On April 2, 2021, at Bellator 255, featherweight champion Patrício “Pitbull” Freire defends his belt against Emmanuel Sanchez in a rematch. Freire won the pair’s first contest via unanimous decision in 2018.

While Sanchez and Pitbull fight for the second time, McKee has to watch from the sidelines. During the Bellator special announcement press conference earlier this week, play-by-play announcer Mauro Ranallo asked McKee who he wanted to face of the two fighters.

“Honestly, preference wise, I would prefer to face Sanchez and then go take the 155 belt from Patríco, but we’ll see,” McKee said. “Once they get it on, it will be a great fight, and I’m looking to put on a great show with either one of them.”

McKee was asked why he prefers Sanchez during a media interview following the press conference.

“I feel that just puts the icing on the cake in the 145-pound division alongside just to fuel the fire from previous altercations and just the badgering mouth that has been ran between him and I,” McKee said. “It’s time to put an end to that, so I wouldn’t mind whooping his ass and then moving up to 155 pounds and taking the belt from Patricio at 155. But regardless, I’m looking to eat the cake.”

While he wants to fight Sanchez, it’s not because he thinks it is the easiest path to the million-dollar prize that awaits the grand Prix winner.

“Styles make fights,” McKee said. “I wouldn’t say either opponent is easier. I feel their first fight was really close, so I’m honestly kind of excited to see how the second one plays out.”

While McKee has to wait, watch and stay ready, he doesn’t see it as an advantage that he got to the finals first.

“Everything happens for a reason. Inside of the cage, outside of the cage, everything happens for a reason and I think everything has lined up perfect to accommodate me and how my life is at the moment.

Another big talking point and one of McKee’s biggest goals is to be a champ-champ or a two-division champion – a feat that only a few fighters can put on their resume. If his plan comes to fruition, with Sanchez victorious in April, the possibility dramatically improves.

The final fight in the semifinals of the featherweight grand prix goes down April 2 at Bellator 255. AJ McKee awaits the winner.

The post AJ McKee Prefers Fight with Emmanuel Sanchez for Bellator Featherweight Title appeared first on Cageside Press.

Following the final opening round fight of Bellator’s featherweight grand prix, the winning fighters were set to choose their fate moving forward into the second round. A random draw would see who picked in what order. Fighters could choose based on date, and as the bracket filled up, on opponent.

Each fighter had thirty seconds to make their choice. And it was A.J. McKee, who won big at Bellator 228, selecting first. With no fighters on the board, McKee opted to fight as soon as possible, in December. He called out Adam Borics as well, but whether that would happen remained to be seen.

However, Borics happened to have the second pick. He opted to pass up McKee, and selected January, citing a small foot injury requiring a later date.

Former bantamweight champ Darrion Caldwell selected third. Having defeated Henry Corrales earlier in the night, his coach could be overheard suggesting a March date. Which is exactly what Caldwell selected, giving himself plenty of time to prepare. ‘The Wolf’ then called out champ Pitbull.

Daniel Weichel had the fourth pick. He opted for the February 2020 date, and through four fighters, not a single match-up was set. That would change as Emmanuel Sanchez had the fifth selection. He opted to choose Daniel Weichel. “He knows he didn’t beat me, that’s why,” Sanchez said.

The next match-up made came when Derek Campos made the sixth selection. Campos would choose the undefeated McKee, leaving just two names available — Borics and Caldwell.

Pedro Carvalho chose seventh, noting he wanted to fight in December. Since that was taken, he chose Darrion Caldwell in March, saying he wanted to prove he was the best in the world, and beating a former champ would do that.

By default, that left Patricio Pitbull to face young prospect Adam Borics. An interesting turn, as many were anticipating either Pitbull and McKee, or Pitbull and Caldwell for the second round. But wait! In a twist, Pitbull, as champ, was offered the option to replace any fighter in the bracket. Citing age, needing rest, Pitbull selected March. That gave him a choice between Darrion Caldwell and Pedro Carvalho. Calling Caldwell “a loser,” Pitbull chose Carvalho. As a result, Caldwell will meet Adam Borics in January.

The second round is set, and the Bellator featherweight grand prix gets back underway in December, as A.J. McKee faces Derek Campos.

Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round

December: A.J. McKee vs. Derek Campos
January: Adam Borics vs. Darrion Caldwell
February: Daniel Weichel vs. Emmanuel Sanchez
March: Patricio Pitbull vs. Pedro Carvalho

The post Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Set, Patricio Pitbull Faces Pedro Carvalho appeared first on Cageside Press.

Los Angeles, CA — Scott Coker revealed some big plans for the remainder of 2019 for Bellator. The 16-man featherweight tournament and its first-round matchups were officially announced, as well as a slew of main event announcements including Ryan Bader vs. Cheick Kongo for the heavyweight title.

The Welterweight Grand Prix has largely gone off without a hitch, with no alternates necessary. Of course that’s a rarity in tournaments, and an adjustment was necessary to make sure the Welterweight Grand Prix finished smoothly.

