3 things you need to know about Bellator 114

Bellator 114 features a middleweight title fight between champion Alexander Shlemenko (49-7) and Brennan Ward (9-1), the semifinals for the middleweight and featherweight divisions.

Here are three things you need to know:

An unknown entity

Brennan Ward enters the fight as an underdog, as he comes with little experience against quality fighters outside of his 2013 middleweight tournament wins. But every fight he wins, he dominates. 

The former NCAA Division III All-American wrestler had only one fight go the distance, as he is able to be the aggressor in the stand up game, and can finish fights by submission or TKO. Outside of his 15-second loss to Aaron Johnson at Bellator 89, Ward has largely gone unchallenged. This will not be the case against the champ.

56 fights by age 29

Like Ward, most of Shlemenko's wins are dominant performances against largely unknown opponents. The difference is that he's had way more of them, and with some of them being on the same night (as many Russian tournaments are completed in one show.)

But its the losses on Shlemenko's record that stand out — a submission to Ronaldo "Jacaré" Souza in 2006 and a lopsided decision to Hector Lombard.

Jacaré was able to use his superior ground game to bully Shlemenko with the ground-and-pound, and it doesn't look like Shlemenko's ground game has improved very much since, as he has only won four of his last thirty fights (where he's gone 27-3) by submission, with only one of those happening in Bellator. 

After winning the 2010 middleweight tourney, Shlemenko lost to Lombard in his first shot at the title, a unanimous decision in which he once again offered little on the ground. 

Ultimately, Shlemenko is very experienced striker with one glaring weakness, while Ward hasn't had the chance to show his flaws yet. 

Featherweight Semis

Just one month after competing in the quarterfinals, the featherweights go at it again.

Matt Bessette (13-4) won a controversial split decision over Diego Nunes (18-6) in his home state of Connecticut, and will once again be tested to come away with a victory against Daniel "The Weasel" Weichel (32-8). Even better than the German's nickname is his ground and submission skills, with 20 of his wins coming by submission. 

Des Green (10-2) started off slow in his quarterfinal match against Mike Richman, but was able to come back to get the decision. But that's the problem with Green — he doesn't finish fights, with seven of his ten victories going to the cards. He'll need to do more than just persevere against Will Martinez (9-2-1), who hasn't lost in eight fights, with five of those ending via submission.