205 LBS - 3 Rounds
Mike Messina (205 lbs.) vs. William Albrecht (200 lbs.)

205 LBS - 3 Rounds
Rudy Lindsay (201 lbs.) vs. Wayne Cole (205 lbs.)

185 LBS Alternate Fight - 3 Rounds
Joey Gorczynski (185 lbs.) vs. Marcelo Alfaia (185 lbs.)

Heavyweight - 3 Rounds
Amedio Viola (230 lbs.) vs. Tyler East (235 lbs.)

185 LBS Tournament-3 Rounds
Yosmany Cabezas (183 lbs.) vs. Edwin Aguilar (184 lbs.)

170 LBS- Tournament Fight
Norman Paraisy (170 lbs.) vs. Dave Menne (169 lbs.)

145LBS - 3 Rounds
Donald Sanchez (147 lbs.) vs. Johnny Eduardo (145 lbs.)

185LBS Alternate Fight - 3 Rounds
Jason Norwood (186 lbs.) vs. John Kirk (186 lbs.)

185 LBS Tournament Fight-3 Rounds
Virgil Lozano (183 lbs.) vs. Hector Lombard (183 lbs.)

185 LBS Tournament Fight-3 Rounds
Alex Andrade (185 lbs.) vs. Damien Stelly (185 lbs.)

185 LBS Tournament Fight-3 Rounds
Daniel Tabera (183 lbs.) vs. Jared Hess (185 lbs.)

Bellator III goes down Friday night at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma, and airs Saturday on ESPN Deportes. The show wraps up the opening round of Bellator's welterweight tournament -- the winner of Paraisy-Menne goes on to face Omar de la Cruz -- and also includes the promotion's first heavyweight bout.

[UPDATE] I inquired with Bellator whether or not Donald Sanchez faced any sort of penalty for missing weight. This was their response:

According to the Bellator operations manager Marla Arreola, there were no penalties cited for any of the fighters at the weigh in yesterday. Donald Sanchez will be allowed to cut any overage between the time of the weigh in and the fight without incurring a penalty.

I don't imagine Sanchez will actually be shedding that extra pound, but it also doesn't seem to be a major concern for Bellator (or, apparently, the Oklahoma Boxing Commission).

Full press release in the extended entry.

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BloodyElbow.com will be reporting live from tonight's Bellator Fighting Championships show at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. Bellator's second event features the final opening round match-ups in their featherweight and lightweight tournaments, plus the first three welterweight bracket bouts. Former EliteXC bantamweight champ Wilson Reis, lightweight vet Thomas Schulte and the undefeated Lyman Good will be all in action.

SPOILER WARNING: Since the show won't air on ESPN Deportes until Saturday night, all results are hidden after the jump.

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Now you can catch up:

Postings of Bellator’s first show begin Wednesday at 7 a.m. EST on Bellator.com. No information is currently available on if all the fights will air but they are expected to be posted as individual fights as opposed to a standard webcast.

These videos are taken from April 3rd’s [live] show which aired in Spanish on ESPN Deportes April 4th. The commentary will be in English.

These videos are not to be confused with April 10th’s show from Mohegan Sun in CT which will air April 11th on ESPN Deportes and as segments on Bellator.com next Wednesday.

To that end, one programming note: Chris Nelson will be live at the Mohegan Sun this Friday to live blog the show for the site. And in the FanPosts, Leland Rolling wonders if the quick turn around within the tournament format is going to come back to haunt Bellator's efforts.