“The heavyweights, you always worry that somebody’s going to get hurt. The welterweights, Rory was a little bit injured, he needed another 30 days of rest, which we gave him, so he’s ready to go. That fight will happen at the end of October, [Douglas Lima] and Rory will get it on up in Mohegan Sun.”

A high-profile fight between champion Patricio Pitbull and top contender Juan Archuleta will surprisingly take place in the first round of the tournament. Coker discussed how it came together.

“Pitbull said he’ll fight anybody. Juan actually called us through his management, who said ‘Juan wants to fight Pitbull.’ So that was the challenge. Strategically, I think it’s a good move. You’ve got to fight him sooner or later, if he’s going to win the tournament. And you want to fight for the belt, you want to be the champ, and he’s 100% healthy coming off a big fight in Madison Square Garden. So I think that it was a good move for him. And once that fight was set, we set the rest of the tournament.”

Coker also touched on how the tournament is going to work, since there is no “bracket” per se.

“The 16 fights will happen, then is going to be the pairings. The pairings will be a whole different thing. When the 16 fights happen, there’s going to be a random drawing show. It’s going to be the evening of the fight, or the Monday after at Viacom here in Hollywood. But it’s going to be a show that’s basically, the fighters will pick who they end up fighting. We usually have an eight-man scenario, this is a sixteen man scenario. So we thought, how do we get to the eight man? I think in the future, all our tournaments will have this random-type drawing. If you’ve been around martial arts a long time, you’ve seen the drawings for K-1, or the drawings for Japan, this is a playbook right out of Japan. Basicaly what it is, we’ll have eight slots against the wall, we’ll have eight fighters sitting in a chair, they’ll all go pick an egg, crack it open, it’ll have a number on it. I’m number one, I get to pick any slot. The difference is going to be, now I’ll know where I’m fighting. Fighters will know the time and the place, but at least the first few picks likely won’t know who they’re fighting.

I can take the number one slot, I can take the number eight slot. The next person could fight the number one selection, or place himself later down the line. Or in the middle somewhere. There’s going to be some strategy on who I want to pick, where I want to go, and time frame of these tournaments that are laid out. It’s going to be very interesting on who picks who.”

After winning the bantamweight title at Bellator 222, Kyoji Horiguchi is set to split time between RIZIN and Bellator.

“Horiguchi, he might be fighting here sooner than you think. He’ll definitely be fighting New Year’s in Japan. But I think after that, [Nobuyuki] Sakakibara said he’s welcome to come over here and fight. We’ll get him in there hopefully before the summertime.”

Another man who will be splitting time for Bellator will be double-champion Ryan Bader. He’s set to defend his heavyweight belt in December, but will not have much time to rest after if Coker gets his wish.

“I talked to Ryan today, and I said ‘Ryan, you know, you’re defending the heavyweight belt, but how soon can you turn it around for 205?’ Because we might ask you before the end of the year to fight at 205. So we’re going to keep him very busy.”

Check out the rest of Scott Coker’s Media Day scrum above.

The post Bellator President Scott Coker Details Featherweight Grand Prix, Plans for Horiguchi and Bader appeared first on Cageside Press.

Bellator has added some more striking power to its roster. Following the likes of Joe Schilling and Gokhan Saki to MMA, Robin van Roosmalen is the latest decorated kickboxer to make the switch in sports. Bellator CEO Scott Coker announced that he had signed the two-weight class champion on Tuesday.

Pleased to announce @RobinVRoosmalen has signed with @BellatorMMA.

Get ready for the upcoming featherweight grand prix. 😉 pic.twitter.com/oLQn03NQao

— Scott Coker (@ScottCoker) May 28, 2019

Right off the bat, Coker added “get ready for the upcoming featherweight grand prix” — a hint at exactly when van Roosmalen will make his debut.

The Dutch kickboxer, 29, actually has two MMA bouts under his belt already – both wins. He has not competed in the sport since 2017, however. To date, he has been best known for winning belts in two weight classes in GLORY — earning both the featherweight and lightweight titles in the kickboxing organization.

The Bellator featherweight world grand prix, meanwhile, is expected to kick off in October. Sixteen men will start out in the tournament, with the first round of action taking place in a single night, a significant change from recent grand prix tournaments in the promotion.

Names expected to take part in the tournament include double-champ Patricio Pitbull, undefeated phenom A.J. McKee, former champ Daniel Straus, and more.

The post GLORY Double Champ Robin van Roosmalen Signs with Bellator MMA appeared first on Cageside Press.

Bellator MMA is diving into the million dollar tournament business. Following in the footsteps of the Professional Fighters League and ROAD FC, the promotion will put a million dollars on the line for the winner of their upcoming featherweight grand prix. Bellator CEO Scott Coker announced the news at the Bellator London press conference Tuesday.

It’s worth noting that Bellator’s welterweight grand prix also has a million dollars on the line, but this is the first confirmation that multiple tournaments would feature the prize. While no names were announced for the featherweight grand prix, Coker confirmed that it would start in October, and air on DAZN, with the first eight fights taking place on a single card.

“In October of this year, we’re going to launch our 16-man featherweight tournament,” he said Tuesday. “It will be a year-long tournament, it will air on DAZN. It will be all the great featherweights in Bellator. So it’ll be 16, they’ll all fight in one night, going down to 8. Then there’ll be a single elimination process.”

