Bellator 170 results: Emmanuel Sanchez survives point deduction, decisions Georgi Karakhanyan

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Emmanuel Sanchez did not succeed in breaking this streak of decisions. But he was successful in getting back to the win column.

Georgi Karakhanyan did his best to ground and submit Sanchez, but a point deduction in the second wasn’t enough to overcome Sanchez’s work in the first two rounds.

The featherweight bout was part of today’s Bellator 170 event at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. It aired on Spike TV following prelims on MMAjunkie.com.
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The final scores were 28-27 twice with one judge scoring the bout even at 28-28, giving Sanchez his first win since falling short on scorecards against Daniel Weichel in his previous bout. It’s Sanchez’s seventh straight decision during his tenure in Bellator.

Karakhanyan struggled to put Sanchez on the mat after an initial skirmish on the feet and seemed content to stay at Sanchez’s back. Although he was able to plant Sanchez on the canvas, he was never able to assume a dominant position and wound up getting reversed when he went over Sanchez’s back trying to secure back control.

Sanchez came out swinging in the second round, anxious to reassert himself on the feet. Karakhanyan thought it best to take the fight to the ground, but Sanchez was able to escape and get his own takedown. For the remainder of the round, he did damage with fists and elbows until an errant knee prompted a point deduction from the referee. Motivated by the lost point, Sanchez went after Karakhanyan and swept him after getting a takedown to close the frame in back control.

The final frame saw Karakhanyan take and hold back control while Sanchez tried in vain to escape to his feet. Karakhanyan sees a two-fight streak snapped.

Up-to-the-minute Bellator 170 results include:

• Emmanuel Sanchez def. Georgi Karakhanyan via majority decision (28-28, 28-27, 28-27)
• Derek Campos def. Derek Anderson via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Henry Corrales def. Cody Bollinger via knockout (punches) – Round 3, 4:28
• Guilherme Vasconcelos def. John Mercurio via knockout (punches) – Round 2, 0:41
• Keith Berry vs. Kevin Casey declared majority draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
• Alex Soto def. Demarcus Brown via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Chinzo Machida def. Jamar Ocampo via TKO (punch) – Round 3, 3:48
• Jalin Turner def. Gabriel Green via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 0:36
• Jack May def. Dave Cryer via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 0:41
• Daniel Rodriguez def. Christian Gonzalez via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 3:55

For complete coverage of Bellator 170, check out the MMA Events section of the site.