Bellator News

Chris Taylor - October 19, 2018

Fedor Emelianenko and Ryan Bader will collide in the final of Bellator’s Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament on January 26 in Inglewood. The former PRIDE champion and mixed martial arts legend, Fedor Emelianenko, advanced to the tournament finals by defeating Chael Sonnen via first-round TKO in the main event of Bellator 208 (watch that here).

Tom Taylor - October 17, 2018

Michael Chandler is one of the best lightweight fighters in the world. For the moment, however, he is not able to test himself against the sport’s consensus best lightweight fighter, UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. That’s because Chandler currently calls Bellator MMA home, whereas Nurmagomedov is tied up with a UFC contract. While Michael Chandler and Khabib Nurmagomedov currently fight for different promotions, Chandler believes it’s possible they’ll find themselves under the same roof in the future. He could wind up in the UFC, or Nurmagomedov could end up in Bellator. In fact, he believes it’s possible the UFC champ could be fighting for Bellator within a year or two.

Cole Shelton - October 17, 2018

Bellator recently announced they will be heading to Hawaii on back-to-back nights on December 14 and 15. While both cards will feature title fights, another fight that is a rather interesting one is former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir will be taking on Bellator veteran Javy Ayala on the first of the two cards. Javy Ayala received the call to fight Mir in September and knew it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Tom Taylor - October 16, 2018

Last Saturday night, in the main event of Bellator 208, former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen stepped into the cage with heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko. Although Sonnen had some success with his wrestling in this fight, he was ultimately stopped in the waning moments of the first round, as Emelianenko unleashed a veritable meteor shower of ground-and-pound upon his head. Speaking on The MMA Hour on Monday, Chael Sonnen opened up on this loss. He says that, after being dropped early and pounded out on the mat, he’s in significant physical pain. No surprise there.

Cole Shelton - October 14, 2018

At Bellator 208, Chael Sonnen was taking on arguably the best heavyweight in MMA history, Fedor Emelianenko. Ultimately, Emelianenko’s power proved to be too much for the former middleweight and natural light heavyweight. Emelianenko dropped Sonnen multiple times during the fight and got the TKO win in the first round. However, even with this loss to Emelianenko, Sonnen can take pride in having fought the best of the best throughout his career. He competed in title fights against the arguable middleweight GOAT in Anderson Silva, and the consensus light heavyweight GOAT in Jon Jones.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo5qifbn776/ On Saturday night, in the main event of Bellator 208, heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko stepped into the cage with former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen in hopes of earning a spot in the finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

On Saturday night, in the co-main event of the action-packed Bellator 208 card, former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson picked up a dominant decision win over longtime Bellator lightweight contender Saad Awad. In his post-fight interview with Bellator MMA commentator John McCarthy, Benson Henderson could have taken a moment to call for another Bellator title shot, or perhaps a rematch with fellow lightweight contender Patricky Freire. Instead, however, the former champion used his post-fight interview as an opportunity to admonish UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor for their infamous UFC 229 post-fight brawl.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

Over the weekend, Ryan Bader and Fedor Emelianenko both won their Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinal bouts, defeating Matt Mitrione and Chael Sonnen respectively. With these wins, the pair will now fight each other sometime in the new year, and the winner will be crowned the Bellator heavyweight champion. For Ryan Bader, the chance to fight the legendary Fedor Emelianenko is obviously an exciting opportunity. Yet while he admits it’s a little surreal to fight such an icon of the sport, he assures he’s approaching it like any other fight.

Tom Taylor - October 14, 2018

On Friday night, in the main event of Bellator 207, Bellator light heavyweight champ Ryan Bader advanced to the finals of the promotion’s exciting Heavyweight Grand Prix with a win over Matt Mitrione. While Bader has looked pretty much unstoppable since joining the Bellator roster — in two divisions at that — he still regrets the fact that he never got the chance to fight UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier during his time as a UFC fighter. “I do think about that,” Bader told the media after Bellator 207 (via MMAjunkie). “We all are, ‘Woulda, coulda, shoulda.’ A big reason for me to come over is I believe I was the best in the world and never got the opportunity to show it [in the UFC]. Over here I did. It’s always there. I’m a competitor, I want to be the best in the world, not, ‘Oh yeah, but there’s another organization.’ Taking nothing away from him. He’s a dominant champion. He’s one of the best to ever do it. Of course I want it. But will that ever happen? No.”

