Bellator 184 results: Ex-champ Pat Curran tops John Teixeira after lengthy layoff

Former featherweight champion Pat Curran picked his shots against an aggressive John Teixeira.

But, when those shots landed, they landed big. The result of Curran’s (23-7 MMA, 13-4 BMMA) accuracy was a unanimous sweep of Teixeira (21-3-2 MMA, 4-2 BMMA) on the judges’ interesting scorecards – which ranged from a 29-28 to a 30-26, with a 30-27 in between.

John Teixeira was the early aggressor, throwing some hard punches right off the bat. Curran was tentative early, mostly circling around and throwing rare shots as Teixeira mixed short hand combinations and low kicks. A sloppy entrance by Teixeira, however, saw a right hand by Curran landing clean on his jaw. After looking rocked for a split second, Teixeira resumed attack position. Curran, however, seemed to smell blood – and soon it was Teixeira who started backing up. After landing yet another hard shot to Teixeira’s chin, Curran grew increasingly aggressive and found another huge right hand before the round ended.

Curran came out more aggressive in the second. But Teixeira, understandably, didn’t seem too interested in engaging. A takedown by the Brazilian featherweight was short-lived, as Curran was back up in no time. As the they resumed their exchanges on the feet halfway through the second, both fighters seemed more careful about keeping the distance. Teixeira relied heavily on the low kicks, while Curran seemed to seek openings for the counters that served him well early. Curran was able to secure a takedown in the final 40 seconds of the round, but this time it was Teixeira who wanted no business on the ground. Teixeira ate one big jab before the bell rang, but a knee by Curran missed.

Curran wasn’t about to relinquish control in round three, taking full advantage of his stifling wrestling game to keep Teixeira in constant survival mode early on. While Teixeira stayed active, managing to repeatedly get back up, Curran just wouldn’t relent, staying close and landing knees to the body against the cage. Halfway through the round the two were back on their feet – but the writing was on the wall. While Teixeira was, again, the aggressor, the shots weren’t landing. Curran may have failed to keep Teixeira down late in the third, but remained elusive on the feet until the final bell rang.

The win snapped a long, injury-motivated layoff for the ex-champ, who hadn’t fought since a Bellator 155 win over Georgi Karakhanyan in May 2016. He’s now on a three-fight streak. “Macapa,” in turn, has a two-fight skid after dropping a split call to Daniel Weichel.

Bellator 184 results:

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

• Champ Eduardo Dantas vs. Darrion Caldwell – for bantamweight title
• Emmanuel Sanchez vs. Daniel Straus
• Pat Curran def. John Teixeira via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-26)
• Leandro Higo def. Joe Taimanglo via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

PRELIMINARY CARD (MMAjunkie, 7 p.m. ET)

• Manuel Muro def. Emmanuel Rivera via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Sean Holden def. Shakir McKillip via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 4:39 – 160-pound catchweight
• Carrington Banks def. Steve Kozola via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-25, 30-25)
• Chance Rencountre def. Justin Patterson via submission (D’Arce choke) – Round 1, 2:58
• Teagan Dooley def DeMarcus Simmons via submission (Americana) – Round 2, 2:12
• Westin Wilson def. L.J. Hermreck via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 0:55
• Kendall Carnahan def. Daniel Carey via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
• Ernest James vs. Ray Jones

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