Bellator president Scott Coker went on Ariel Helwani’s ESPN MMA Show on Monday and disclosed the news that his marketing is planning on conducting a 16-man featherweight grand prix tournament. According to Coker, the championship will begin operating in October and will feature 16 of the top featherweights in Bellator, including fighters in the branch in addition to bantamweights moving up and potentially even lightweights moving down. The featherweight championship follows in the footsteps of the promotion’s heavyweight grand prix, which only watched Ryan Bader crowned winner, and also the welterweight tournament, which remains ongoing.
Coker told Helwani he wants the very first round of eight fights in the championship to take place on one night or on back-to-back nights in the autumn. In addition, he said he wants the championship to complete within a year, which nearly mirrors the heavyweight and welterweight championship timelines.
As far as that will be one of the 16 fighters at the tournament, so far no one has been announced, but Coker did say that he desires Bellator featherweight champion Patricio”Pitbull” Freire to be part of the championship game. Pitbull is taking on Michael Chandler in May for its Bellator lightweight title, so if he does take part in the championship he will still be the champion, meaning his belt is going to be on the line in every round of this tournament like Rory MacDonald’s welterweight title is on the line each time he fights.
As far as other featherweights that are expected to maintain the championship, here are some who appear to be close locks: Growing prospect AJ McKee; top rival Henry Corrales; former champ Daniel Straus; former champ Pat Curran; former high prospect Aaron Pico; former title competition Emmanuel Sanchez; and former UFC fighter Sam Sicilia.
The fact there aren’t 16 featherweights means that bantamweights are also invited to move up, and Coker said that James Gallagher and Darrion Caldwell will be requested to get involved in the championship. I’d also anticipate Ricky Bandejas and Juan Archuleta to be requested, too. As far as lightweights proceed, there might possibly be a couple of fighters who could create the cut down a weight class involving Derek Campos, who just fought at featherweight in his last fight, and Ryan Scope, who just lost a close struggle against Patricky”Pitbull” Freire.
It is exciting to see Bellator continue to maintain such tournaments as the sport of MMA was build on the championship format. The advertising’s bedrock back in the Bjorn Rebney days was the championships but when Coker first came in they began to go away in exchange for superfights and legends fights. Nonetheless, it feels like Coker, Bellator, Paramount and DAZN adore the tournaments since this is the third one the promotion will be running within the last two decades. At this point, you need to wonder what the next tournament for Bellator will be, and when I had to guess that it could be something in the women’s branches. For the time being, though, featherweight has become a fantastic pair of fights.
Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links and MMA Odds Breaker is going to be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on the hyperlinks.

Read more: manchesterinnews.com