Austin Vanderford suffered his first professional loss to Gegard Mousasi at Bellator 275 this past Friday, but ‘Mr. VanZant’ has already vowed to return to the Bellator cage a better fighter.
The previously undefeated Vanderford earned a championship opportunity against Mousasi after earning five consecutive wins and becoming the No. 1 contender in the middleweight division under the Bellator banner. As impressive as those past appearances were, he could not get anything going in his fight with the champion.
Mousasi stunned Vanderford with a left hand, which forced the 31-year-old to shoot in for a takedown. That was stuffed by ‘The Dreamcatcher,’ who then pounced on his opponent and dropped down punches and elbows that led to the 85-second stoppage in front of a raucous crowd at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.