Daley is currently preparing to fight Daniel Acacio at Impact FC 2 in Australia next weekend, his first fight since being fired from the UFC for sucker-punching Josh Koscheck after their fight at UFC 113.

A report on BJPenn.com suggested that the fighter was set to sign a multi-fight deal with Bellator, citing an unnamed source, but Daley himself later revealed that this was not the case.

“I have not signed with Bellator, this is bullsh*t. As it stands i am a free agent, and i am in talks with a few promotions. But i doubt i will sign with Bellator anytime soon.”

Amongst Daley’s other suitors are believed to include Strikeforce, but a source close to Bellator admitted to MMAjunkie that they have been vying for the in-demand welterweight’s signature.

“It’s still a possibility he signs (with Bellator),” the source said. “It’s hard to say if it’ll happen, but there’s a possibility.”

Frausto looked significantly bigger than Sexton in the cage and made her pay for a cumbersome takedown attempt just two minutes into the fight by landing a devastating knee that folded the UK fighter onto the canvas. Clearly dazed, Sexton was in no position to defend herself on the ground as Frausto landed heavy blows, forcing the referee to call an end to the contest.

Frausto’s win was announced as a TKO, but as you’ll see from the video below it was clearly deserving of a KO.

“Made a mistake, nature of the sport. Well done to zoila. Hope we can do that fight again sometime, but either way I’ll be back,” Sextonposted on her twitter account after the fight.

The shock defeat leaves submission specialist Sexton’s record at 9-2 and raises doubts as to whether she will now be able to compete in Bellator’s eight-woman tournament which starts in August. A KO loss equates to a 60 day suspension which would keep her out of the competition.

If she is ruled out then one woman who could be eager to replace her is Frausto who is now 7-1 in her pro career and just handed out one of the most spectacular KO’s in woman’s MMA to date.

“I talked to Zoila about the tournament – we have suspensions to consider in terms of Rosi’s participation,” Bellator’s Bjorn Rebney stated after the conclusion of the event, though he did say that one way or another Sexton would be back to fight for the promotion.

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Main Card:

Joe Warren defeats Patricio Pitbull by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Pitbull put on a virtually flawless first round display, outclassing Warren on the feet and shrugging off his takedown attempts. By the end of the round he appeared close to finishing his opponent after dropping him to the mat with a right hand. Pitbull quickly moved to mount before taking his back and landing a succession of unanswered blows. With the referee appearing reluctant to stop he switched tactic, sinking in a deep rear-naked choke just as the bell sounded to save Warren from certain defeat.

It was Pitbull who also started the second stronger, but Warren finally got his gameplan up and running in the second half of the round, securing a takedown and working his ground and pound while Pitbull, who may well have tired himself out in the first frame, rarely threatened from his back.

Warren’s comeback continued in the third as again he successfully executed a takedown and took advantage of Pitbull’s relative inactivity to keep him their for much of the round and grind out the final minutes of the fight.

Pitbull was within seconds of finishing the bout in the first round, but by the final bell he had let the victory slip from his grasp and Warren was crowned the champion.

Watch Pitbull’s domination at the end of the first round below:

Alexander Shlemenko defeats Bryan Baker by TKO at 2.45mins of Rd1

After throwing a dizzying number of spinning backfists in the opening minute Shlemenko catches Baker with a right and then a knee which drops him. Baker continues to fight from his back but he appears very lethargic and is clearly dazed as Shlemenko continues to rain down blows, forcing a referee stoppage.

Zoila Frausto defeats Rosi Sexton by TKO at 2mins of Rd1

- Sexton gets over eager for takedown early in the first round and pays the price when Frausto lands a perfectly timed knee that knocks Sexton senseless and straight to the floor, following up with punches to finish.

Here’s a GIF of the latest ‘Bellator moment’…

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Props to ZP from the Sherdog forums for the gifs.

Like the first season, the second provided plenty of so-called ‘Bellator moments’, whether it was spectacular knockouts, crazy submissions or just plain old WTF? moments.

In celebration of this the promotion has released a video highlighting the top 10 finishes from the first two seasons, so sit back and enjoy the action below…

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This time round it was Jose Vega who stepped up to the plate by knocking Jarrod Card clean out with a left hook just 39 seconds into the fight.

Watch the full fight below courtesy of Bellator.

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Former Wrestling Champion Askren Victorious

The experienced and well rounded Hornbuckle was seen to be the toughest challenge yet for Askren who’s still a relative newcomer to the sport, but that proved not to be the case as he showed suffocating control over his opponent on the mat and was rarely threatened by his opponents dangerous submission game.

Askren will go on to fight current Bellator welterweight champion Lyman Good in season 3 later this year.

Check out the full list of results from Bellator 22 below.

