Fortune, taking the fight on short notice, has notable wins over Matt Mitrione and Marcelo Golm, both UFC veterans. He also has a remarkable story, having been declared dead after a botched weight cut.

Round one saw Tybura stalking Fortune, who was bouncing lightly on his feet. About a minute in, Fortune exploded forward with an easy takedown, trapping Tybura against the cage and landing several solid shots. Tybura managed to turn to his knees and attempted to use the cage to stand, but Fortune caught him with a big right hand as he rose. Tybura struggled to secure his back against the cage but did land some short knees and elbows. The fighters separated with a minute remaining, though little action followed.

Round two opened with a heavy exchange, with Tybura pressing forward and throwing volume strikes. Fortune appeared to be conserving energy, remaining low volume and selective, landing one powerful shot at a time. Tybura managed a straight left, which Fortune absorbed without issue. In the final minute, Tybura landed a body kick while Fortune connected with two clean straight rights. It was a stronger round for Tybura, as Fortune’s measured pace kept the fight closer than it perhaps should have been.

The final round began with both men tying up early. Fortune absorbed several hooks to the body while failing to make much impact against the cage. Tybura, though not landing anything particularly decisive, stayed active with forward pressure. His aggression led to a duck-under takedown attempt from Fortune, which Tybura immediately escaped, rising to his feet despite taking a few shots. Tybura continued pressing against the cage, landing some decent strikes to close out the fight.

Overall, it was a slow-paced affair where both fighters struggled to find a rhythm against each other. Tybura’s activity and forward pressure contrasted with Fortune’s selective striking, resulting in a tactical, if unspectacular, matchup.

Come the judges scorecards, Tybura was announced the winner, with Fortune exiting the octagon. Then, in an embarrassing moment for all involved, Fortune was called back into the cage, with announcer Bruce Buffer apologizing and re-reading the result, with Tyrell Fortune earning the decision win. Tyrbua took the mishap gracefully, and Fortune will no doubt never forget how his first UFC win was announced.

Having stepped into the fight on two weeks’ notice, that’s a significant victory for Fortune, who will almost certainly be ranked next week.

Official Result: Tyrell Fortune def. Marcin Tybura by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

The post UFC Seattle: Wrong Winner Announced, but Tyrell Fortune Beats Marcin Tybura appeared first on Cageside Press.

And the second-round TKO, WCA set his sights on Curtis Blaydes, a stud wrestler who he accused to trash talking him online.

Where and when does Cortes-Acosta want that bout? “I don’t care where they put me in there,” stated “Salsa Boy,” speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press during Saturday’s UFC 324 post-fight press conference. However, the Dominican star, a former baseball player, added that “I want to fight in Mexico, and I want to rip Curtis Blaydes’ head off in Mexico.”

The UFC returns to Mexico City this March, so the timeline is possible.

Josh Hokit, a Contender Series alum and former NFL player, won the night’s other heavyweight tilt on Saturday, calling out Waldo Cortes-Acosta after his own win. And if Cortes-Acosta didn’t like the trash talk of Blaydes, he almost certainly did not enjoy Hokit calling him a “deadbeat dad” to nine children.

“I’ve seen it, or I did hear it,” Cortes-Acosta said of Hokit’s comments, that were delivered in a gimmicky, pro-wrestling style. “I’ve crossed paths with him in the PI [UFC Performance Institute], and I’ve gone up there, to some of the coaches, and said ‘listen, you want to fight me? I’ll tell you what. Watch what I did, watch what I’ve been doing. Get there, train. Maybe that’s when we’ll cross paths.'”

However, Waldo has a better idea for who Hokit should fight: his training partner and former Bellator MMA heavyweight Tyrell Fortune.

“Tyrell Fortune, one of my training partners, I want to get him an opportunity in the UFC. I said ‘you know what, Tyrell, you come in and beat the crap out of this guy for me.'”

Fortune has won his last three fights, picking up two belts on the regional circuit in the process.