I just received a press release from the Bellator Fighting Championships people announcing their fourth show (which will be in Colorado Springs, CO, on Friday, April 24th) and I have to say that I didn't expect to see some of the names I'm seeing on it. The show will play host to the semi-finals of Bellator's Lightweight Tournament, but also features the debut of the promotion's only non-tournament weightclass with five heavyweight bouts on the undercard. Check the matchups:

Non-Tournament Bouts:
Heavyweight – Dave Herman (13-1) vs. Josh Barnes (5-1)
Heavyweight – Rauol Romero (3-1) vs. Dave Evensen (10-4)
Heavyweight – Eddie Sanchez (11-3) vs. Jay White (4-5)
Heavyweight – Tyler East (pro debut)) vs. Amedio Viola (0-1)
Heavyweight – Joey Beltran (5-2) vs. Sherman Pendergarst (11-12)
130 lbs. – Molly Helsel (7-7) vs. Angela Hayes (1-5)
 
Special Lightweight World Championship Semi-Final Tournament Match-Up
Based on the outcome of Bellator I, II & III

Things didn't go exactly as expected for Dave Herman - aka "Pee Wee," aka "Blueberry Muffin" - with Sengoku in the wake of the EliteXC fallout (Herman was TKO'd by Choi Mu Bae at WVR's New Years show), but to see him signing on with Bellator when Strikeforce is getting ready to roll is somewhat surprising. Likewise for Eddie Sanchez, a decent fighter who earned a bad rep in the UFC as a boring heavyweight at a time when the division was pretty stagnant. And Sherman Pendergarst... did you know he's had four fights in the year since YAMMA? I sure didn't. But I'm not mad at seeing him here, and all told, I don't think Bellator has done badly at all with selecting their big men. And a little extra dap for bringing in Molly Helsel, whose record doesn't reflect what a fun fighter she is to watch.

Full press release in the extended entry.

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Full cards for Bellator's first three shows after the jump.

From a press release issued today:

"The fights on this card should make for a spectacular night.  Our tournament match-ups on this show are pick-em fights, so the entire event should be explosive from start to finish," said Bellator Fighting Championships CEO Bjorn Rebney.  "The Lloyd Noble Center is a state of the art facility where our large scale ESPN Deportes production will look and sound great.  Die-hard Oklahoma MMA fans, world-class fights and a spectacular venue should make for a great night of fights."

Bellator III on Friday April 17, 2009 will feature a collection of highly-competitive, action-packed tournament bouts in the Middleweight (185 lbs.) division, as well as a collection of special feature bouts, including a women’s fight featuring Kerry Vera, wife of Brandon Vera.  Tickets will go on sale Tuesday March 24th at 12:00 pm CST and can be purchased at the Lloyd Nobel Center box office and through Ticketmaster.  Ticket prices start at $20.00 for students with student identification and go up to $100.00 for cage-side seating.

Vera is a kickboxer who has competed in Thailand as part of the second season of Oxygen's Fight Girls reality series.

Also, $100 for cage-side seats ain't bad at all.

Bellator Fighting Championships #3
April 17, 2009 (airs April 18 on ESPN Deportes)
Lloyd Noble Center
Norman, Oklahoma, USA

Middleweight Tournament Bouts

Hector Lombard (18-2-1) vs. Virgil Lozano (6-1-1)
Jared Hess (6-0-1) vs. Daniel Tabera (12-1-3)
Alex Andrade (8-4) vs. Damien Stelly (8-2)
Edwin Aguilar (20-12) vs. Yosmany Cabezas (7-1)

Welterweight Tournament Bout

Dave Menne (42-15-2) vs. Norman Paraisy (5-0)

Non-Tournament Bouts

120 lbs. - Kerry Vera (0-0) vs. Brandi Hainey (1-0)
170 lbs. - Marcelo "Grilo" Alfaya (9-5) vs. Joey Gorczynski (0-0)
170 lbs. - Troy Kious (1-0) vs. Lewis Washington (3-0)
205 lbs. - Mike Messina (2-1) vs. William Albrecht (5-6)
145 lbs. - Eric Payne (17-7) vs. Johnny Eduardo (20-8)
185 lbs. - Jason Norwood (5-1) vs. Ariel Gandulla (5-2)

Continue reading this post »

After holding open tryouts less than three weeks out from their first event, Bellator Fighting Championships have today revealed the complete brackets for their lightweight and middleweight tournaments. The full lightweight bracket was first unveiled two weeks ago, then quickly withdrawn and re-shuffled so as not to include the ridiculous opening round pairing of the promotion's two brightest 155-pound stars, Eddie Alvarez and Jorge Masvidal. Since then, rumors have surfaced that proposed replacement opponents for Alvarez and Masvidal were rejected by the Florida State Athletic Commission. According to the bracket below, Alvarez will now face Irish journeyman Greg Loughran (18-11), while Masvidal will take on the Wisconsin-based Nick Agallar (21-5).

