Bellator 208 Betting Preview & Picks

Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, New York, was once the home of the NHL’s New York Islanders. The rink has moved to Barclays Arena in the city, but Nassau Coliseum still hosts some venerable sporting events, including Saturday’s Bellator 208. This features the second half of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinals, with Chael Sonnen set to fight Fedor Emelianenko. Emelianenko won his quarterfinal against Frank Mir and looks to extend what has been a considerable career in the promotion, while Sonnen looks to pull off an upset against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. The co-headliner features former UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson against Saad Awad, a lnogtime Bellator fighter who has four wins in a row. Check out the full card as well as our MMA betting thoughts about several of the bouts.

Bellator 208 Betting Preview & Picks

Main Card (9:00pm ET, Paramount Network)

• Fedor Emelianenko (37-5, 1 NC) vs Chael Sonnen (30-15-1)
• Benson Henderson (25-8) vs Saad Awad (23-9)
• Cheick Kongo (28-10-2) vs Timothy Johnson (12-4) (heavyweight)
• Alexander Shlemenko (56-11, 1 NC) vs Anatoly Tokov (26-2) (middleweight)
• Henry Corrales (15-3) vs Andy Main (12-3-1, 1 NC) (featherweight)

Preliminary Card (7:00pm ET)

Professional Debuts:

• Robson Gracie vs Jamal Pottinger (175-pound catchweight)
• Jennifer Chieng vs Jessica Ruiz (women’s strawweight)
• Shaquan Moore vs David Meshkoradze (welterweight)

Other Preliminary Bouts:

• Sukhrob Aydarbekov (5-3) vs Tommy Espinosa (5-1) (flyweight)
• Jerome Mickle (3-6) vs Nick Fiore (2-3) (lightweight)
• Frank Buenafuente (9-4) vs James Gonzalez (4-3) (featherweight)
• Eric Olsen (0-1) vs Jeremy Puglia (0-1) (middleweight)
• Ryan Castro (0-1) vs Dennis Buzukja (debut) (lightweight)
• Mike Diorio (1-2) vs Drews Rodriguez (debut) (welterweight)
• Christian Medina (0-1) vs Zarrukh Adashev (0-1) (flyweight)

Fedor Emelianenko vs Chael Sonnen is a fight that the Russian should win. He took down Frank Mir, formerly the UFC heavyweight champion, in his last bout — and it just took him about a minute to deliver the knockout. As he has progressed in his career, he has started to lean more on his striking and raw power to get his wins. Sonnen will look to get the fight down on the floor because of his wrestling skills. He will want to get the Russian on his back, at which point he can shut down the offense. This worked for him against Wanderlei Silva as well as Jackson, but neither of them showed the sort of form that Emelianenko has put forth recently. Bellator 208 Prediction: Emelianenko wins via knockout Benson Henderson vs Saad Awad gives us a savvy Bellator veteran in Awad and a fighter looking for redemption in Henderson. He has won just two of five bouts in this promotion, but his win over Roger Huerta was impressive. His wrestling background and his ability to deliver big kicks with his legs will serve him well — well enough to get through Awad, who has thrived against lower-level competition but has not done well against the top tiers in Bellator. Bellator 208 Prediction: Henderson wins via decision Cheick Kongo vs Timothy Johnson gives us a winner of six consecutive bouts in Kongo, including such notables as Augusto Sakai, Oli Thompson and Alexander Volkov. Johnson makes his Bellator debut after having a hard time getting a winning streak up and running in UFC, and Kongo will be a significant challenge in his debut. Kongo has the strength and the speed either to get Johnson on the floor or punish him against the cage. Bellator 208 Prediction: Kongo wins via decision Alexander Shlemenko vs Anatoly Tokov  gives us a former middleweight champ in Shlemenko who hasn’t done much at all lately against a newcomer in Tokov, who has won his first two fights in bellator, taking both fighters to the ground. Tokov has the strength to get Shlemenko to the ground and finish him right there. Bellator 208 Prediction: Tokov wins via submission