Bellator Heavyweight Tournament Field Finalized, Winner Might become Champion
A day after the current Bellator heavyweight champion Cole Konrad surprisingly announced his retirement from the sport; the promotion introduced the finalized field for their season 7 heavyweight tournament.
Bellator season 7 is set to begin on September 28th but the heavyweight tournament will start one week later at Bellator 75 in Hammond, Indiana. Of course the participants will be fighting for the $100,000 tournament prize but should the title become vacant, which it appears it will, then the title itself could potentially be on the line as well.
The eight men fighting on the night main card will be as follows:
Coming off his loss to Konrad, Eric Prindle (7-2) will finally get his rematch against Thiago Santos (10-1) in the Bellator 75 main event. The two fought at Bellator 59 in the season 5 tournament final but an illegal kick to the groin by Santos resulted in a no-contest. Sickness and weight issues prevented their rematch from happening during season 6 but now they will get the chance.
Former Strikeforce heavyweight Brett Rogers (12-4) will make his second Bellator appearance as he takes on Alexander Volkov (16-3). Roger defeated Kevin Asplund in his debut and will have his hands full with the 6-foot-7 Russian who will be making his Bellator debut on an eight fight winning streak.
Mike Wessel (12-4) fought at Bellator 73, winning a split decision against Ryan Martinez and will take on the former light heavyweight Richard Hale (19-4). As a light heavyweight Hale made it to the season 4 finals against Christian M’Pumbu, who became the 205 lbs. champion with the victory.
Rounding out the field will be Vinicius Queiroz (5-2), who last fought in October of 2010 in the UFC where he lost to Rob Broughton and later tested positive for steroids. He’ll be making his debut and return from a two-year absence against the Bellator veteran Mark Holata (12-3).
The complete Bellator 75 fight card includes five preliminary bouts, which will stream on Spike.com.
MAIN CARD:
Eric Prindle vs. Thiago Santos
Brett Rogers vs. Alexander Volkov
Richard Hale vs. Mike Wessel
Mark Holata vs. Vinicius Queiroz
PRELIMINARY CARD:
Bo Harris vs. Chase Beebe
Brandon Delprado vs. Joe Williams
Jason Graves vs. Rafal Skibinski
Jose Medina vs. Anthony Gomez
Cliff Wright Jr. vs. Bobby Reardanz
The Bellator 75 takes place on October 5th and the night’s main card will air live on MTV2.
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