On Friday, April 18, Bellator MMA hosted its 117th event from the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In the night’s main event, the promotion’s vacant welterweight title was up for grabs as a pair of two-time tournament winners locked horns. Season five and season eight tournament winner Douglas Lima again challenged for 170-pound gold, having fallen short in his previous quest against former champion Ben Askren. His opponent, Rick Hawn, also was seeking a Bellator title once again. The Olympic judoka won the season six lightweight tournament, but was submitted by Michael Chandler. He rebounded to win the season nine welterweight tourney and earn his place opposite Lima.

Also on the card, the promotion held the semifinals of the season 10 lightweight tournament. In one half of the ladder, Brazilian Patricky “Pitbull” Freire faced off with Derek Campos, while Derek Anderson and Marcin Held met in the other half of the bracket.

Other notables on the card included former title challenger Karl Amoussou, UFC veterans Houston Alexander, Ryan Jensen and Anthony Smith, as well as former RFA champion Jared Downing.

The night’s preliminary card kicked off at 7 p.m. ET on Spike.com. The four-fight main card aired live on Spike TV beginning at 9 p.m. ET.

For the full results and recap of the card, click here.

Below is a full photo gallery of all the night’s action shot by The MMA Corner’s Jade Kimmel. Click an image below for a larger version.

Bellator 117 Fight Card
Douglas Lima vs. Rick Hawn – for vacant welterweight title
Patricky “Pitbull” Freire vs. Derek Campos – lightweight tournament semifinal
Marcin Held vs. Derek Anderson – lightweight tournament semifinal
Karl Amoussou vs. David Gomez
Houston Alexander vs. Matt Uhde
Mark Stoddard vs. Ryan Jensen
Martin Trey Brown vs. Jared Downing
Larue Burley vs. Cliff Wright Jr.
Joe Vedepo vs. Ben Crowder
Anthony Smith vs. Victor Moreno
Julio Cesar Neves vs. Josh Arocho
Jordan Parsons vs. Tim Bazer

About The Author

Jade Kimmel
Photographer

Jade Kimmel is a photographer and videographer based out of the Midwest. She's covered the sport since 2010 and has contributed to sites like Fighter Girls and Women's MMA Round-Up. Outside of MMA, she works in various aspects of graphic design and web development, as well as social media and search marketing for businesses, and has also worked as a video game journalist for various independent websites. Jade has trained in kickboxing, Taekwondo, and Krav Maga.