Alexander Shlemenko guillotine submits Brennan Ward to retain Bellator middleweight title

Alexander "Storm" Shlemenko (50-7) submitted Brennan Ward (9-2) with a standing guillotine choke at 1:22 of the second round to retain the Bellator MMA middleweight title Friday at Bellator 114 in West Valley City, Utah.

Ward, a former NCAA wrestler, tried to take control in the first round by taking the fight to the the ground, but Shlemenko was able to reject two rear-naked choke attempts in the first round and keep the fight in his comfort zone, staying on his feet and landing a number of great kicks. 

Ward manage to trade blows with the Russian, but his relative inexperience showed in the second round, as he went for a reckless single-leg takedown, which was easily countered into the guillotine by Shlemenko, who won his fiftieth fight at the age of 29.

“I’m very glad that I got this victory, and I hope my next 50 victories come in a row,” Shlemenko told Sherdog.com. “Thanks very much to Brennan Ward for the great fight. I was waiting. I knew he would get tired by the second round, so I was just waiting.”

"Storm" will now wait for the winner of the middleweight tournament to determine his next title defense.  

Brett Cooper (20-9), whose previous fight was a unanimous decision loss to Shlemenko, moved one step closer to a rematch, knocking out Kendall Grove (19-14), season 3 winner of The Ultimate Fighter, in the second round of their middleweight semifinal fight. He'll wait for the victor of Dan Kramer (10-4) vs. Jeremy Kimball (10-4), which has yet to be scheduled.

Daniel Weichel (33-8) and Desmond Green (11-2) advanced to the finals of the featherweight, and are scheduled to fight May 2 at Bellator 118.

Bellator 113 results: