Let’s look at Brent Primus v Michael Chandler betting tips. Bellator 212 will take place at the Neal S Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 14 in front of a sell-out audience; they will arrive expecting to see the night match the hype created during the build-up. Armchair fans can follow the action live on TV on a number of channels, including the Paramount Network and, of course, DAZN.
The schedule has Brent Primus v Michael Chandler for the Bellator lightweight championship as their headline act; however, it’s not the only fight of note on the card with organisers bringing us a tantalising support act, as well as a preliminary schedule that’ll give hardcore fans plenty to shout about.
As well as the much-anticipated meeting of Primus and Chandler for the title, there’s also Frank Mir v Javy Ayala from the heavyweight division; a titanic clash we’d be surprised to see last the distance. There’s also Aljandra Lara v Juliana Velasquez’s from the women’s flyweight bracket and Derek Campos v Sam Sicilia which is billed as a competitive featherweight bout.
The preliminary card offers Brandon Pieper v Chris Avila lightweight, Robson Gracie v Brysen Boloao welterweight and Toby Misech v Edward Thommes featherweight. Those matches can be viewed on the Bellator.com website, either on your desktop or through the Mobile App version.
Turn up the heat
Lots for lovers of Mixed Martial Arts to sink their teeth into with some hard-hitting match-making taking place; followers of the Bellator promotion will have this one marked down on their calendar as a must-watch.
One sure-fire way for more casual fans to turn up the heat and increase their enjoyment of the occasion is with a bet on the outcome and bookmakers have done the work to ensure the biggest and best fights of the night are covered with the most exciting markets offered.
Make your call on the winner of each bout and club a few together in a nice priced accumulator or go for an upset and back it as single. If you know your stuff, or are just feeling a bit more adventurous, you could also tackle the method of victory market.
There’s more work involved there, and it presents a greater risk to your stake money, but the rewards are worth aiming for. Call the fight winner and how they will success for a method of victory double, studying the form of each warrior and taking your pick between decision, submission or KO/TKO.
Primus looking to defend his title
33-year-old American Brent Primus defends his world lightweight championship; he’ll be hoping to continue the glittering form that saw him top the division on the back of a run of incredible results. The Portland native fights out of the Sports Lab and brings a style heavily reliant on his background fighting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu where he reached the level of black belt.
Since turning his skills to professional MMA fighting in 2010, he has amassed a perfect eight-fight record, winning each of his previous outings. A closer look at the CV of Primus shows he has won half by submission with two wins coming by way of knockout and another two victories handed to him on the scorecards.
The champ won his trophy last time out courtesy of a TKO win over the same opponent, Michael Chandler, in New York City on Bellator NYC in the summer of last year. A leg injury was to blame for the bout coming to a premature end and that left a bad taste in the mouth of both fighters, as well as fans after seeing the clash warm-up into what promised to be a thriller. We were robbed of a great fight that night; however, thankfully organisers and both men were more than happy to put in the work to arrange a rematch. Let’s hope this one is fought to a proper conclusion and there’s no controversy in the result.
Another upset
Brent may have got his fair share of good fortune in the result; however, it went down as one of the biggest shocks in Bellator history and the only way it could be eclipsed was if Primus is able to do it again. You can back him for the victory at 23/10 at Bet-at-Home or, if you fancy a repeat performance with Chandler’s old injury flaring up, you’ll get a cracking price on a successful defence by KO/TKO. It happened last time and there’s every chance it could happen again.
The only downside when evaluating the champion’s chances is he remains terribly inexperienced and hasn’t been seen competing in an octagon since scoring that early win over Michael in June 2017. That period away would’ve hampered his career in a time when he should be fighting as often as possible. There’s no doubt if Primus can beat Chandler again it would overshadow the first fight. As we said, it could happen, and you can’t take anything for granted in this sport. Having said that, it’s not a bet for us and we’d rather have our stake money on revenge over repeat.
Chandler desperate to right a few wrongs
Michael Chandler, the fighting pride of Nashville, has experience competing in both the lightweight and welterweight divisions and has been active in the sport since 2009. He fights out of Boca Raton in Florida, representing the Hard Knocks 365 team. A decorated wrestler, his experience is obvious in his fighting style today and he approaches this contest with a record 18 wins from 22 starts.
Seven of his victories to date have come by knockout, with the same number taken by submission, four on a points decision. On the other side of the fence we see he has lost four times and has an equal split of two KO/TKOs and a couple decision.
One of those early nights can be excused due to the injury sustained when fighting Primus last time and that’s easy enough to forgive. The other KO reverse on his CV came at the hands of Will Brooks in a 2014 rematch on Bellator 131. Having lost to the same man in his previous outing on points, there was no questioning the result second time out with Brooks delivering a heavy-handed barrage of shots to force the stoppage.
A man on form
What’s interesting about Chandler’s record is that three of his four defeats came in-a-row and the other was the result of injury. Poor patch of form aside, he’s a man showing great results and since losing to Brooks in 2014 he has bounced back to win six of his seven goes since.
A closer look at that run shows us half of his last six have been settled by KO/TKO and that pushes us towards another. Will Michael get revenge and do to his opponent what he did to him last summer? We think so and will put forward Chandler by KO/TKO as our main selection in this grudge match. Good luck if you follow our thinking.
Bet on Chandler to win with odds of 1/4 at Bet-at-Home now. Don’t forget to check out our best MMA betting strategies and our other top tips.