Michael Chandler got a quick start to his MMA career.
Chandler, a 25-year-old graduate of Missouri, landed in Strikeforce by his second career fight. Less than a year later, he signed a deal with Bellator Fighting Championships. With another two victories, Chandler was selected for the Bellator lightweight tournament earlier this year, and he defeated Patricky Freire in May to win the tournament, the $100,000 prize and a title shot.
Saturday night, Chandler (8-0) can take another leap forward in prominence when he challenges Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, regarded by many publications as one of the top five lightweight fighters in the world, in the main event of Bellator 58. The event, which can be seen live on MTV2 and EPIX2 (7 p.m., Eastern) is at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
"I know I can go out there and beat him," Chandler said. "It's a great opportunity in my career. I really think there's no way possible that I can't kind of get the respect as one of the top lightweights to look at as a threat in the lightweight division no matter what. It would be great. Obviously, he is a top-five talent. It's a great opportunity. I don't want to just go out there and win. I want to go out there, really dominate, put on a great performance and really show maturity in the sport."
Alvarez, 22-2, appeared on Bellator's first card and won the lightweight tournament during the first season to capture the title. He successfully defended his title against Pat Curran in April.
"Going off his last fight, he wasn't that dangerous," Chandler said. "He wasn't that much of a threat to Pat Curran at all. There wasn't a ton of damage that he did to Pat Curran. Pat Curran did a great job of covering up. Eddie hit him with a ton of body shots, something that you can't really see the damage. I'm sure Pat was feeling those body shots."
The event also features a 195-pound catchweight fight between Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard and UFC veteran Trevor Prangley. Featherweights Marlon Sandro and Rafael Dias will also fight on the main card.
The preliminaries, which can be seen live on spike.com (5 p.m., Eastern), include: women's 115-pounders Jessica Aguilar vs. Lisa Ellis-Ward; middleweight Jonas Billstein vs. Reggie Pena; lightweights Cosmo Alexander vs. Avery McPhatter; middleweights Brett Cooper vs. Jared Hess; welterweights Valdir Araujo vs. Ailton Barbosa; and bantamweights Farkhad Sharipov vs. Fabio Mello.
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With a cluttered resume that features two championships in PRIDE and another in Strikeforce, longtime veteran Dan Henderson recently returned to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the hope of crowning his illustrious career with the one thing to elude him so far -- a UFC championship.
Saturday night, Henderson can take a huge step toward his goal when he faces former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in the main event of UFC 139.
"Well, just like anyone, I have set goals for myself and one of those goals is . . . 1/8to 3/8 obtain a UFC belt," Henderson said. "So that's definitely on my list. But in order to do that, I need to get past Shogun and have a good performance."
Rua, who lost the UFC lightweight championship to Jon Jones in February, defeated The main card includes: middleweights Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le; bantamweights Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles; welterweights Martin Kampmann vs. Rick Story; and light heavyweights Stephan Bonnar vs. Kyle Kingsbury.
Light heavyweights Ryan Bader and Jason Brilz and middleweights Tom Lawlor and Chris Weidman will fight (8 p.m., Eastern Spike TV) in two preliminary fights.
The remaining preliminaries (which begin at 5:45 p.m., Eastern) can be seen on www.facebook.com/UFC and include: bantamweight Michael McDonald vs. Alex Soto; lightweight Gleison Tibau vs. Rafael dos Anjos; bantamweight Miguel Torres vs. Nick Pace; welterweight Matt Brown vs. Seth Baczynski; and lightweights Shamar Bailey vs. Danny Castillo.
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MMA will be displayed as an art form for the next few months in Delray Beach, Florida. The Pop Culture Vault Entertainment Fine Art Gallery will host the exhibit "Beyond the Cage - The Fine Art of MMA." Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will help launch the exhibit Saturday night.
"With over eight million people watching UFC last weekend on FOX, it's clear there is a huge fan base out there who loves MMA," Evans said. "This is a real sport, and the Beyond the Cage exhibit conveys through art that we are not only true athletes, but also real human beings with heart and soul."
For more information and to view some of the exhibit, visit www.beyondthecagemma.com.
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