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Two weeks out from the promotion's first live show and next-day ESPN Deportes debut, Bellator Fighting Championships held open tryouts at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The March 17th workout yielded at least one promising fighter: Troy Gerhart, a powerful wrestler and XFC veteran (see video above) who is currently undefeated as a pro at 4-0, with all four wins coming by TKO and three of four coming inside two minutes.

More straight from the horse's mouth:

Of the numerous fighters who participated, Troy Gerhart’s performance earned him a spot as a featured fighter in Bellator’s Lightweight (155 lbs.) division.  He was the only fighter among the highly-talented group selected. Gerhart will not be participating in Bellator’s 155 lbs. tournament, but will be featured in a 155 lbs. bout in the coming weeks as part of the Bellator series.  Gerhart, who trains out of Gracie Tampa, holds a 4-0 record as a professional with all 4 wins coming by KO or TKO.  He has a strong wrestling background and has been training alongside UFC veterans Matt Arroyo and Corey Hill at Gracie Tampa Academy.

"Troy is an extremely explosive wrestler with great technical grappling, and his record shows that he has very heavy hands," said Matt Stansell, Matchmaker/Executive Director of Fighter Development for Bellator Fighting Championships.  "We are excited to give him a chance to show what he can do in Bellator’s Lightweight division."

Rumored fight cards for Bellator's first two shows after the jump.

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In case you missed it, the mixed martial artist formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver gave us all a quick reminder that he still exists at the end of January when he posted this message to his MySpace blog denouncing President Barack Obama as "a rich white guy with a dark tan" (among other choice pronouns) and expressing his hope that "someone smokes that f*cker and every president to come."

Apparently the folks at Bellator Fighting Championships didn't think much of the former TUF cast member's political views, as they released War Machine this week, months ahead of the promotion's scheduled April 4th debut on ESPN Deportes.

War Machine fired back on, of course, his MySpace page:

"Seems War Machine is being censored again. I can’t speak my mind at all without all the faggot higher-ups in the industry getting their panties in a wad. Just how my Evan Tanner bulletin got me kicked out of the UFC it seems that I have been kicked off the Bellator show before it has even begun. Seems they don’t like it when their fighters speak their mind on the politics of the USA and its [expletive]-ass presidents…. I’m not changing for anyone or any dollar amount. I could have earned over a quarter million in that tournament but I don’t give a [expletive]."

Part of me wants to make a fuss about freedom of speech and express disappointment over the fact that Bellator would cut a fighter over an opinion - a completely ignorant and vile opinion, but still just an opinion - posted on their MySpace.

Fortunately, the other part of me is still disgusted over the things he said about Evan Tanner and would like to offer only a sincere "good riddance."

Please forgive the late posting of the November meta-rankings. My family Thanksgiving vacation ate a week of the month and Comcast's continuing failure to get the internet set up at my new apartment did the rest.

Lots of changes in the rankings from October and several big big matchups coming up too. The perenially overrated Takanori Gomi is finally falling to #7, ironically after a questionable decision loss to #23 Sergey Golyaev. Gomi will nevertheless fight #19 Satoru Kitaoka at the January WVR/Sengoku event for their lightweight belt. If Kitaoka wins, expect him to continue to rise in the rankings, but a Gomi win shouldn't do much for Takanori. I will be astonished if Goyaev remains ranked in the coming months.

