Bellator announces eight-man field for Bantamweight World Grand Prix tournament

Bellator has officially announced the field for the upcoming eight-man Bantamweight World Grand Prix tournament that takes place in 2022.

Bellator announced its upcoming 135lbs Grand Prix tournament during the Bellator 272 broadcast on Friday night. The field for the upcoming bantamweight tournament includes:

• Kyoji Horiguchi
• Sergio Pettis
• Magomed Magomedov
• James Gallagher
• Patchy Mix
• Raufeon Stots
• Leandro Higo
• Juan Archuleta

The matchups for the tournament have not been announced yet. It’s expected that the tournament will begin in early 2022 and will likely take the entire year or more to finish. The winner of the Grand Prix will not only be crowned the new Bellator bantamweight champion, but they will also get a special belt for winning the tournament. In addition, the winner of the tournament is going to win $1 million, so this Grand Prix is a massive deal.

At this point, the favorites to win the tournament would likely be Pettis and Horiguchi, but there are so many other great bantamweights in Bellator that could be sneaky and make this an intriguing tournament that could see several upsets. What is interesting about the tournament is that it features a mix of both strikers and grapplers, so it will be really exciting to see the way the matchmakers book the first-round matchups in the bracket.

The promotion enjoys doing Grand Prixs under president Scott Coker, who used to hold them in Strikeforce. The promotion is currently finishing up the Bellator Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix which features a final between champion Vadim Nemkov and former UFC fighter Corey Anderson. In the past, Bellator has also done a Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix, which Patricio Pitbull won; a Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix, which Ryan Bader won; and a Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix that saw the winner be named Douglas Lima.

Who do you think will win the Bantamweight World Grand Prix tournament?