Watch the full UFC 324 post-fight press conference with Waldo Cortes-Acosta above.

The post Waldo Cortes-Acosta Wants Blaydes in Mexico, Suggests Hokit Fight Fortune appeared first on Cageside Press.

“You almost said finish right? You seen that,” Fortune joked with reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.

“It feels good. Anytime you get back in the cage and get a win, specially after 14 months, I’m not used to having this much time off in the cage. I was at a point where I was fighting four times a year. I’m just excited to get back here and get back in the cage and get a win.”

Fortune (14-2) nearly finished the fight int he first round which would have netted him more points, but it likely would have left him on the outside of the playoffs.

“You’ve got to let it go. I got to get ready to get back in there and he’s going to try and get that finish too. It just like let it go, I didn’t get it, the ref said it wasn’t that. You can’t let your mind go too far,” he said.

“I think he thought I got his ass out of there, you know what I’m saying? Everybody in here thought he was done. It was kind of like nerve-wrecking real quick to see. Never had that happen before. You’ve got to let it go and get back to work.”

Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Tyrell Fortune above.

The post Tyrell Fortune Thought He Had First Round Finish Victory appeared first on Cageside Press.

Fortune and his team received word recently that his bout against Daniel James at Bellator 288 in Nov. 2022 had been overturned and changed to a ‘no-contest’. The reason for the change was a reported failed PED test by James the day before the bout took place.

“We immediately contested the fight because of the illegal blows. If you watch the replay Bellator continues to post you can see I’m struck to the back of my head six times before he transfers it to elbows that were legal,” Fortune told Cageside Press.

“But you had hit me six times to the back of my head and Daniel James is a big man.”

When Fortune and his manager Matt Aptaker contested the fight they were told that Fortune had lost that contest.

Fortune said “They then get back to me to tell me that have a congruent case that will overturn the contest but they can’t state why.”

Tyrell Fortune and his team waited over 11 months for an answer regarding his fight with Daniel James and wanted to get answers.

After going back and forth with the Commission for months and waiting for some clarification they received news a few days before Fortune’s scheduled bout with Marcelo Golm at Bellator 301 that his fight with Daniel James would be ruled a no contest.

Cageside Press was able to verify the positive PED test through the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. An unspecified anabolic substance was to blame; James was fined $5,000 for the incident, and suspended three months. He received an additional suspension for unpaid child support.

Combatreg.com subsequently changed the Tyrell Fortune vs. Daniel James fight to a no contest as a result of the positive test and the fight will not reflect either fighters’ record. Fortune added he was notified by the commission by letter that the result was overturned.

“Daniel James was a big man on steroids. It took almost a year for them to tell me he popped positive for steroids and my fight was now officially ruled a no contest,” Fortune told Cageside Press.

According to Tyrell Fortune, Bellator MMA had no idea that Daniel James tested positive for a banned substance, because Illinois does not fall under the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC).

“I walked from the commission office to Bellator to tell them Daniel James got popped for steroids and my fight was ruled a no contest and they said they had no idea,” said Fortune.

Daniel James was previously pulled from his scheduled fight against Davion Franklin in May 2022 due to a positive test, making this his second drug test failure in less than two years.

“I contacted Bellator before our fight to ask them what are we doing to make sure I’m safe fighting him and they said he’s going to have to test negative before you guys fight and he passed that test so between that test and the time we fought he started taking steroids again,” he said.

Fortune and his team feel very strongly about fighting clean and not taking steroids, because as Fortune put it, “peoples lives are at stake and my career is on the line.”

The post Tyrell Fortune Says Bellator 288 Fight with Daniel James Ruled No Contest Due to Failed Drug Test appeared first on Cageside Press.

The event at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL was already underway with several preliminary card bouts already in the books when Bellator officials broke the news.

Sources tell Cageside Press that Fortune took ill ahead of the fight, and was forced to withdraw. With Bellator MMA’s schedule a question mark moving forward — they have no events scheduled past Bellator 301 — it’s unclear when or if the match-up might take place.

