Darrion Caldwell avenged a loss at Bellator 167 (Photo/Bellator)Former college wrestlers Darrion Caldwell and Jarod Trice came out on top in their MMA fights at Bellator 167 at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma, Saturday night.
Caldwell, 2009 NCAA champ for North Carolina State, earned a unanimous decision over Joe Taimanglo in their main-event bantamweight bout, avenging his only pro MMA loss at Bellator 159 earlier this summer ... while Trice, a three-time NCAA All-American heavyweight at Central Michigan University, made a successful pro MMA debut with a majority decision over fellow first-timer Tommie Britton in light-heavyweight action.
Here's how MMAJunkie.com opened its description of Saturday's Caldwell-Taimanglo fight: "Just seconds into their bantamweight rematch, Joe Taimanglo almost repeated his shocking guillotine victory over Darrion Caldwell. Caldwell survived that submission attempt, and several others, to edge out the unanimous-decision win."
Sherdog.com provided this historical perspective on Caldwell's previous meeting with Taimanglo: "At Bellator 159 in Kansas this past July, the 28-year-old Caldwell, then undefeated, dominated for two rounds with his outstanding wrestling before diving head-first into a fight-ending guillotine early in round three, producing one of 2016's most shocking MMA upsets. This time around, the bantamweight prospect employed the same strategy, but with no slip-ups, grounding the Guam native for the full 15 minutes and beating him up on top throughout."
All three judges scored the match 30-27 for the former Wolfpack mat champ.
With the win, Caldwell is now 10-1 in his pro MMA career, while the loss drops Taimanglo to 23-7-1.
Prior to entering MMA competition in September 2012, Darrion Caldwell was a two-time NCAA Division I All-American at N.C. State, winning the 149-pound title at the 2009 NCAAs with a stunning win over defending champ Brent Metcalf of the Iowa Hawkeyes in what the late amateur wrestling historian Jay Hammond considered to be one of the three biggest upsets in NCAA finals history. Caldwell was named Outstanding Wrestler for that tournament.
Jarod Trice, who signed a contract with Bellator in May, made an impressive debut over Tommie Britton in their light-heavyweight bout.
In its real-time reporting of the match, MMAmania.com scored each round for the former big man from Central Michigan, then wrapped up its account of the bout with this statement: "I give Britton all the credit in the world for surviving three rounds but other than the first 10-15 seconds this has been a blowout."
"Trice earned a majority decision over an overmatched but game Tommie Britton, who spent most of the bout with his back to the fence, being dirty boxed soundly by Trice," according to Sherdog.com. "While Trice clearly won every round and took scores of 30-25 and 30-26 from judges Dan Mathisen and Todd Anderson, judge Don Turnage inexplicably produced a 28-28 draw scorecard in one of the most confusing judging tallies in recent memory."
Wins for Caldwell and Trice at Bellator 167 came just 24 hours after the Bellator 166 event at the same venue Friday night, where NCAA Division I finalist Chris Honeycutt won a unanimous decision at middleweight, while Greco-Roman grappler Joe Warren lost his bid to claim the bantamweight title in the main event.
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