Bellator Announces Light Heavyweight Tournament for Season Four on MTV2
by Luke Thomas on Dec 20, 2010 1:01 PM EST
in Bellator News
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From a press release:
Bellator Fighting Championships today announced the promotion's inaugural Light Heavyweight World Championship Tournament which will take place in Bellator's much anticipated fourth season. The eight-man 205 lbs. Tournament will start in March, 2011. The eight Light Heavyweights will determine their own destiny in the cage on the road to the first Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship belt and $100,000 to the tournament winner.
An exhaustive search is currently underway to find the best available light heavyweights the MMA world has to offer. With six of the eight fighters already selected, announcements regarding confirmed participants of the 2011 Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament are anticipated in the coming days.
"We've wanted to add a Light Heavyweight World Championship Tournament since Season 1, but wanted to ensure that when we did it, we had a great group fighting for the title. Now, we do," said Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. "One of the best parts of my job is handing over the Bellator World Title belt to a new champion, and I'll have the pleasure of doing it again this upcoming season."
...
Current Bellator Champions include, Hector Lombard at middleweight, Ben Askren at welterweight, Eddie Alvarez at lightweight, Joe Warren at featherweight, Zack Makovsky at bantamweight, Cole Konrad at heavyweight and Zoila Frausto in the women's 115 lbs. Division.
I'm very curious to see who they've got. Light heavyweight, as a division, is one of the toughest nuts to crack. The UFC has a virtual stranglehold on the division. Tito Ortiz once told me he couldn't sign with Strikeforce - whose light heavyweight division is sure to be far better than Bellator's - because he wasn't certain there'd be enough opponents to fight. Currently, Trevor Prangley There is no fighter outside of Strikeforce or UFC who is ranked in the top 25.
Bellator is likely to not bother with poaching talent. They'll continue to do what they've always done better than most, find and groom exciting prospects. I just have to wonder how deep the well is at light heavyweight beyond the shores of UFC and Strikeforce such that investing the Bellator product there makes sense. And even if they find prospects of intrigue or potential, will it matter? Bellator's Cole Konrad is a force to be reckoned with, but is hardly lighting MMA's fans or television's ratings pants on fire. Add to that this will air on a station some cable carriers place on a premium tier and it will predominately air in standard definition.
I'm very eager to see who they are able to put together for the next season and whether they can achieve the success at light heavyweight that they've enjoyed at featherweight and welterweight. Keith Jardine might be a noteworthy addition. There are others I'm sure I'm not considering. Still, the challenges in putting this together are considerable. What Bellator needs as much as available talent is a few lucky breaks. I'll be watching to see if they get them.
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Speaking of finding talent....
What happened to bloodelbows prospect ranking for 2010 they couldn’t have finished w all the weight classes including 125
I’m not resting until I’m officially Anderson Silva status.- Jon "Bones" Jones
by AfroSamurai on Dec 20, 2010 1:08 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Yea it looks like he did a LOT of useful research.
They made a video game about Yakuzas. It’s called Yakuza. And it’s about Yakuza
Yeah he had to....
Hopefully Leland comes back before the year end with the rest of the divisions I’m itching to see who goes to what promotion in the future and if the brass of ufc etc have taken notice to his time and effort
I’m not resting until I’m officially Anderson Silva status.- Jon "Bones" Jones
by AfroSamurai on Dec 20, 2010 1:23 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Is that type of research what Joe Silva does when grabbing talent? Cause he’s doing a better job then let’s say Daniel Snyder (So hard to be a fan right now…)
They made a video game about Yakuzas. It’s called Yakuza. And it’s about Yakuza
Your wording is confusing me...
Are you saying that leland does a better job than silva? If so I agree… While I haven’t done any comparative research the ufc just isn’t bringing in a heap load of talent. But I’d say in general there needs to be more comprehensive scouting ad Leland is doing
I’m not resting until I’m officially Anderson Silva status.- Jon "Bones" Jones
by AfroSamurai on Dec 20, 2010 2:37 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Prangley fights for Strikeforce. Hes facing Roger Gracie next in SF iirc. Im on mobile or id give a link but I saw it on twitter.
@TylerTreese on twitter
www.thatmmablog.blogspot.com/
by TylerTreese on Dec 20, 2010 1:11 PM EST via mobile reply actions
MMA Rising reported it
@TylerTreese on twitter
www.thatmmablog.blogspot.com/
by TylerTreese on Dec 20, 2010 1:17 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
This should be interesting.