Brazil’s Golm, a UFC veteran, arrived in Bellator in 2021 and has posted a 2-1 record to date. He was looking to shake off a loss to Daniel James in the fight with Fortune.

Tyrell Fortune (13-3, 1NC) is a Bellator product who has been with the company for his entire professional career. He last competed in April, securing a win over Sergey Bilostenniy.

Fortune is ranked #6, and Golm #7 in the promotion’s heavyweight rankings currently.

Bellator 301 is set to be headlined by a welterweight title fight featuring undefeated, 27-0 champ Yaroslav Amosov of Ukraine putting his title on the line against Jason “The Ass-Kicking Machine” Jackson. Sergio Pettis and Patchy Mix throw down in a bantamweight title unification bout in the co-main event.

The post Tyrell Fortune vs. Marcelo Golm Drops Off Bellator 301 With Card Underway appeared first on Cageside Press.

👊💥Tyrell Fortune with the dynamite W at #Bellator216 tonight!

Prelims are live now on our app 📲 https://t.co/rOLSxx3D5k & simulcast on @DAZN_USA 📲 https://t.co/nYWevM68WM!#BellatorWGP pic.twitter.com/t14Fr0CxjT

— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) February 17, 2019

Despite a hectic schedule which has seen Tyrell fight twelve times in the last four years, he told Cageside Press he wants to stay at least that active, especially now that he is back to where he feels he should be mentally.

“I still want to fight three or four times, I’m not trying to take the foot off the pedal at all. I think for me personally, I need to fight three times a year, I need to, I need that… I need to compete, like I’m a competitor, I can’t just train for so long and not be able to test what I’ve been training,” Fortune explained in a recent exclusive interview. “This sport is too brutal, with the training, for me not to be like, ‘Let me let go on somebody. Let me see where I’m at.’”

“Whether I win or lose I still need to see where I’m at because the grind of this sport doesn’t come from the fights, it comes from the training camps, that’s why I feel like with all the training I have to do I have to fight at least three times a year, I’d fight f*cking four or five if I could, if they’d let me.”

In fact, Fortune is such a competitor that if he was able to do so, he would like to fight even more, “If all I was doing is fighting, I could let it heal, then you know, let me fight every 2-3 months, I’ll train my ass off and just fight and heal, fight and heal.”

Fortune’s opponent, Sergey Bilostenniy, has not fought in the West before, mainly fighting out of Eastern Europe thus far in his career. Despite not being able to find footage for every fight of his, Tyrell feels that his team has enough to work from.

“We got three of his fights so to me I think that’s plenty, because you’re just watching, looking for habits, looking for mistakes and openings, see where you see some flaws and weaknesses. To me I think that’s plenty, and if you don’t have any [tape to watch] at all then it’s a fight so f*ck it you better be paying attention and figuring it out on the fly,” noted Fortune. “I always think he could be a completely different guy that I see in that cage when the fight starts so I have to be ready for that, can’t go in with just one solid gameplan like this is how it’s going to be because that sh*t can be thrown out right when the fight starts. I think that’s just how I look at it.”

That tape has given him confidence in what he can do against Bilostenniy. Tyrell seems to believe he can beat his foe in just about every phase of mixed martial arts.

“Yeah I’m going to try to expose him right away, it depends on what happens. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m going to look to expose his weaknesses as soon as possible… Wrestling he gets tired, I think I’m faster than he is on the feet anyways, so there’s not much really I’m worried too much about. I just have to be smart, every fighter is obviously dangerous and presents a different challenge but I think with the skills I bring to the table if I’m smart and handle everything correctly it should be an easy fight.”

When asked if he thought this was too big of a step up for Sergey to take at this point, he laughed out loud, “Sh*t I don’t care. I don’t give two sh*ts if you’re ready or not, they presented the fight and I don’t turn down fights, I’ve been saying that from the start. I just fight whoever they ask me to fight… My job is to beat up the guy they put in front of me.”

