Bellator 209 Betting Preview

Bellator 209 will take place in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday, November 16, with the main event featuring featherweight champ Patricio “Pitbull” Freire” defending his title against challenger Emmanuel Sanchez. The event will not air in the United States until the 16th, but the action takes place in the middle of the night live U.S. time. Freire enters the fight on a two-bout winning streak and defended that belt against Daniel Weichel in his previous bout. Sanchez enters on a four-bout winning streak and gets his first title shot on Thursday night. In the co-main event, welterweights Ryan Couture and Haim Gozali square off. Couture has lost three of four, most recently falling to Saad Awad back in June. We have a MMA betting preview here for the two main events as well as a look at the full card for Bellator 209.

Bellator 209 Betting Preview

Main Event:

• 145 lbs.: Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (27-4) vs. Emmanuel Sanchez (17-3)

Bellator 209 Main Card (9 p.m. ET):

• 170 lbs.: Haim Gozali (8-5) vs. Ryan Couture (11-6)
• 205 lbs: Phil Davis (19-4, 1 NC) vs. Vadim Nemkov (9-2)
• 145 lbs.: Olga Rubin (4-0) vs. Cindy Dandois (12-3)
• 265 lbs.: Adam Keresh (1-0) vs. Kirill Sidelnikov (11-5)

Bellator 209 Undercard:

• 170 lbs.: Khonry Gracie (0-1) vs. Avi Baron (0-1)
• 155 lbs.: Aviv Gozali (0-0) vs. Anton Lazebnov (0-0)
• 155 lbs.: Ido Halfon (0-0) vs. Itay Tratner (1-0)
• 205 lbs.: Nisim Rozalis (0-0) vs. Nika Ben Tuashy (0-0)
• 145 lbs.: Roy Peretz vs. Itsik Rubinov (0-0)
• 170 lbs.: Shimon Smotritsky (4-0) vs. Matan Levi (3-1)
• 170 lbs.: Fadi Haiyadre (0-0) vs. Christos Nicolaou (1-1)
• 205 lbs.: Ram Banano (0-1) vs. Natan Borovytskyi (0-0)
• 145 lbs.: Honor Kelesh (3-0) vs. Andrei Barbarosa (5-6)
• 115 lbs.: Yulia Sachkov (0-1) vs. Viktoria Makarova (0-0)
• 145 lbs.: Kirill Medvedovsky (11-6) vs. Denis Palancica (6-0)
• 135 lbs.: Ejargew Tariku (4-1) vs. Sidemar Honorio (12-6)
• 170 lbs.: Jackie Gosh (7-1) vs. Jamil Ibragimov (1-0)

Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs Emmanuel Sanchez should be an exciting chance for Sanchez to win his first belt. He is 9-2 in Bellator, with the setbacks coming against onetime featherweight champion Pat Curran and Daniel Weichel. His wins over Justin Lawrence, Henry Corrales and Daniel Pineda all came via split decision, as Sanchez had to absorb a ton of strikes and still find his way to victory. In his last two bouts, he has shown more control of the cage, finishing former featherweight champ Daniel Straus and former UFC fighter Sam Sicilia via submission. Getting fighters to the floor has become Sanchez’s calling card, and he will need it against Freire. Freire developed his wrestling skills first and then added a consistent striking game to his arsenal. He also has a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and he has used those skills to submit 11 of his opponents. He has also delivered nine knockouts, making a total of 20 of his 27 wins that have come before the ending bell, taking the decision out of the hands of the judges. His win over Weichel, though, was a close scrape for him, as he won via split decision. With the gifts that Sanchez has as a wrestler and a toe-to-toe fighter, this will be another close fight as well. Bellator 209 Prediction: Freire wins via decision Haim Gozali vs Ryan Couture features a hometown fighter in Gozali and a fighter seeking redemption in Couture. As we mentioned above, Couture has won just once in his last four bouts, but that win came over Gozali, at Bellator NYC. The fight went to the cards, but it was a fairly easy unanimous decision in favor of Couture. That bout was Couture’s first welterweight tussle, and while he stays at welterweight here, he should go back down to lightweight. Couture lacks the size that Gozali brings, but there are some benefits to fighting up a class. In the first fight, Couture won each round, so one might wonder why the rematch is taking place so quickly. Couture agreed to the opportunity fight in a co-main event. However, there is not much for Couture to work on technically to prepare. The risk is that Couture enters with overconfidence and ends up suffering at the hands of the hometown fighter. There are the intangibles involved with the rematch as well as the logistical issues of a 24-hour trip to Tel Aviv. Couture’s goal is to finish Gozali before the judges go to the cards. Bellator 209 Prediction: Couture wins via knockout