The people booking the matches for K-1's NYE event must be reading the Meta-rankings because the NYE matches between #2 Eddie Alvarez and #3 Shinya Aoki and #5 Joachim Hansen vs #6 Gesias "JZ" Calvancante are pretty ideal and will ideally set up a springtime match between the winners. If the fights come to satisfying conclusions we should have a good handle on the pecking order in the DREAM/K-1 organization.

Meanwhile on the UFC side, #4 Sean Sherk's win over #22 (and former #13) Tyson Griffin seems to have finally won Sherk some long-overdue recognition from the rankers. Its too bad that he underperformed so badly against #1 B.J. Penn. There's no demand for a Sherk-Penn rematch.

I expected #8 Kenny Florian to get more of a bump from pwning #14 Joe Stevenson but I think the rankings are not yet reflecting that win fully. If B.J. beats GSP and takes the welterweight belt, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Sherk vs Florian rematch for the vacant lightweight belt.

It would be an ironic turn of events for the UFC 155lb class to come full circle after such an effort to build the division. The difference between a Sherk/Florian title match in 2009 from their 2006 title fight will be that few will question the two have earned the right to fight for one of the most prestigious belts in MMA.

If B.J. loses to GSP, there's no telling how things will go. I'd say there's a good chance he returns to lightweight and breaks KenFlo's spirit the way he did JoeDaddy's.

Richard has added some very cool charts, including the standings of each fighter in the top 25 against top 10 and top 25 competition. Thanks Richard!

NOTE: The Meta-Rankings are not the subjective opinion of the BloodyElbow team, but rather a compilation of the rankings of over twenty leading MMA web sites. It is our opinion that these are the most informative MMA rankings anywhere.

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They butchered "The Contender" with highlight reels instead of fights, so color me intrigued but concerned:

The plans appear to involve a reality show that would be taped during the spring, looking at using featherweight, lightweight and middleweight fighters. No other details of the show are available, other then a loose idea of modeling it after "The Contender," the boxing show the network recently dropped.

This would make as many as four different MMA reality shows on the drawing board for next season. Affliction and M-1 Global have announced plans for a heavyweight reality show taped in St. Petersburg, Russia, called "Fighting Fedor." World Extreme Cage Fighting has also talked of doing a reality show on the Versus network, to give the organization more of a presence on the station between live fight cards.

ESPN is interested in several fighters who were with the recently folded Elite XC. But all those fighters are still on hold, as the organization has not released fighters from their contracts. For legal reasons, EXC recently sent several fighters a form letter stating the company was planning shows in 2009.

Industry sources have stated ESPN has offered name fighters both signing bonuses and per-fight guarantees that would be above industry standards for fighters of their caliber.

The other obvious question is what is the UFC going to do about this? Wouldn't this serve as some sort of competition to "The Ultimate Fighter"? While any show would offer more visibility of the sport, the show could offer visibility of fighters not under contract to the UFC not fighting in the Octagon with no mention of the UFC. And if both shows are on at roughly similar times or on a similar seasonal schedule, how is the UFC going to handle the push from what is ostensibly the sporting news leader?

[UPDATE] by Kid Nate

BE reader who me points us to Sherdog for this clarification:

Promotional newcomer Bellator Fighting Championships has secured a broadcast deal with ESPN Deportes to begin airing MMA events as early as April 2009, numerous sources have confirmed to Sherdog.com.

Santa Brito, Communications Manager for ESPN Deportes, confirmed on Monday that the Spanish-language channel is in “the early developmental stages of an MMA program.” Brito would not divulge further information, but clarified that ESPN was currently not developing any MMA programming on its English-language networks.

...

American Top Team’s Jorge Masvidal and Dream standout Eddie Alvarez have been two of the better-known candidates approached to participate on the Hispanic-focused roster.

Bellator -- which translates to “warrior” in Latin -- is helmed by Bjorn Rebney, former CEO and president of Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing. Rebney and Leonard aired live boxing events on ESPN 2 the first Friday of every month under the “Friday Night Fights” moniker from 2001-2004. The relationship reportedly soured when Leonard departed to join NBC’s “The Contender” series.