Rafael Carvalho does not get paid by the hour.
One of the sport’s most underappreciated competitors and unheralded champions, Carvalho retained the Bellator MMA middleweight title with an eye-popping first-round finish on American Top Team’s Alessio Sakara in the Bellator 190 main event on Saturday at the Nelson Mandela Forum in Florence, Italy. Sakara bit the dust on the receiving end of a savage elbow strike 44 seconds into Round 1, his three-fight winning streak having run its course.
Carvalho rang the Italian’s bell with a right cross, charged at him with a flying knee and then closed the show with a slashing elbow strike along the fence.