Part of where Tyrell Fortune gets that competitor mindset from is his wrestling career, which saw him compete for the US world team. His wrestling and his smaller frame for the heavyweight division lead him to him emulating the legendary double champion Daniel Cormier more than anyone else. In fact, Fortune never had aspirations to do MMA until Bellator came knocking.

“I never had any aspirations to fight at all. I didn’t know I was going to be fighting, didn’t know I was going to be here in this position,” he recalled.  “I was wrestling and when I made the world team— that was my goal. When Bellator presented me with this opportunity it kind of seemed surreal at first. I just kind of took it because I feel that it was the next best thing. I never had nobody I really looked up to. But now, being a fighter and growing as a fighter, the fighter I would say I take from the most, from his style, is DC, because his style is very particular to mine and our backgrounds are very particular. Because I’m a shorter heavyweight, a small type of heavyweight, I think the way he goes at the game is the way I try to look at it a little bit.”

However, Bellator’s fifth-ranked heavyweight takes pieces from everyone, and he sees himself as a true student of the game. Fortune never misses a UFC or Bellator card and often catches PFL and ONE Championship cards as well. When asked about the fighters he enjoys watching the most, he gave an answer that truly shows just how much he loves studying the sport of mixed martial arts.

“Justin Gaethje is one of them, Kamaru Usman, Gilbert Burns, Vicente Luque is f*cking so clean, that sh*t is nice. I was watching one of his fights last night, he is nice. Chandler is a good one to watch as well. Adesanya, his movement, his particular skillset is very different than a lot of people so I think he is more of an entertainment factor, like the, ‘Wow, fighters can do this type of sh*t.’ He does a lot of intricate basic sh*t that I don’t think a lot of people pick up, his feints and his hand movements and his head movements. A lot of traps that he sets, that he’s doing a lot of basic sh*t that I think I pick up from boxing.”

“My coaches have me watching a lot of boxers. Guys like Mike Tyson, Floyd, Roy Jones Jr., we watch a lot of Roy. Max Holloway, that dude is real nice, Petr Yan, Cory Sandhagen. Cory Sandhagen that **** is nice, he’s doing so much on a little level, a little scale that I think a lot of fighters don’t pick up. His feints, his foot movement, his placement, everything is thought out. Guys like that, that I watch I’m just like motherf*cker. Those are guys I think that are firing at the highest in this game, guys like Cory Sandhagen, when you’re able to perform. You can tell he meticulously planned out every aspect of his game. Switching stance, everything doesn’t change, it’s a mirror image, guys like that is who I try to watch and learn a little bit of stuff from. I feel like my skillset is very different from theirs so I have everything to learn from them when it comes to the feet and the hands and kicks and sh*t like that.”

Of course, all fighters in the sport are ultimately after a championship, and the next Bellator heavyweight title bout seems likely to feature Linton Vassell and Ryan Bader, both of whom Fortune has history with, having trained with each and lost a split decision to Vassell in 2021,

“I don’t know. I trained with Bader before and I’ve trained with Linton before too, so I know them both very well. They’re both very tough fighters. Linton is a hard guy to deal with, he’s gotten a lot better with his wrestling, but they fought before and Bader was able to take him down and control him with the wrestling. I don’t know if Linton can stop Bader from wrestling him. Obviously when you wrestle a guy like that and you have a lot of success with it you’ll go back to it again. But Linton is strong as **** so if you get in the wrong wrestling position with him it could be an easy reversal. So I don’t know, at this time with these guys’ careers and what Linton’s been doing and how Bader fights as well, that’s a coin flip, I can’t really give you my call on the fight.”

A win against Sergey Bilostenniy would put Tyrell Fortune back on track in the heavyweight division, and with potential storylines for a fight with either Bader or Vassell he would not be that far his first title shot of his own after fighting in Bellator for his entire MMA career.

Bellator 294 takes place Friday, April 20th, 2023 at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The post Bellator 294: Tyrell Fortune Sees Weaknesses in Sergey Bilostenniy’s Game appeared first on Cageside Press.

