On Saturday, April 8, Bellator MMA hosted its 176th event from the northern Italian city of Torino at the Pala Alpitour with a four-fight main card. The card was a joint effort with Italian promotion Oktagon, who hosted the Victory World Series portion of the event prior to Bellator Kickboxing 5.
In the night’s main event, the promotion’s middleweight champion, Rafael Carvalho, met striking stalwart Melvin Manhoef for a second time. The pair met at Bellator 155 last May with Carvalho retaining his 185-pound title after a contentious, lackluster split decision. The Brazilian entered his second title defense riding a 13-fight winning streak that included four straight in the Bellator cage. The Dutch-based Manhoef aimed to secure his first major MMA title after a lengthy career of also competing in kickboxing.
The action kicked off Saturday at 11 a.m. ET. The event aired via same day tape-delay on Spike TV at 3 p.m ET.
Anastasia Yankova def. Elina Kallionidou by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Valeriu Mircea def. Djamil Chan by majority decision (28-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Mihail Nica def. Samba Coulibaly by submission (anaconda choke). Round 1, 0:36
Giorgio Belsanti def. Vando De Almeida by unanimous decision