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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Bellator on Wednesday officially announced the signing of Daniel Gracie to their season four light heavyweight tournament.
The signing had been reported earlier this month, but Bellator has made it official, and confirmed his participation in the tournament.
"The Gracie family has truly influenced MMA as we know it today and I'm proud to say that heritage continues when Daniel steps into the Bellator cage to try to become our Light Heavyweight Champion," said Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. "A Gracie back in the tournament format, is reminiscent of the days when the Gracie's dominated MMA and that's something I'm excited to see."
Gracie returned to action in November of this year after four years away from the sport, and will enter Bellator in 2011 with a 5-2-1 career record.
"I feel faster and like my technique is better when I fight at light heavyweight. I also feel like my cardio is much improved and I'm much more explosive at 205 lbs.," said Gracie. "I feel like I'm just better all around at light heavyweight."
"This Bellator tournament is the Gracies getting back to our origins. The tournament is the way the Gracies got started in MMA. That will give me extra motivation to win this tournament... I'm imagining myself winning this tournament, I have nothing but winning this tournament on my mind right now. Of course I know that anything can happen in MMA, but one thing I guarantee everyone that tunes in is that I'm going to put on a great show. You can bet on that"
Penick's Analysis: Gracie's the one name that was already known, so the rest of the field should continue to be revealed in the coming weeks. Though he was out of the sport for four years, he'll be highly competitive in this eight man tournament in 2011.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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