Lots of title Fights on Tap for Bellator Starting this Summer
This morning Bellator MMA announced their first 2013 summer series event on June 19th from the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. The Bellator 96 main card will feature the opening round of the four man light heavyweight tournament and is headlined by a lightweight title fight between Michael Chandler and Dave Jansen.
This will be the first of many Bellator MMA title fights to take place this year as the promotion has a backlog of title fights waiting to be assigned to a future event. Including the already mentioned lightweight title fight there are five title fights on the horizon for Bellator MMA and with three new tournaments set to take place this summer that number is only going to grow.
Heavyweight Division: Champion = Alexander Volkov
Next up: N/A
Waiting in the wings: Winner of 2013 Summer Series Tournament
- Easily the weakest division of the Bellator roster, the fourth heavyweight tournament will take place during the summer series and line up the first heavyweight title defense for Volkov.
Light Heavyweight Division: Champion = Attila Vegh
Next up: Vegh vs. Newton
Waiting in the wings: Winner of 2013 Summer Series Tournament
- After winning the season eight tournament Emanuel Newton is set to face the champion at an upcoming event. There fight will be a rematch of the 2012 summer series light heavyweight tournament semifinals in which Vegh won via controversial split decision. The winner will move on to face the winner of this year’s summer series tournament winner.
Middleweight Division: Champion = Alexander Shlemenko
Next up: Shlemenko vs. Marshall
Waiting in the wings: N/A
- A Bellator veteran of nine fights and two tournament finals, Alexander Shlemenko defeated Maiquel Falcao at Bellator 88 to capture the vacant middleweight title. The Russian will face season eight tournament winner and fellow striker Doug Marshall in his first title defense.
Welterweight Division: Champion = Ben Askren
Next Up: Askren vs. Koreshkov
Waiting in the wings: N/A
- The longest tenured champion will make his fourth title defense when he takes on season 7 tournament winner Andrey Koreshkov. Askren hasn’t fought that frequently but having already fought back in January; he should be able to squeeze two fights into a year for the first time since becoming champion.
Bellator 96 will be Chandler vs. Jansen
Lightweight Division: Champion = Michael Chandler
Next Up: Chandler vs. Jansen
Waiting in the wings: David Rickels
- Michael Chandler has asked for more fights and will get his second fight of the year when he takes on Dave Jansen next month at Bellator 96. Jansen won the season 7 tournament and has a won his last six fights (all with Bellator). Season 8 tournament winner David Rickels will be watching intently on June 19th to see who he’ll be fighting for the title.
Featherweight Division: Champion = Pat Curran
Next Up: Curran vs. Straus
Waiting in the wings: Frodo Khasbuaev
- Pat Curran is the only Bellator fighting to win tournaments in two different weight classes and has quickly become the promotion most popular fighter (along with Chandler). The featherweight division is the deepest division Bellator has and this has caused a log jam of tournament winner. Curran has already successfully defended his title twice this year and there are still two fighters in line. Curran will face Daniel Straus who won the season 6 tournament next and then after that, season 8 tournament winner Frodo Khasbuaev is next.
Bantamweight Division: Champion = Eduardo Dantas
Next up: N/A
Waiting in the wings: Winner of 2013 Summer Series Tournament
- Dantas defeated Zach Makovsky to win the bantamweight title and has defended it once. Unless he fights in a non-title fight he’ll need to wait for the winner on the upcoming summer series bantamweight tournament for his next opponent.
Should the stars align just right the remainder of 2013 could be filled with Bellator title fights. Which Bellator Title fight are you looking forward too?
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