Most importantly, the winner gets a shot at the champ, Patricio Freire, who is set to challenge Michael Chandler for the lightweight title later this Spring. “The featherweight champ will walk away with a belt, and a million dollars in prize money,” Coker concluded.

An exact start date for the grand prix was not provided.

The post Bellator MMA Reveals More Info on Featherweight Grand Prix, Including Million Dollar Prize appeared first on Cageside Press.

Sixteen men enter. One man leaves. No, not on the same night, you sadist! But yet again, Bellator will embark on a grand prix tournament. Having recently completed the heavyweight grand prix, and still in the midst of the welterweight tournament, the next weight class getting the treatment will be featherweight.

Scott Coker hinted as much last week in Connecticut. On Monday, he made it official while speaking to Ariel Helwani. Featherweight was really everyone’s first guess anyway, especially when Coker dropped the line “think smaller.” Lightweight at Bellator is decent, but featherweight is arguably more competitive at the moment.

What threw everyone for a loop, however, was a number. Not 145, but 16. Sixteen fighters are taking part. That is a lot of slots to fill, given both the heavyweight and welterweight grand prix tournaments have featured eight fighters.

Still, the 145lb division in Bellator boasts some interesting names. First up, champion Patricio Freire, better known as Patricio Pitbull. The Brazilian is fighting his arch-rival, lightweight champ Michael Chandler, at Bellator 221 in Chicago. The lightweight belt will be on the line that night, so win or lose, Pitbull will retain his 145lb belt. You can bet he’ll be in the mix. If the format stays true to the welterweight grand prix rules, Pitbull’s title will be on the line in each fight he appears in throughout the grand tournament.

Pitbull told Cageside Press previously that he was interested in a featherweight grand prix.

Also fighting at Bellator 221, A.J. McKee and Pat Curran. Curran is a former two-time Bellator featherweight champion. McKee is the undefeated, 13-0 wunderkind who would be knocking at the door of a title shot should he win. A safe bet is that both these men will be in the grand prix, with the winner facing Pitbull right out of the gate. The timing, with all three being on the same card, is just perfect.

The division’s most recent challenger, Emmanuel Sanchez, is a lock for the grand prix. Henry Corrales is as well, coming off a shock knockout of Aaron Pico. Speaking of Pico, he’s the one big name who likely won’t be competing. McKee and Pico are friends and training partners, and have long said they will not fight one another. If McKee is in, it’s likely that Pico is out. Which is good, as Pico, though extremely talented, has some work to put in before he’s ready for something of this nature.

Former title challenger Daniel Weichel is a question mark. He recently moved to lightweight against Goiti Yamauchi, but that did not go as hoped. Yamauchi himself is a former featherweight, but hasn’t fought there since 2016. Then there’s former champ Daniel Straus, who has not fought since 2017. Straus has been recovering from a terrifying motorcycle accident, although it appears his career isn’t over. Still, jumping into a grand prix could be a tall order. We’ll have to wait and see.

Forget Darrion Caldwell, as the Bellator bantamweight champ has a date with Kyoji Horiguchi planned for later this year. Horiguchi is fighting in RIZIN FF in a few months, which means the Caldwell rematch (they met at RIZIN 14 in December) is a way’s off. On top of that, bantamweight is thin. Does Bellator really want to make it thinner?

That said, Juan Archuleta should be in the mix. He dabbled at bantamweight just one fight ago, but has more frequently fought at 145lbs.

Outliers include names like John Macapa, Sam Sicilia, and Chinzo Machida. The latter, especially, brings some name value. Leandro Higo moved to the featherweight division recently, and while he came up short, he’s an option as well.

James Gallagher, after winning a number of Bellator bouts at featherweight, continues his bantamweight experiment at Bellator: Newcastle this weekend. He’s obviously out if he stays at 135lbs, but a return to featherweight could add some star power to the mix.

Another young star, Tywan Claxton, could be added to the mix. At 4-0, he’s still pretty green, but very familiar with tournaments from his wrestling days. Adam Borics is 8-0 as a pro with six finishes, and it seems like he would be a shoo-in.

What people aren’t talking about — yet — is the possibility of a free agent signing or two before the tournament starts. That’s a very real possibility as well.

Patricio Pitbull, A.J. McKee, Pat Curran, Daniel Weichel, Daniel Straus, Henry Corrales, Emmanuel Sanchez, John Macapa, Sam Sicilia, Adam Borics, Tywan Claxton, James Gallagher, Chinzo Machida, Juan Archuleta, Leandro Higo, Goiti Yamauchi. Right there are sixteen names, either currently or formerly at featherweight, who could take part. Throw in Aaron Pico as an alternate, should McKee fall out.

Will those be the final sixteen names? Probably not — it’s likely some won’t be available, and in the case of fighters currently in other divisions, they may not want to drop/rise up. But you can safely expect at least half to make the cut.

The post Anticipating Who Might Take Part in Bellator’s Featherweight Grand Prix appeared first on Cageside Press.