The Bellator Fighting Championships will return to Louisiana on Friday, March 16 for Bellator 61 from Bossier City at the Horseshoe Riverdome to finally crown a heavyweight tournament champion. The night will be headlined with heavyweights Eric Prindle and Thiago Santos finishing what they started last season as well as the start of the Season 6 Middleweight Tournament.
What a difference a week makes. Following last week’s Bellator 58 that featured a fight of the year candidate, Bellator 59 ended season five on an unfortunate sour note. Featuring two tournament finals and two exciting lightweight bouts on the main card, things looked promising on paper.
Bellator’s season five has been one of the greatest for the promotion and it will come to a close at this Saturday’s Bellator 58 event in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Coming off last weekend’s exciting lightweight championship main event that saw Michael Chandler defeat Eddie Alvarez, the guys on Saturday’s card have a tough act to follow.
Taking place at the same time as the UFC 137 PPV, Bellator 56 takes place from the Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. The card features the semifinal round of the heavyweight tournament along with a welterweight title between Ben Askren and Jay Hieron.
The final semifinal round of Bellator’s fifth season takes place at this weekend’s Bellator 56 with the heavyweights taking center stage. Following the opening round at Bellator 52, the bracket was hit with a medical suspension and an injury that forced two semifinalists out of the tournament.
The season 5 Bellator heavyweight tournament appears to have lost its second semifinalist this weekend, resulting in a completely new semifinal bout at Bellator 56. Following Thiago Santos stepping in for Mike Hayes after he was not medically cleared to fight, former finalist Neil Grove appears to be stepping back into the Bellator heavyweight tournament.
The Welterweight tournament was narrowed down to two combatants following the outcomes of the bracket match-ups at Bellator 53. The four remaining competitors were Ben Saunders, Douglas Lima, Chris Lozano, and Luis Santos, with Lima being matched up with Lozano and Saunders fighting Santos.
