Benson Henderson crashes Peter Queally’s homecoming in Dublin at Bellator 285
Bellator MMA returned to us today, September 23, 2022, for Bellator 285, going down live from the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
Headlining the event is former WEC & UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson (29-11), who faced off with Peter Queally (13-6-1) in the five round main event of the evening.
Co-headlining was a light-heavyweight affair between a pair of prolific knockout artists in three-time UFC middleweight title challenger, Olympic silver medalist in freestyle wrestling, Yoel Romero (14-6, 12 knockout wins), who faced professional kickboxing champion Melvin Manhoef (32-15-1-2, 29 knockout wins) today in Dublin.
Reverting back to our main event; Henderson was coming off a victory over 20-1-1, now 21-2-1 Islam Mamedov, becoming the only man to defeat the Russian talent since 2009, while Queally came in having gone 2-1 over his last three, with both a win, and defeat over Bellator lightweight champion Patricky Freire.
Continue reading to see how our lightweight main event of the evening went down:
Official Result: Benson Henderson def. Peter Queally via unanimous decision (49-45, 49-45, 49-45)
Queally opens up the bout with a furious pace, as he takes the center of the octagon and gets to work with his boxing.
Henderson counters with some nasty inside leg kicks, but he’s still being backed up.
Queally does land some nice punches, and he’s throwing a lot of combinations, but Queally eventually, midway through the round, gets overeager and Henderson is able to ground him along the fence.
Queally ends the first as he started it however, as he’s able to control the center whilst landing some crisp punches to the former champion.
Henderson kicks Queally low with one of those inside leg kicks to begin the second round and a pause is taken, with Henderson getting one point taken from him considering the damage the kick did.
And we’ll be honest, it was a bad one.
Once the action resumes, Queally gets right in Henderson’s grill again, but is again confronted with a takedown, this time a double leg. He’s able to scramble back to his feet, but getting his back off the fence is another story.
Henderson racks up a lot of control time in the second because of this. It’s not the most entertaining, but Henderson has thus far out-struck Queally 69-29, mostly because of his knees to the legs of Queally along the fence.
Henderson is beginning to really dominate this fight with his pressure, and it appears Queally may be breaking.
Queally continues to fall victim to the double leg takedown, and when he gets up, he either can’t get past being on his knees, or he can’t keep his back off the fence.
After three rounds Henderson is clearly up 29-27.
Henderson hurts and drops Queally early in the fourth and jumps to top position once again, but is only able to remain on top for about two minutes. The two never get back to striking range however, as Henderson continues smothering Queally.
With two minutes left in the fourth, the striking totals were 202-39 in favor of Henderson.
After a very similar sequence of events in the third and final round, Henderson is declared the victor after an incredibly dominant performance.
Benson Henderson has now won his last two-straight bouts, marking his first win streak since 2019.
Yoel Romero also did that in the co-main evenr; he’s now won his last two-straight, and he himself is on his first win streak since 2016.
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