Bellator Dublin Results: Benson Henderson Wins Unilateral Decision Over Peter Queally, Yoel Romero Resets Melvin Manhoef

Benson Henderson didn’t mind playing spoilers for Irish audiences.

The former UFC lightweight champion won a thorough, albeit artisanal, unanimous decision over hometown favorite Peter Queally in Friday’s Bellator 285 main event, held at the 3Arena Arena in Dublin, Ireland. Henderson (30-11) led the dance from post to post, using a steady diet of takedowns, forward pressure and clinch control along the fence to post a trio of 49-45 points over Queally (13-7-1 ) to score His only point deduction was the result of a groin kick in the second round.

While in control the entire time, the 38-year-old American had his best moment in Round 4 when he dropped Queally with a monster standing elbow. Henderson teemed with strikes to finish, but Queally survived and eventually made it to the last horn.

“Man, Peter’s badass,” Henderson said afterwards. “I know I landed some super clean good elbows and he just looked at me and came forward. I thought, ‘Holy [crap]!’ That damn ‘zombie’ song – it’s a zombie.”

The win raised Henderson’s Bellator record to 7-6 since he signed on the promotion in 2016. Henderson then called to face the winner of the Bellator 288 lightweight title fight between reigning champion Patricky Pitbull and Usman Nurmagomedov on November 18.

In the night’s co-main event, Yoel Romero (15-6) gave Melvin Manhoef (32-16-1) a brutal MMA send-off, finishing the 28-year-old veteran with a devastating third-round knockout.

After two sluggish opening rounds, Romero ramped up his aggression in the final frame, tripping Manhoef and crushing him with a volley of hard punches and elbows from top position. Three particularly nasty elbows were the last fatal blow to Manhoef’s career and left the Dutchman unconscious on the canvas at the 3:34 mark of the third round.

“Ladies and gentlemen, look at me!” shouted a heated Romero. “I’m the best in the world at 185 pounds! No matter what competition, no matter what house, I’m the best 185-pounder in the world. You have to fight me.”

Manhoef, 46, is leaving MMA after a nearly three-decade run highlighted by knockouts by Mark Hunt, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuo Misaki and others after making his debut in 1995.

“I didn’t want to fight a nobody,” Manhoef said after the fight, removing his gloves and placing them in the middle of the cage. “I wanted to fight names and I did my best. I’ve been doing this for 28 years, it’s what I love and I appreciate all the support you’ve given me. But today I think that after 28 years of fighting I have to hang up my gloves. Thanks for the support, you make my life great, you make me feel alive.”

Elsewhere on the main card, Leah McCourt (7-2) won a controversial unanimous decision over Dayana Silva (10-8) to draw within striking distance of a title shot against Bellator World Women’s Featherweight Champion Cris Cyborg until Cyborg’s contractual status is clarified with the promotion.

It was a close if uneventful contest and although Silva defeated many of the contests, it was McCourt who ultimately garnered the judges’ support, receiving scorecards of 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 in her favor and bounced back from her February loss to Sinead Kavanagh, which was her first setback in the Bellator cage.

In a deciding featherweight bout, SBG Ireland’s Pedro Carvalho (14-6) ignited the Dublin crowd with a hard fought unanimous decision over fellow competitor Mads Burnell (16-5).

The fight was a tale of two halves as Burnell controlled the action with suffocating groundwork for most of the opening seven minutes, only for Carvalho to then advance with reversals and level changes of his own, including a dominant Round 3 that saw the 27-year-old scores a big takedown into side control, followed by several minutes of ground-and-pound.

In the end, Carvalho won all three judges’ scorecards (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) to improve his Bellator overall record to 6-3, while Burnell fell to 3-2 in the promotion.

In the night’s main card opener, Ireland’s Karl Moore (10-2) netted a dramatic assist from Karl Albrektsson (13-4) to win his return after a three-year hiatus.

Moore was saved by the bell at the end of the first round after being dropped from a standing elbow and then punched along the fence. However, he reversed his fortunes in Round 2, tripping Albrektsson with a double leg and then working to Albrektsson’s back, packing a knobby jaw crank to coax a fight-ending tapout at the 2:36 mark of the round.

“I’ve been out for three years, so I wanted a high-level guy. Karl Albrektsson is 7th in the Bellator rankings, which takes me straight up,” said Moore. “Yoel Romero, maybe we’ll see each other soon, boy.”

The full results from Bellator Dublin can be viewed below.

Provisional Map

• Brian Moore defeated. Arivaldo Lima da Silva by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

• Brett Johns defeated. Jordan Winski by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)

• Darragh Kelly defeated. Kye Stevens by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)

• Kane defeated Mousah. Georgi Karakhanyan by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

• Kenny defeated Mokhonoana. Alex Bodnar via Submission (Guillotine Choke) – Round 1, 2:42

• Asael Adjoudj defeated. Jordan Barton via TKO (headbutt, punches) – Round 1, 2:39

• Luca Poclit defeated. Dante Schiro via Sub (modified arm triangle) – Round 2, 4:31 | watch the end