadcast becomes available on www.Bellator.com
<http://www.bellator.com/>  each Wednesday.  The nationally televised events
feature a combination of tournament and non-tournament special feature
bouts. There are four simultaneous tournaments taking place in season one
over a three month period: one in each of the Featherweight (145 lb.),
Lightweight (155 lb.), Welterweight (170 lb.) and Middleweight (185 lb.)
divisions.

For more information, visit www.Bellator.com <http://www.bellator.com/> .
Bellator’s Spanish website is available at www.Espanol.Bellator.com
<http://www.espanol.bellator.com/> .  Please contact your local cable
provider to learn more about viewing Bellator Fighting Championships on ESPN
Deportes. 

About Bellator Fighting Championships

Bellator Fighting Championships is a Mixed Martial Arts promotional company
with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago.  Bellator’s founders, Bjorn Rebney
and Brad Epstein, are experienced fighting sports and entertainment
professionals with a deep commitment to the purity and integrity of the
sport of MMA and its athletes.  Bellator Fighting Championships’ executive
team is comprised of top industry professionals in the areas of live event
production (including Rob Beiner, winner of 12 Emmy awards for sports
programming), fighter relations, venue procurement, sponsorship
creation/development, international licensing, marketing, advertising,
publicity and commission relations.