There isn’t really any top flight talent out there, but outside of the HW tourney they have seemed to fair pretty well at picking up people who put on decent fights. Regardless of top 25 talent, Bellator tourney winners often get some looks for the rankings.
I wonder what Dion Staring is up to.
That win over Peter Graham looks a bit better now, and the last guy to beat him fought in the bellator HW tourney.
I wouldn’t. There’s something wrong with that guy. Him in the tournament is 50-50 giving his opponent a bye. And Luis cane is still with the UFC. And I thought Arona was trying to work with the UFC? Jardine needs to start winning to get into Bellator
They made a video game about Yakuzas. It’s called Yakuza. And it’s about Yakuza
but didn't get paid!
and it might not count on his record.
by F'n Clownshoes on Dec 20, 2010 1:38 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah Paulo scares me and I'm not investing money in him.
Agreed on Jardine. I just don’t know many young 205 guys out and about. Here’s to hoping they find the prospects.
by F'n Clownshoes on Dec 20, 2010 1:37 PM EST up reply actions
I thought Luiz got cut after his second consecutive KO loss to a southpaw (Lil Nog then Diabate)… He was/is one of my favorite UFC light heavyweights.
When I'm on the mic it goes down, CINTRON
-Joell Ortiz
by The Lethal Haze on Dec 20, 2010 3:06 PM EST up reply actions
Nah, they shouldn't.
Paulo needs to get his old ass out of the ring.
MMA Fan Since Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar
Twitter: @KenTheGreat
MBN's Current 5 Favorite Fighters: Nate Diaz / Chris "The Crippler" Leben / Miesha "Takedown" Tate / Shinya Aoki / Georges "Rush" St-Pierre
by McKinley B. Noble on Dec 20, 2010 2:00 PM EST up reply actions
Maybe its just me
But I’d rather see Bellator bring in prospects that skeletons like Alexander and Sokoudjou.
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Good point.
Bellator doesn’t strike me as a senior circuit, as much as I’d like to see Jardine, Alexander, and Sokoudjou compete with the younger fighters.
MMA Fan Since Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar
Twitter: @KenTheGreat
MBN's Current 5 Favorite Fighters: Nate Diaz / Chris "The Crippler" Leben / Miesha "Takedown" Tate / Shinya Aoki / Georges "Rush" St-Pierre
by McKinley B. Noble on Dec 20, 2010 2:02 PM EST up reply actions
Bellator has done in the past of incorporating someone with a name (former UFC fighter really) into their tournaments and inserting prospects. Jay Hieron is in their next Welterweight tourney, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Bellator got a former UFC fighter in there like a Goran Reljic, Eliot Marshall, Keith Jardine, Houston Alexander, Eric Schafer, etc, and fill the rest with prospects. I am going to guess that some of these prospects will have no more than four or five fights as the UFC and Strikeforce have many of the top Light Heavyweights and Light Heavyweight prospects out there.
Check out MMA For You at http://www.youtube.com/user/Gobusiness123 for MMA reviews, predictions, and analysis.
Can Kimbo cut to 205? He’d certainly give a huge publicity boost to Bellator, and should appeal to whoever watches MTV2.
Then get worked
Plus he’s with Gary Shaw and is going into boxing. You don’t need your legs for boxing.
They made a video game about Yakuzas. It’s called Yakuza. And it’s about Yakuza
I think Bellator largely prefers prospects over retreads.
The fact that fighters like Askren don’t have losses to fighters from other organiziations makes the hypothetical match making and ranking placement work out in their favor.
No way.
If Kimbo was 10 years younger and healthy, it would still be a stretch. Moreover, his cardio is terrible even at heavyweight. Cutting to light heavyweight would outright kill him.
MMA Fan Since Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar
Twitter: @KenTheGreat
MBN's Current 5 Favorite Fighters: Nate Diaz / Chris "The Crippler" Leben / Miesha "Takedown" Tate / Shinya Aoki / Georges "Rush" St-Pierre
by McKinley B. Noble on Dec 20, 2010 8:38 PM EST up reply actions
doubt they'd do it, but i wouldn't mind seeing lombard take a crack at it
rather than sitting around waiting for another middleweight contender.
fabio maldonado
did he get a UFC contract extension after the McSweeny fight? I know, I know, just throwing out names here.
Goran Reljic should compete.
He had a pretty bad run in the UFC, but none of his opponents were slouches.
Ryan Jimmo and Ralek Gracie should also call Bellator up for a tournament spot.
Jeremy Horn would also be a good entrant.
