...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Bellator Fighting Championships is gearing up for their second season, set to begin this April on Fox Sports Net, in addition to highlight shows on NBC and Telemundo. With the season two debut coming up soon, the tournaments for this season in the featherweight, lightweight, welterweight and middleweight divisions are filling out.
The most recent signing for Bellator is former Greco-Roman wrestling Champion and highly touted prospect Joe Warren, as the organization announced his participation in their featherweight tournament on their Twitter page.
Warren burst onto the MMA landscape in 2009 in Japan's DREAM organization, defeating former WEC Bantamweight Champion Chase Beebe in his debut fight and then shocking Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto in the first two rounds of the DREAM Featherweight Grand Prix. He suffered his first defeat by armbar to eventual Grand Prix Champion Bibiano Fernandes, but he'll enter this featherweight tournament with a lot of excitement behind him.
None of the tournament rosters are quite set, but here's a rundown of Bellator's official list of fighters set for these tournaments, which will determine the number one contenders to Bellator's season 1 Champions:
Featherweight Tournament Participants
-Georgi Karakhanyan (12-1-1)
-William Romero (5-0)
-Patricio Pitbull (12-0)
-Bao Quach (17-9-1)
-Joe Warren (2-1)
Lightweight Tournament Participants
-Mike Ricci (5-0)
-Ferrid Kheder (16-5)
-Carey Vanier (7-2)
Welterweight Tournament Participants
-Steve Carl (7-1)
-Ben Askren (3-0)
-Jacob McClintock (6-0)
-Dan Hornbuckle (19-2)
-Jim Wallhead (18-5)
Middleweight Tournament Participants
-Eric Schambari (11-1)
Bellator Season Two begins on April 8th on Fox Sports Net and will run for twelve weeks.
Penick's Analysis: There's a lot to be excited for with the second season of Bellator. Last season provided some of the most exciting highlights of the MMA year, and with a wider exposure and live events instead of the tape delay from season one this will provide a very exciting weekly series of events for MMA fans in 2010.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
