The Weekly Wrap: Aug. 28 - Sept. 3

Warren Shocks at Bellator

In one of the wildest MMA comebacks this year, Joe Warren went from being outboxed, taunted and seemingly outclassed in the first round of his fight for Bellator Fighting Championships featherweight title bout to scoring a visceral knockout that unseated Joe Soto.

After eating jabs and crosses that had him in peril at moments in the first round, Warren launched a straight right that clipped Soto behind the head and dropped him in the second. Soto returned to his feet but ate a wild right knee and wide left hook for the jaw-dropping stoppage. Warren said his cornerman, World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight contender Scott Jorgensen, encouraged him in between rounds to uncork the straight right.

The bout was the first featuring a Bellator Season 2 tournament winner against a champion, and it represented the first time a Bellator title has changed hands since the company crowned champions last year. It was the seventh professional fight for the uber-scrappy Warren, a 33-year-old former world champion in Greco-Roman wrestling. Warren will make a quick turnaround and face Michihiro Omigawa at Dream 16 on Sept. 25 in Japan. Warren told "The Fight Show" that he intends to win Dream's featherweight title on New Year's Eve, make a defense or two early next year and then step away from MMA to train for the 2012 Olympics.

The Soto-Warren topped a Sept. 2 event from San Antonio, Texas, which also saw the field determined for the next round of the promotion’s bantamweight tournament.

Ed West took a unanimous decision over Bryan Goldsby, rolling for several submissions and staying busier than his opponent. Meanwhile, Zach Makovsky took a decision over Nick Mamalis by hitting takedowns and reversals in scrambles. Finally, perennial flyweight Ulysses Gomez narrowly found success against Travis Reddinger via split decision. Reddinger failed to close off a series of close triangles and armbars at the end of the fight. West, Makovsky and Gomez join Jose Vega in the semi-final round of the 135-pound tournament.

The Fox Sports Net broadcast of Bellator 27 was hampered by technical difficulties that blacked out the first two rounds of the West vs. Goldsby fight.