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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Bellator Fighting Championships was started with the philosophy of providing a more "sport"-like take on mixed martial arts competition, with fighters needing to win one of their season tournaments in order to either win a championship or contend for one. The concept itself made sense for separating the best from the rest on their roster, but it's also a system that's inherently flawed in the way it's being implemented right now by the organization.
As it stands, Bellator will not give any fighter a title fight without first winning a tournament. That leaves potentially significant rematches for their titles off the table, even if a title fight is very close. We've already seen two examples of this in recent months, with Jay Hieron losing a split decision many felt he should have won against Ben Askren and Michael Chandler upsetting Eddie Alvarez in a great back and forth fight. Neither Hieron nor Askren will get an immediate rematch because of Bellator's insistence on the challengers coming out of the tournament setting.
But it's not just challengers that are potentially hurt by this system, as the champions themselves wind up on the short end of things in terms of getting fights, especially at a high level.
Bellator had champions in seven separate divisions to begin 2011. Those seven divisions have produced a whopping three title fights this year combined, with the addition of the light heavyweight division's belt with their first 205 lb. tournament. Four title fights through eight divisions, and two of them were at lightweight featuring Eddie Alvarez.
Right now, these divisional champions are either getting booked in one-off "super fights" at random intervals as they wait for a challenger to emerge, or they're sitting on the sidelines for lengthy periods of time while others in the division get more fights through the tournament format.
Take what happened Saturday night as another clear example of the issues here. Thiago Santos soccer-kicking Eric Prindle in the cup led to a no-contest in the finals of Bellator's second heavyweight tournament. That means no tournament winner, and no challenger to Bellator Heavyweight Champ Cole Konrad.
There isn't anything wrong with wanting to find out who the best in Bellator are through the tournament format. However, having divisional champions as opposed to tournament champions is an issue that will continue to lead to dissatisfaction on this front.
What I'd propose is something that has been talked about by others as well, but that's to plug the champions back into the tournament, with the final fight of each division's season being a five round "Tournament Championship" fight.
For the current Champions, plug them in with a first round bye, with six others taking part in the field. On side of the bracket will essentially be a four man mini-tournament to determine who faces the Champion - or whomever defeats the Champion - in the final tournament bout of that season. If you have a fight like Askren-Hieron or Chandler-Alvarez, the two could both get a bye in the next tournament, and face each other in the semifinals, allowing for immediate rematches.
This not only keeps the top fighters more active, but it also keeps them fighting legitimate competition instead of a random opponent brought into the organization. If they then lose in the tournament, the belt is vacated to go to the eventual tournament winner.
Of course, injuries are always an issue, so what happens if a tournament winner doesn't get to compete during a tournament? That's when you have a one-off between that tournament winner and whomever wins that next tournament in their stead. That can also be contested in a five round fight, with the winner again entering the next tournament.
Converting to this system would be simple, and would be an excellent way for Bellator to continue a narrative of their divisions from season to season, with each tournament winner continuing to establish themselves through the next tournament and beyond. As they move to a new era of the organization with Viacom and eventually Spike TV, this would be a great way to give even more meaning to their tournaments and to their top fighters.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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