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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Former Bellator Welterweight Champion Lyman Good is leaving the organization after four years and 11 fights, announcing on Thursday that he is a free agent.
"The entire team at Bellator has been really good to me throughout my career and now they've given me the green light to go and fight anywhere I want," Good stated in a press release (via MMAJunkie.com). "I don't know where I'll end up next, but I'm going to keep fighting, and ... maybe I'll be back at Bellator at some point."
Good became the inaugural Bellator Welterweight Champion when he defeated Omar de la Cruz to win the first season tournament in June of 2009. However, he'd spend the next year on the sidelines before facing season two winner Ben Askren in October of 2010.
After losing that fight, and the title, in his first defense, Good tried twice more to run through a Bellator tournament to get a rematch with Askren, falling short to Rick Hawn in the season four semifinals, and Andrey Koreshkov in the season seven finals. All three of those losses came by decision.
He won eight fights under the Bellator banner, including his most recent outing in April when he defeated Dante Rivera at Bellator 95.
Penick's Analysis: Good may possibly get some feelers from the UFC, though that's not necessarily likely given his three losses in the Bellator cage. Still, he put together a good four-year run with the organization, and there will be someone interested in having him on their roster. Hopefully Bellator giving the "green light" means they're not in a matching period, because we've seen how that process has played out with Eddie Alvarez.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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