By Evan Stoumbelis – @MMAEvan

Bellator 97 took place tonight, on Spike TV, and what a night of fights it was.

Kicking off the night on Spike.com with the prelims

Will Brooks defeated Cris Lyva via 3rd round TKO (Punches 2:20)
Rafael Silva defeated Rodrigo Lima via 3rd round submission (Rear-naked choke 2:03) in the bantamweight tournament semifinals
Anthony Leone defeated Frank Baca via 3rd round submission (Rear-naked choke 1:07) in the bantamweight tournament semifinals
Bubba Jenkins defeated Mike Barreras via 2nd round TKO (Punches 1:05)

Next we tuned in to the main card on Spike TV

Patricio Freire defeated Jared Downing via 3rd round TKO (Punces 0:54)
Vitaly Minakov defeated Ryan Martinez via 3rd round TKO (Punches 4:02) in the heavyweight tournament final
Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal defeated Jacob Noe via 3rd round verbal submission (punches 2:51) in the light heavyweight tournament final
Ben Askren defeated Andrey Koreshkov via 4th round TKO (Punches 2:58) to retain his welterweight strap
Michael Chandler defeated David Rickels via 1st round KO (Punches 0:44) to retain his lightweight strap