Bellator 274 main card preview, best bets & value picks

Neiman Gracie and Logan Storley are set to clash in the main event at Bellator 274 in what will be the first scheduled five-round main event in a non-title or non-Grand Prix tournament bout in the promotion’s history. Here’s a look at that welterweight matchup and the three fights on the main card leading up to it this Saturday in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Welterweight: Neiman Gracie (-163) vs Logan Storley (+143)

Neiman Gracie (11-2-0) earned the first knockout win of his career over Mark Lemminger at Bellator 266 last September. Nine of his previous 10 professional wins had come by way of submission. Gracie is now 2-2-0 over his last four fights after having opened his career with a 9-0 record that included a 7-0 start in Bellator.

Logan Storley (12-1-0) bounced back from the first loss of his professional career to Yaroslav Amosov at Bellator 252 with a decision win over Dante Schiro last August at Bellator 265. Eight of Storley’s 12 professional wins have come by knockout, though three of his last five wins have come via decision. This will be an interesting stylistic matchup between a great grappler in Gracie and a strong striker in Storley. This one could go either way, but we like the jiu-jitsu specialist to eventually seal the win with a timely submission maneuver as he’ll have 25 minutes to find one.

Welterweight: Andrey Koreshkov (-350) vs Chance Rencountre (+280)

Andrey Koreshkov (24-4-0) was originally scheduled to fight the undefeated Mukhamed Berkhamov in this spot, but Berkhamov pulled out of the fight and was replaced by Chance Rencountre. Rencountre returns to Bellator for the first time since 2017 after having gone 2-2 in the UFC and more recently 2-0 in the FAC. Koreshkov is 2-2 over his last two Bellator fights after having gone 13-2 over his previous 15 bouts in the promotion.

The former Welterweight World Champion is the better fighter here, though we’re not so sure he should be favored by this much. Rencountre is 8-2 over his last 10 fights, and the two losses over that stretch came in the UFC against two very talented opponents in Belal Muhammad and Lyman Good. We’re going to take a shot on the underdog here getting a pretty healthy price to do so.

Lightweight: Georgi Karakhanyan (+265) vs Adam Piccolotti (-340)

Adam Piccolotti (12-4-0) fell to 3-4 over his last seven fights with a split decision loss to Sidney Outlaw in his last fight at Bellator 244 in August of 2020. Georgi Karakhanyan (31-12-1) had a two-fight winning streak snapped with a decision loss to Saul Rogers at Bellator 266 and is also 3-4 over his last seven fights. This is another fight where we can’t quite get behind the favorite at such a steep price. Piccolotti likely wins if he’s in top form, but he hasn’t won since September of 2019 and hasn’t fought in 18 months. Karakhanyan has has three fights over that time frame and is 2-1 in them. Another spot we’ll take the big underdog in.

Heavyweight: Davion Franklin (+160) vs Said Sowma (-185)

Said Sowma (8-2-0) entered Bellator with a 6-1 record and has gone 2-1 with the promotion, bouncing back from a loss to Tyrell Fortune to earn knockout wins over Ronny Markes and Vitaly Minakov. Davion Franklin (4-0-0) is off to a perfect start to his Bellator career at 4-0 with three first-round knockouts. Perhaps the bookies know something we don’t, but we’re once again scratching our heads on this line. This looks like a competitive bout between two young heavyweight prospects on paper, and once again we’re happy to take such a healthy payout on the underdog.