Bellator 175 results: Emmanuel Sanchez shuts out ex-champ Marcos Galvao, wants title shot

ROSEMONT, Ill. – Emmanuel Sanchez wanted a signature win on his way up the featherweight ranks, and on Saturday he got his best yet.

Sanchez (15-3 MMA, 7-2 BMMA) took a unanimous decision from former bantamweight champion Marcos Galvao (18-8-1 MMA, 9-5 BMMA), who was moving up to 145 pounds for the first time. Sanchez, fighting not far from his home base of Milwaukee, got the win with a trio of 30-27 scores.

The catchweight bout (Sanchez missed the featherweight limit) was the co-main event of Bellator 175, which took place at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., near Chicago. The main card aired on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie.

Galvao kicked to the body straight away, but Sanchez came quickly behind it with a pair of high kicks and ont to the body. Galvao drove in after a minute and tried to take Sanchez to the canvas, but he stayed upright and eventually broke off to get back to the middle. Sanchez threw a spinning kick that was partially blocked, then ducked under a looping right hand from the Brazilian. Midway through, Galvao again attempted a takedown, but again Sanchez defended it. A third Galvao takedown attempt was met with a sprawl, and Sanchez nearly landed a jumping knee afterward.

The pace slowed a little in the second, but two minutes in Sanchez grazed Galvao with a front kick to eh face, then started to put his offense together. Still, he couldn’t put the former champ away and wound up in a clinch on the fence till they broke off with 85 seconds left in the round. Sanchez knocked Galvao down late in the second, but couldn’t finish him. Still, it was a momentum builder for teh third.

Sanchez tried a spinning back fist, then a high kick right away in the final round, and while Galvao looked tired, Sanchez looked relatively fresh. Sanchez stuffed a Galvao takedown and was only in mild danger late in the round on his way to the unanimous decision win.

Sanchez apologized to Bellator President Scott Coker for missing weight for the fight, but said he’ll correct it. Then he asked for a featherweight title shot.

Bellator 175 results include:

MAIN CARD (Spike, 9 p.m. ET)

• Quinton Jackson vs. Muhammed Lawal
• Emmanuel Sanchez def. Marcos Galvao via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Sergei Kharitonov def. Chase Gormley via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 3:55
• Noad Lahat def. Lloyd Carter via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:50
• Steve Kozola def. Jake Roberts via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 0:28

PRELIMINARY CARD (MMAjunkie, 6:45 p.m. ET)

• Joaquin Buckley def. Justin Patterson via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Tim Cho def. Joshua Hardwick via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 2:43
• Manny Vazquez def. Nate Williams via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-27, 29-28) – 130-pound catchweight
• James Bochnovic def. Matt Paul via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 4:30
• Damian Norris def. Tom Shoaff via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Mike DeLaVega def. Brian Akins via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Adam Maciejewski vs. Prince McLean
• Tom Holder vs. Josh Streaker
• Cory Galloway vs. David Garcia
• Asef Askar vs. James Esposito
• Max Fuentes vs. Brandon Shelhart

For complete coverage of Bellator 175, check out the MMA Events section of the site.