SCOTT COKER ANNOUNCES 16-MAN BELLATOR FEATHERWEIGHT TOURNAMENT
Bellator president Scott Coker proceeded on Ariel Helwani’s ESPN MMA Show on Monday and disclosed that his promotion is planning on running a 16-man featherweight grand prix tournament. According to Coker, the tournament will begin operating in October and will feature 16 of the best featherweights in Bellator, including fighters already in the division in addition to bantamweights moving up and possibly even lightweights moving down. The featherweight tournament follows at the forefront of this advertising’s heavyweight grand prix, which only saw Ryan Bader crowned champion, and the welterweight championship, which is still continuing.
Coker advised Helwani he needs the first round of eight fights from the championship to take place on a single night or about back-to-back nights in the fall. He also said he wants the championship to complete within a year, which nearly mirrors the heavyweight and welterweight tournament timelines.
As far as that will be among the 16 fighters in the championship, so far no one has been announced, however, Coker did say that he desires Bellator featherweight champion Patricio”Pitbull” Freire for part of the championship game. Pitbull is shooting on Michael Chandler in May for its Bellator lightweight title, so if he will participate in the championship he’ll still be the winner, meaning his belt is going to be at stake in every round of this tournament just like Rory MacDonald’s welterweight title is online every time he fights.
As far as other featherweights that are expected to be in the championship, here are a few who appear to be close locks: Rising prospect AJ McKee; leading rival Henry Corrales; former champ Daniel Straus; former champ Pat Curran; former top prospect Aaron Pico; former title contender Emmanuel Sanchez; and former UFC fighter Sam Sicilia.
The fact there are not 16 featherweights means that bantamweights will also be encouraged to move up, and Coker already said that James Gallagher and Darrion Caldwell will be requested to get involved in the tournament. I’d also anticipate Ricky Bandejas and Juan Archuleta to be requested, too. As far as lightweights proceed, there could possibly be a couple of fighters who may make the cut down a weight class including Derek Campos, who simply fought at featherweight in his last struggle, and Ryan Scope, who only lost a close struggle against Patricky”Pitbull” Freire.
It’s fascinating to see Bellator continue to hold these tournaments as the game of MMA was build on the tournament format. The advertising’s bedrock back at the Bjorn Rebney days was the championships but when Coker initially came in they started to go out in trade for superfights and legends fights. Nonetheless, it seems like Coker, Bellator, Paramount and DAZN adore the tournaments as this is the third one the advertising will be running over the previous two decades. Now, you need to wonder what the next tournament for Bellator is, and when I had to guess that it would be something in the women’s divisions. For now, though, featherweight has become a fantastic pair of fights.
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