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2018

The second semi-final of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix took place tonight at as former PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko squared off with former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen. Chael Sonnen entered tonight’s Bellator 208 event having won two fights in a row, his latest being a unanimous decision victory over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at January’s Bellator 192 event.

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2018

A heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Chael Sonnen took place at tonight’s Bellator 208 event, with the winner advancing to the promotions Heavyweight Grand Prix Finals to fight Ryan Bader. “Darth” Bader was able to score a dominant decision victory over Matt Mitrione in the main event of yesterday’s Bellator 207 fight card.

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2018

A key lightweight bout between former UFC champion Benson Henderson and perennial contender Saad Awad took place at tonight’s Bellator 208 event. Benson Henderson (25-8 MMA) was last seen in action at Bellator 196 where he scored a second-round submission win over Roger Huerta. “Smooth” has gone 2-3 since joining the Bellator ranks in April of 2016.

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2018

A middleweight bout between former Bellator champion Alexander Shlemenko and Anatoly Tokov took place at tonight’s Bellator 208 event. Shlemenko enters tonight’s contest on a two fight losing skid. Prior to those setbacks, the former Bellator middleweight champion was riding a six fight win streak.

Chris Taylor - October 13, 2018

Sergei Kharitonov improved his overall record to (28-6 MMA) at last night’s Bellator 207 event, scoring a nasty first-round knockout victory over Roy Nelson. The highlight reel finish served as the sixteenth TKO/KO victory of Kharitonov’s career.

Cole Shelton - October 13, 2018

Undisputed UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is in a bit of trouble following his fourth-round submission win over Conor McGregor. Nurmagomedov attacked McGregor’s team following his win, while some of Nurmagomedov’s teammates attacked the Irishman in the Octagon. It was a messy scene indeed, and now many expect the NSAC to suspend Nurmagomedov and they may keep a significant portion of his $2 million purse. While that would be a big blow to Nurmagomedov, the biggest blow is that UFC President Dana White has implied he might cut any UFC fighters involved in the Nurmagomedov-McGregor brawl. Unfortunately, Nurmagomedov’s teammate Zubaira Tukhugov was one of those fighters. If White does fire Tukhugov, whose upcoming fight with Artem Lobov has already been cancelled, then Nurmagomedov said he will never fight in the UFC again.

Drake Riggs - October 12, 2018

After their massive San Jose card with Bellator 206, Bellator MMA returns with a doubleheader of a weekend to determine the finals of their heavyweight Grand Prix. Starting things off with Bellator 207, the main event featured the first of the two semi-final matchups. But there was some great action that preceded the battle of big men.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2018

The MMA career of Chael Sonnen is one for the history books. He’s bested opponents like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Michael Bisping, Brian Stann, Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami and Alexey Oleynik. He’s battled legends like Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans. He helped revolutionize the way fighters promote themselves, ushering in an era of trash talk and showmanship that, though long present in boxing and pro wrestling, had not yet taken hold in MMA. If there’s one thing that has eluded Chael Sonnen over the course of his legendary MMA career, however, it’s a major world title. Though he has fought for titles in WEC and the UFC, he’s never managed to wrap a gold belt around his waist in a major promotion.

Tom Taylor - October 12, 2018

On Saturday night, after tonight’s Bellator 207 card, Bellator MMA will touch down in Uniondale, New York with Bellator 208. This second card of the weekend will be headlined by a  Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinal showdown between former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen and heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko. On Friday morning, the many talented fighters competing on the Bellator 208 bill took to the scales to weigh in for their imminent battles.