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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Bellator has an unfortunately lengthy history of promoting certain fighters over others, even when the "others" in question are champions in the organization.
It's happening again for Will Brooks, who capture the Interim Bellator Lightweight Title over Michael Chandler earlier this year. Now, the fight arguably shouldn't have been for a title in the first place, but it was, and Brooks won. However, you'd never know it given the promotion for Bellator 131.
Brooks is very unhappy about the way Bellator is pushing him aside behind the Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar fight, and behind the man he beat in Chandler, especially, and he lashed out in a stream of comments on Twitter this week.
Can anyone see my belt in any of the Bellator 131 posters? Interim title or not I should be promoted as a champion bottom line.
Penick's Analysis: Brooks has every right to feel disrespected by Bellator with the way he's been put in the background on this one. He's far from the first to deal with it, and it's fallout from the organization and Viacom focusing on past-their-prime yet well known names. Whether it played into their plans or not, the fact is that Brooks beat Chandler, and they named him Interim Champ. They've essentially dropped that into the rematch to promote this for the "Vacant" title, and by placing Chandler ahead of Brooks on the poster, they are ignoring what Brooks did earlier this year. It's not a good look, and breeds discontent among the roster. At this point, it seems right for Brooks to say something, because nothing changes if fighters sit back silently.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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