Bellator Signs Top Welterweight Prospect Andrey Koreshkov
by Josh Nason on Jan 9, 2012 5:31 PM EST
in Bellator News
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Less than a day after he was named the top 170-pound prospect in Bloody Elbow's 2011 World MMA Scouting Report, Bellator announced the signing of Andrey Koreshkov to a contract.
A teammate of Bellator No. 1 middleweight contender Alexander Shlemenko, Koreshkov (8-0) will bring his undefeated record to the U.S. for the first time in a major organization. The 21-year-old has never gone the distance, finishing all of his fights in two rounds or less with five T/KO victories to his credit.
From our scouting report:
Though his pankration background might suggest a boxing or wrestling-oriented approach to fighting, Andrey dominates with a high paced assault of kickboxing and submission attacks that is reminiscent of DREAM Champion Gegard Mousasi. It remains to be seen how Andrey's defense will fare against a high level grappler, but his offensive skills are outright devastating in all areas.
No opponent or debut date has been announced and with the 170-pound tournament slate now filled, expect Koreshkov to make his Bellator debut sometime during their sixth season which begins in March.
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Bellator is making the right moves
They are almost at the point where I’d pay a (reasonably priced) PPV.
BFC appears dedicated to growing there brand the right way. In my list of the best fights of 2011, I had quite a few BFC bouts on there:
Alvarez/Chandler
Spiritwolf/Jara
McCoulagh/Patricky Freire -
Linderman/Hale
and probably five or six more. I wish they’d do more “off-season” re-runs of the their shows. A “Best of…” series would be great to watch and give fans a chance to catch up.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
Mohandas Gandhi
"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
Muhammad Ali
"If MMA is like dog fighting, those are some pretty fucking smart dogs."
"I don’t want to lick any butt."
GSP
Bellator is a boss organization when it comes to snapping up young talent.
Sometimes i think that they just read the scouting reports. If they continue this way, and find a way to make money off of their shows, they will be bought up by the UFC.
I really doubt there’s much chance of Zuffa buying Bellator, mainly because Viacom doesn’t need the kind of money Zuffa would offer, at least if it was in the range of what they paid for Strikeforce. When Zuffa bought Strikeforce, the owners probably yelled, “Sold!” before the offer was even out of Dana’s mouth.
Unless Bellator starts booking and selling larger venues than they have been in, they won’t be breaking even on the live ticket sales. They might be able to sell out a few places that seat 2,500 to 3,000, but realistically they probably won’t see any real growth until they get on Spike in 2013 and continue to expand their foreign broadcasts.
If they’re only running five tournaments in the first half of 2012, that means two weight classes are idle, and I’d be surprised if they’d spend valuable air time on a women’s tournament. As much as I enjoy Bellator and the tournament format, I can’t imagine them doing much more than treading water this year if they’re limited to the amount of broadcast time they get on MTV2.
Well, this pretty much proves why Bellator keeps beating the UFC to the punch on prospects.
Obviously, they read Bloody Elbow — just look at the timing.
Less than a day after he was named the top 170-pound prospect in Bloody Elbow’s 2011 World MMA Scouting Report, Bellator announced the signing of Andrey Koreshkov to a contract.
Eh? EH?
As the years go on, I see can see signings like this really building legit rosters that are solid alternatives to the ones on UFC cards. One has to wonder how long it’ll be before the UFC starts to consider Bellator a serious threat to snatching up young fighters.
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One Time, I Interviewed Dana White at UFC 86 & It Was Totally Cool
by McKinley B. Noble on Jan 9, 2012 6:24 PM EST reply actions
Sam Caplan should pay royalties or something.
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by POW on Jan 9, 2012 6:28 PM EST via mobile reply actions
zuffa is really dropping the ball with these prospects
If they continue to drop the ball we ll never see these these guys as champs
I’m not resting until I’m officially Anderson Silva status.- Jon "Bones" Jones
by AfroSamurai on Jan 9, 2012 7:33 PM EST via iPhone app reply actions
Good thing this dude isn't a good prospect
Lyman Good will beat this dude handily. He’s nothing more than a typical one dimensional Russian can crusher.
While the UFC does have some high-level prospects on their roster, they are generally UFC-ready. While we have seen some prospects improve and grow in the UFC, these once-prospects like Jones, Davis, etc were fighting at such a high level even though they had such few fights. In general, the UFC isn’t really the place for prospects to grow and develop, which allows Bellator or other MMA organizations to grab these prospects early in their careers.
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Fun Fact
Bellator reads that list and just signs whoever is on them. They did the same thing last year. They even advertised one of the guys as the “#1 ____weight prospect” in their ads.
wasnt that M1 that did that?
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by joeshowradio on Jan 10, 2012 9:38 AM EST up reply actions
Bellator loves them some prospects.
And that’s awesome. Bellator has taken over the special spot in my heart that the WEC used to occupy.
Like my post? Well, follow me on Twitter anyways. @LenBarson
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