Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (32-4) submitted Emmanuel Sanchez (20-5) during their rematch on April 2 at Mohegan Sun Arena. The bout served as the main event of Bellator 255 – the organization’s first show for 2021.

Freire, whose win secured him a place in Bellator’s finals for its featherweight grand prix, sealed the deal on Friday evening with a guillotine choke at 3:35 in the first round  after he downed Sanchez with punches. The move rendered Sanchez unconscious.

Freire is now poised to face A.J. McKee (17-0) in the finals.

The main card opened with a fast moving flyweight bout between Alejandra Lara (9-4) and Judo expert Kana Watanabe (10-0-1). Lara managed a reversal during the first round and take Watanabe’s back but the latter generally dominated the bout, which generally stayed on the ground. One judge still awarded the fight to Lara by 29-28 while the other two scored it the same but in favor of Watanabe.

The next fight was a lightweight bout between Usman Nurmagomedov (12-0) and Mike Hamel (7-5) that ended with an unanimous decision. Two judges scored it 30-27 and one scored it 29-28 in favor of Nurmagomedov.

Tyrell Fortune (10-1) punched out fellow heavyweight Jack May (11-8) during a rematch. Fortune secured the win at 3:16 in the first round. “Whose talking s—t now,” shouted Fortune after the fight, clearly indicating there is no love lost between himself and May.

Jason Jackson’s left eye was “cheese-grated” against the fence during the first round of his welterweight fight with BJJ exponent Neiman Gracie (10-2), who accidently poked him in the eye during the third round. But two referee stoppages, one of which ended with the fighters being returned to the ground with Gracie in a mounted position, did not prevent Jackson (14-4) from defeating Gracie by unanimous decision. All three judges scored the co-main event 29-28 in what appeared to be a close fight.

The preliminary card opened with a middleweight bout between Jordan Newman (3-0) and Branko Busick (2-2). Newman won by knockout with elbows to a grounded Busick at 2:30 of the second round.

During the next fight, welterweight Roman Faraldo (5-0) punched his way to a TKO of Trevor Gudde (2-2) at 1:30 of the first round.

Jose Augusto (17-1) submitted Jonathan Wilson (9-3) with a head-and-arm choke at 4:58 in the first round of their light heavyweight

Chris Gonzales (6-0) took Roger Huerta’s back and threw left-handed punches during the third round of their fight.  Huerta (24-13-1) subsequently tapped out at 3:01. The fight was contracted at 160 pounds.

Khalid Murtazzaliev (15-2) defeated Fabio Aguiar (17-2) by unanimous decision following a clinch-heavy middleweight bout. Two judges scored it 30-27 and one scored it 29-28.

Mandell Nallo (8-1) used a powerful, right-handed “Superman” punch to knockout Ricard Seixas (9-3) in the first round. He threw a second right at his sitting, dazed opponent before the referee intervened and ended the lightweight fight at 3:23.

Magomed Magomedov (18-1) submitted Cee Jay Hamilton (15-8) with a rear naked choke at 1:22 in the first round of their bantamweight fight.

A welterweight fight between Mukhamed Berkhamov (14-1) and Herman Terrado (15-5-1) was cancelled.