MMA Fan Since Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar
Twitter: @KenTheGreat
MBN's Current 5 Favorite Fighters: Nate Diaz / Chris "The Crippler" Leben / Miesha "Takedown" Tate / Shinya Aoki / Georges "Rush" St-Pierre
by McKinley B. Noble on Dec 20, 2010 1:58 PM EST reply actions
ehh
Horn just lost to Bryan Baker at middleweight in one of their last shows of season 3. Don’t think it would be that enticing to bring him in
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by Brian Hemminger on Dec 20, 2010 5:58 PM EST up reply actions
Even so.
When comes to Gumby, I always like watching him compete. His extensive fight experience is just ridiculous. Sure, Bryan Baker may not be ranked talent, but he’s a bad dude and a pretty interesting prospect.
MMA Fan Since Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar
Twitter: @KenTheGreat
MBN's Current 5 Favorite Fighters: Nate Diaz / Chris "The Crippler" Leben / Miesha "Takedown" Tate / Shinya Aoki / Georges "Rush" St-Pierre
by McKinley B. Noble on Dec 20, 2010 8:32 PM EST up reply actions
Paging Gerald Harris
I know he preivously fought at Middlweight, but the dude didn’t look particularly small and I’m sure he’d appreciate a shot at 100K.
Here are half of the participants
D.J. Linderman (Who?)
Ricco Rodriguez
Daniel Gracie
Tim Carpenter (Who?)
daniel gracie is back
i’d also like to see xande ribeiro, legit BJJ guy with heavy hands.
and this russian dude from the last m-1 event i cant remember his name but he’s 6-0 or 7-0
really?
is that even possible? the guy looks really huge. if he did that would be very interesting then, 185 has a lot of BJJ players and strikers and not so many wrestlers
by destructivist on Dec 20, 2010 3:38 PM EST up reply actions
Back in Feb., FiveOuncesOfPain reported on it. here’s the link:
http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2010/02/12/alexandre-xande-ribeiro-i-am-dropping-to-185-pounds/
Gegard Mousasi
i’d rather see him in this tourney as a LHW than in DREAM as a LHW. either way best of luck to the competators.
Gegard Mousasi? C’mon man…
I’d love to see Feiajo or King Mo too, but those guys aren’t fighting outside of Strikeforce or in Japan.
I'd rather see
Shogun in this tourney also.
by Bloodsport on Dec 21, 2010 9:54 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
I would rather see Mousasi fight at MW
Regardless, him in Bellator isn’t happening.
by truck on Dec 20, 2010 4:43 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
I think Marcus Sursa will be in this tournament. He’s the dude that got in the backstage fight at a small show with Cerrone. I never did get around to posting part 2 of that interview but he mentioned Bellator was going to have him in a light heavyweight tournament because he stepped in and faced Eddie Sanchez on 2-3 days notice and almost beat him.
twitter.com/GotaHemmi
instrength.com <-- Best MMA forum
by Brian Hemminger on Dec 20, 2010 5:54 PM EST reply actions
A few more 'experienced' fighters to consider Bjorn
Wilson Gouveia, Doug Marshall, Travis Wiuff.
Teixera & Stanislov Nedkov would be nice up & comers and would probably bite if some of the more established names were in the mix.
Bellator has done pretty decent in their scouting though, so new faces will probably be more likely.
..screw that, bring in MINOWAMAN! then he could fight in his own weight class, and could still do the Dream circuit…it could be HUGE!!!
Who's the only one here who knows illegal ninja moves from the government?
I just want Bellator to fold and fold soon
So that any of their ranked talent can be split up between the UFC and StrikeForce.
CPG
Alistair Overeem - StrikeForce HeavyWeight Champion, K-1 2010 World Grand Prix Champion
Harsh words.
Bellator’s great for molding MMA prospects. UFC’s division are dangerously overcrowded and Strikeforce is over-budget on the small amount of talent they’ve got. Bellator is a good feeder league, and they make good matches.
MMA Fan Since Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar
Twitter: @KenTheGreat
MBN's Current 5 Favorite Fighters: Nate Diaz / Chris "The Crippler" Leben / Miesha "Takedown" Tate / Shinya Aoki / Georges "Rush" St-Pierre
by McKinley B. Noble on Dec 20, 2010 8:34 PM EST up reply actions
yeah but their championship clauses make them hard to be looked at as a legit feeder league.
I’m not resting until I’m officially Anderson Silva status.- Jon "Bones" Jones
I'd rather the UFC bought them and used them as thier feeder league
I’m not resting until I’m officially Anderson Silva status.- Jon "Bones" Jones
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