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Main Card:

• Ben Askren def. Dan Hornbuckle via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Jose Vega def. Jarrod Card via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 0:39
• Raphael Davis def. Demetrius Richards via submission (punches) – Round 1, 2:51

Prelims:

• Tyler Stinson def. Leonardo Pecanha via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 1:42
• Rudy Bears def. Brian Green via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 3:49*
• Lisa Ward def. Stephanie Frausto via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:07
• Cole Konrad def. John Orr via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Jared Downing def. Chad Vandenberg via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 1:35

Curran picked up a $100,000 cheque for the victory, and now moves on to face Bellator’s season one champion Eddie Alvarez for the 155lb strap.

Meanwhile Megumi Fujii made her Bellator debut, and picked up a second round TKO victory over Sarah Schneider to extend her remarkable record to 20-0. Fujii will return to the promotion in season 3 to compete in the 115lb tournament where she’ll compete with the likes of UK star Rosi Sexton.

Shlemenko appeared to be heading for a defeat against Jared Hess going into the third round of their bout, but a knee strike early in the final stanza crumpled Hess to the mat and changed the complexion of the fight.

What had went unnoticed in the process was that Hess had suffered a horrific knee injury during the fall, but yet he was still continuing to fight.  The damage only became apparent when he attempted to get to his feet and gave way in a direction it’s not supposed to.

It was a stomach churning moment, and replays of both the original fall and the subsequent stand-up revealed the full extent of one of the worst and most graphic injuries we’ve seen in the sport in quite some time.

For his part Hess stayed remarkably calm throughout the whole ordeal but he was eventually taken out of the cage on a stretcher and it may be quite some time before he returns.

In the other semi-final Bryan Baker made short work of Eric Shambari, requiring just half of the opening round to secure a triangle choke submission victory.

Elsewhere on the main card former UFC heavyweight fighter Eddie Sanchez showed heart to come back from a knockdown and ground and pound assault in the second round to eventually swing the bout back in his favor and then punch out an exhausted Marcus Sursa early in the third.

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Main Card Results:

• Bryan Baker def. Eric Schambari via submission (triangle choke) – Round 1, 2:29
• Alexander Shlemenko def. Jared Hess via TKO (knee injury) – Round 3, 2:20
• Eddie Sanchez def. Marcus Sursa via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 0:23
• Nik Mamalis def. Mark Oshiro via submission (rear naked choke) – Round 2, 1:29

In the end it went as many people had expected – Ben Askren and Dan Hornbuckle successfully navigated their semi-final match-ups to earn their spot in the final and put themselves within touching distance of a fight with current welterweight champion Lyman Good.

Askren’s rematch with Ryan Thomas featured no controversy this time round as he used his wrestling to control his opponent en-route to a unanimous decision victory. Meanwhile Hornbuckle once again demonstrated his ability to end fights quickly by requiring only 2 and a half minutes to finish Steve Carl by a kimura submission.

Elsewhere current featherweight champion Joe Soto made short work of challenger Diego Saraiva, landing a vicious elbow in the closing stages of the first round that forced a referee stoppage.

Check out the full list of results from the main card below.

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Main Card Results:

Joe Soto defeats Diego Saraiva via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) at 5:00mins of Rd1

Ben Askren defeats Ryan Thomas via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Dan Hornbuckle defeats Steve Carl via submission (kimura) at 2:31mins of Rd1

Scott Barrett defeats Ty Lee via TKO (punches) at 2:25mins of Rd1

The idea initially stems from Melendez who is keen to test himself against more quality opposition having defeated DREAM’s lightweight champion Shinya Aoki last month.

“I think he’s an amazing fighter, and that’s why I call out Eddie Alvarez,” Melendez said on HDNet’s Inside MMA show last week. “Let’s unify those titles. I’d love to fight that guy and test myself. I think if I could beat him, I could be No. 1 and vice versa.”

That challenge would appear to be something that would interest Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney who has previously stated that he would be confident about putting Alvarez up against anybody in the world at 155lbs.

“I will do everything I can to get Gilbert what he asked for,” was Rebney’s official response to the challenge. “Gilbert wants the fight, Eddie wants the fight, and I want the fight. All we have to do is get Scott Coker on board, and together, we can make this happen. Eddie wants to fight the best, and Gilbert wants to fight the best, and there is no reason why any promoter or network should stand in the way of that.”

Hours later Scott Coker gave signals that he was just as eager to see this fight take place.

“If the stars align and we can work out all the terms and conditions and timing, we’d do it,” Coker told MMAjunkie.com. “Of course we would. Why wouldn’t we? Let’s go do this.”

It’s good to see the two promotions so willing to participate in a co-promotion arrangement, and with both Melendez and Alvarez being exciting fighters to watch this should be a great fight, and one that’s highly significant in terms of the overall lightweight rankings.

The only question would be, where would this fight take place?  On Strikeforce via Showtime, or ideally CBS, or on Bellator via Fox Sports Net?  To my mind it makes sense for Bellator to piggyback onto the Strikeforce show since they are the more established promotion at this moment in time.

Also, if your going to do Alvarez Vs Melendez, why not put together a fight involving Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard vs someone like Dan Henderson, ‘Jacare’ Souza or Jake Shields if he sticks around, while they are at it?