The cream has risen to the top in the Bellator MMA heavyweight grand prix.
Former Pride Fighting Championships titleholder Fedor Emelianenko and reigning Bellator light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader punched -- quite literally -- their tickets to the tournament final in January and did so in resounding fashion roughly 24 hours apart.
Bader tortured Matt Mitrione across three rounds in the Bellator 207 main event on Friday at the Mohegan Sun Arena, posting a lopsided unanimous decision on the strength of repeated takedowns and punishing ground-and-pound.