There’s not anything in sports activities relatively like a redemption tale, and redemption tales don’t come significantly better than that of Bellator welterweight Brennan Ward. Ward seems to proceed that tale on Friday when he faces former welterweight champion Logan Storley in the principle match of Friday’s Bellator 298 from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Ward entered Bellator as a highly-regarded anticipation with super completing energy. Ward would spend the upcoming a number of years damn off remarkable wins sooner than struggling losses when stepping up his stage of pageant. The towering level of Ward’s date with Bellator got here seven fights into his date with the promotion when he received the season 9 middleweight match.

Day Ward was once preventing within the Bellator cage, his private generation was once falling aside amid criminal troubles and drug dependancy.

“I was living this whole other life, doing drugs and selling drugs,” Ward mentioned in a Showtime Sports activities video. “It was wild. it was cray. I chose drugs over everything. I told myself, ‘I hate fighting, I’m burned out. I don’t want to do it anymore.’ I wasn’t burned out, I was strung out. It was just me wanting to get high all day and all night. I’m so lucky, dude, I didn’t do more f—ing prison time. I could have been in there 10 or 20 years. My rock bottom was different than a lot of rock bottoms. For me, it was just my family not wanting me around. I had two months clean 10 times in 10 years. I could never make it last, especially when I was still having fun. I was still having fun. I wasn’t out of money. Fentanyl is cheap. It’s cheap. I bought a house when I was strung out on Fentanyl. How’s that? How about that?

“… I used to be the sort of maniac when I used to be the usage of that no one sought after me round. In any case, that began to debris with me a modest bit. … Now I’m a full-time fighter once more and I’m like, ‘Ah, I keep in mind these types of worn emotions. Those emotions I don’t like.’ Now, I’m pressured to trade in with them as a result of I’ve a nation and I’m offering presently. Each and every future is a problem, each and every future is arduous however I’m studying as I proceed presently. Evidently. Each and every future.”

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Upcoming dropping back-to-back fights to Paul Daley and Fernando Gonzalez in 2017, Ward wouldn’t go back to the cage till February 2022, when he scored a TKO win over Brandon Bell at Bellator 274. Some other stoppage win adopted in June 2022 with a TKO of Kassius Kayne sooner than probably the most high-profile struggle of Ward’s profession.

Ward confronted Sabah Homasi within the first struggle of the CBS leading card of Bellator 290 in February. Early in the second one spherical, Ward blasted Homasi with a head kick sooner than follow-up punches introduced the struggle to a near. Now, having received on community tv, Ward has the chance to leading match in opposition to the Disagree. 1 ranked challenger at welterweight.

Storley is having a look to get again at the profitable observe later shedding a choice to Yaroslav Amosov in February. That struggle was once to unify the welterweight identify later Storley earned the intervening time crown in Might 2022 with a win in opposition to Michael Web page.

Storley is going back on motion in entrance of a fatherland family at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Either one of Storley’s profession losses have come in opposition to Amosov, the primary by means of crack resolution sooner than Amosov made a far cleaner case with a unanimous resolution within the rematch for the identify. To earn every other split at Amosov, Storley can’t have the funds for to return up scale down in a struggle in opposition to Ward, an opponent additional unwell within the scores at Disagree. 7.

“It made sense, he’s coming off three good wins,” Storley mentioned of the struggle in an interview with Cageside Press. “Everybody else is kind of tied up, or I’ve fought them before. The top guys, I’ve all fought, and that’s kind of where we were left at. And I wanted to get back in there instead of sitting on the sidelines. If you don’t take this fight, then you’re going to sit and wait. I didn’t want to sit and wait for eight months, or almost a year, to fight again.”

The undercard options some fascinating matchups with opponents at the stand. The co-main match sees a rematch at heavyweight between Valentin Moldavsky and Steve Mowry. Their first come across resulted in a deny duel with Mowry suffered an visual poke within the opening moments of the bout. Plus, brash Irishman James Gallagher is again in a featherweight duel in opposition to James Gonzalez.

“I’m not pissed off,” Gallagher mentioned in an interview with MMA Preventing. “The one factor I will be able to get annoyed about is the paintings that I haven’t finished and by chance for me, I’ve ticked all the ones areas. I’ve finished what had to be finished. I’ve were given not anything to be annoyed about.

“You can be frustrated or else you can be positive about it. I’m positive. I can’t be f—ed with anymore with that type of mindset. You can’t f— with someone with a positive mindset. I don’t have problems, I have solutions.”

Let’s check out the entire leading card sooner than attending to a professional select and prediction at the leading match.

Bellator 298 struggle card, odds

Logan Storley -330	Brennan Ward +260	Welterweight
Valentin Moldavsky -230	Steve Mowry +190	Heavyweight
Dalton Rosta -220	Aaron Jeffery +180	Middleweight
James Gallagher -125	James Gonzalez +105	Featherweight
Islam Mamedov -250	Sidney Outlaw +205	Light-weight

Viewing data

• Age: Aug. 11 | Get started date: 10 p.m. ET (leading card
• Location: Sanford Pentagon — Sioux Falls, South Dakokta
• TV Channel: Showtime | Tide: Showtime.com or the Showtime app

Prediction

Storley has been in with bad strikers sooner than, together with his crack resolution win over Web page. “MVP” isn’t just a perilous finisher but additionally a fighter whose putting is way more technical and correct than Ward, who employs extra of a blunt-force way to breaking unwell warring parties. That’s to not say that Ward isn’t bad. If he lands a couple of blank energy pictures, he may temporarily close Storley’s lighting out.

The truth is, Storley is just a unholy stylistic matchup for Ward. Storley is a superb wrestler and is relentless in his makes an attempt to push the presen. If Ward can’t catch him blank early, the struggle will see Storley enter the the struggle increasingly more as his grappling wears Ward out unwell the stretch. Pick out: Logan Storley by the use of UD