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 start operating in October and will feature 16 of the best featherweights in Bellator, for example fighters in the branch as well as bantamweights moving up and potentially 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 tournament, which remains ongoing.
Coker told Helwani he wants the very first round of eight fights from the tournament to take place on a single night or about back-to-back nights at the autumn. He also said he wants the championship to complete within a year, which nearly mirrors the heavyweight and welterweight championship timelines.
As far as who will be among the 16 fighters in the championship, so far no one has been declared, however, 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 the Bellator lightweight name, so if he does participate in the championship he’ll be the winner, meaning that his belt is going to be on the line in each round of this tournament like Rory MacDonald’s welterweight title is on the line each time he fights.
As far as some other featherweights that are expected to be in the tournament, here are some who appear to be near 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 aren’t 16 featherweights means that bantamweights will also be invited to move up, and Coker already said that James Gallagher and Darrion Caldwell will be asked to get involved in the championship. I’d also expect Ricky Bandejas and Juan Archuleta to be asked, as well. As far as lightweights go, there could possibly be a few fighters who may make the cut down a weight class involving Derek Campos, who simply fought 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 sport of MMA was build on the tournament format. The promotion’s bedrock back at the Bjorn Rebney days was the championships but when Coker initially came in they began to go away in trade for superfights and legends fights. Nonetheless, it seems like Coker, Bellator, Paramount and DAZN adore the tournaments since it is the next one the advertising will be running within the previous two years. At this point, you have to wonder what another tournament for Bellator is, and when I had to guess it could be something in the women’s branches. For now, though, featherweight has become a fantastic set of fights.
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