Ben Parrish made a big splash with a big upset in his Bellator debut. But Sullivan Cauley had other ideas about upsets Saturday at Bellator 273.
Cauley (3-0 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) took Parrish (5-2 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) down early and controlled him with relative ease on the canvas. Eventually, Cauley, a Ryan Bader protege, looked a lot like his mentor when he pounded Parrish out at the 4:35 mark of the opening round and kept Parrish from a second straight Bellator upset after his viral win over Christian Edwards in 2021.
Bellator 273 took place at Footprint Center in Phoenix.
Talk about RELENTLESS! 👊💥
An epic way to kick off Bellator MMA’s 2022 season as @SullyTroy100 puts a ground & pound beating on Ben Parrish!
Tune in to the #Bellator273 prelims, brought to you by @MonsterEnergy.
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— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) January 30, 2022
Parrish kicked high early, but missed. When he tried again to the body a few seconds later, Cauley caught the kick and took him down. Cauley quickly moved to side control to the delight of his home fans. Cauley recovered to half-guard, but still was in trouble on his back eating punches.
Parrish threw elbows and tried to crawl his way to the fence. Parrish went after a kimura midway through the round, which slowed Cauley’s attack for a few moments. But soon after, Cauley landed big right hands that started to spill Parrish’s blood.
Cauley jumped to mount with 90 seconds left, then took Parrish’s back. Parrish scrambled his way back to guard, but couldn’t get back to his feet. Cauley started to unleash with punches and was relentless with them, and before too long, referee Mike Beltran shut things down for the first-round TKO.
