Saturday, July 23, 2011
by Brian Knapp (bknapp@sherdog.com) (Photos by Al Quintero)
Pat Curran fought at his typically measured pace and paved his road to the Bellator Fighting Championships Summer Series featherweight tournament final one figurative brick at a time.
Curran(15-4, 5-1 BFC) countered effectively, dictated when and where the exchanges took place and controlled the cage en route to a unanimous decision over Ronnie Mann in the Bellator 47 headliner on Saturday at the Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario, Canada. All three judges scored the semifinal for Curran: 29-28, 30-27 and 30-27.
A potent offensive fighter blessed with speed and power, Mann (20-4-1, 2-1 BFC) never got out of the gates. Curran bullied him around the cage with tactical movement and fired a number of flying knees his way. Few landed, but they backed up the Englishman and short-circuited his rhythm. Curran scored with a takedown late in the first round, passed to half guard and nullified Mann’s bottom game.
Mann’s moments were too few and far between to make a difference. He threatened Curran with a guillotine choke in the second round, only to run out of time. Curran unleashed a few leg kicks in round three, but Mann finally countered one of his flying knees in the closing seconds. He transitioned to Curran’s back and tried desperately to score the submission, first with a rear-naked choke and then with a guillotine. Neither was successful.
