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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
For its entire run as an organization, Bellator MMA has run the eight-man tournament in all of their divisions as a way to make their challengers "earn" shots at their respective division's title. But that tournament format is getting a shakeup this summer, with the tournament dropping to four-man fields in order to line up more challengers for their champions.
It's a shift that strikes at the heart of the concept in some ways, especially in the case of the light heavyweight division, where season eight favorites Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal and Renato "Babalu" Sobral - who were both upset in the last tournament - now only have to win two fights for a title bout this summer instead of three.
But despite those concerns, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney says the four-man fields could find their way to the regular Bellator seasons as well.
"There's no hard and fast [rule]," Rebney said in an interview with MMAJunkie.com. "They can potentially take place in the regular season, as well. It's all about trying to figure out how to get more world-title shots set up for the guys, so that at minimum our guys are defending the titles three times a year – which is where we want to be."
"If we need to juggle and do another 205 tournament in the fall, or we need to do another [heavyweight] tournament in the fall, or 145 and do a four-man, it gives us the flexibility to do that," Rebney continued. "This is about ensuring that, whether it's going to be Emanuel Newton or Vegh defending that title, you've got a guy lined up. As soon as whoever wins that fight is done, you've got another [title] fight lined up and you're ready to go."
"It's about working through those different movements of the company to get it to where every facet of it is working perfectly – and we're getting close."
Rebney feels that lining up those challengers addresses the issue of Champions not getting enough fights, and negates concerns in regards to the eight-man vs. four-man fields. Furthermore, he feels this is the spot he wanted to be in when he began Bellator in the first place.
"This is the place i wanted to be in," Rebney said. "Loading the barrel with challengers who've earned their place to be there."
Penick's Analysis: The so-called "integrity" of the tournament format is brought into a more questionable focus when it's a four-man field. That's especially the case in what we're seeing for Lawal and "Babalu," this summer. Because they already got beat in the eight man field, and now only have to beat out four others to get a title fight, there's plenty to question on whether that's a deserving challenger. However, getting more challengers lined up to keep Champions active is also a necessity, so there's an understandable trade-off there that mostly cancels itself out.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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