Returning at Bellator 288 this Friday against the unranked Daniel James, Fortune (12-2, 1NC) exclaimed during Wednesday’s media day that “I think this division is mine. Soon everybody will realize that, if they haven’t yet.”

“I think I just need a couple more fights to really prove that, and get that opportunity to take the belt,” Fortune added. “I think soon, my name should be with a ‘C’ next to it.”

Of course, the path to a title usually runs through ranked opponents. Fortune doesn’t have that here, and he didn’t have it in his last fight, against Rakim Cleveland, though not for lack of trying. Fortune was paired up both in a rematch with Tim Johnson, and against fellow top prospect Steve Mowry, both of whom are ranked. Both fights fell through, and Fortune wasn’t surprised when neither opponent’s name came up this time out.

“People play hide and seek with me, this whole time I’ve been in this game. It doesn’t surprise me at all if they keep ducking me and having situations or problems that come up,” Fortune told Cageside Press. “That’s something I focused on earlier [in my career], but that’s really not my focus anymore. I don’t care, if you wanna play games, then play games, if you want to fight than we can fight.”

So how does one navigate through a pro fighting career, with top tier opponents either unwilling or unable to sign on the dotted line? “Again, that was something I was focused on earlier and was very upset about how to do that,” replied Fortune. “And I thought it would be very simple, but this game has a lot more politics than I was aware of. So I choose not to rally focus on that anymore. I just really focus on my training and what I need to get done, and Bellator tries to make the fights happen when they can. That’s all I can really focus on, whoever signs the contract.”

Watch the full Bellator 288 virtual media day appearance from Tyrell above. Fortune faces Daniel James this Friday, November 18, 2022 in Chicago, IL.

The post Bellator 288’s Tyrell Fortune: “This Game Has A Lot More Politics Than I Was Aware Of” appeared first on Cageside Press.

If you’re familiar with Fortune’s background, you know he has solid wrestling to fall back on. But it was clear he felt like he could get the job done on the feet.

“I feel like that with anybody,” Fortune (12-2, 1NC) said following the win, asked whether getting it done striking had been the plan. “I’m throwing hands with everybody.”

Fortune’s nothing if not confident, and the odds-makers clearly agreed. The rankings panelists? That’s another story, and perhaps a sore spot for Tyrell Fortune. Asked about the “experts” favoring him over Cleveland, the heavyweight replied “What experts though? Because if we’re talking about the guys that rank us and stuff, it seems kind of shady or a little weird. People move up and down when they haven’t fought, or they haven’t fought a ranked opponent. It’s kind of weird.”

“Steve [Mowry] didn’t even fight, and all of a sudden he was ranked ahead of me,” Fortune continued. “And I just fought his last opponent, another guy who’s not even in the company, a step-in, a replacement. So I think some of these rankings have got to be looked at, and how we do things.”

Currently, Bellator’s rankings are voted on by a panel of media members, including one from Cageside Press. But despite his dissatisfaction regarding the rankings, Fortune won’t let it impact the way he fights.

“I don’t feel like I have a chip on my shoulder. I was telling my coach and my friends, I don’t have to be upset to beat you up,” he stated. “I can do it with a smile on my face, and it’s still going to be the same thing. So it doesn’t matter to me, it’s just a fight.”

Watch the full Bellator 277 post-fight press conference with Tyrell Fortune above. More coverage from the event can be found below.

The post Bellator 277’s Tyrell Fortune: “I’m Throwing Hands with Everybody” appeared first on Cageside Press.

“To be honest, I didn’t know how many people they [went] through. I just say yes to whoever. So it really don’t matter to me,” Fortune (11-2) told Cageside Press in regards to the revolving door of opponents he’s been scheduled against for the show in San Jose. “I don’t have, my management doesn’t really— I just say yes. Opponents don’t really matter, I focus on me getting ready for the fight, and then once that opponent does get locked in, then I do start reviewing more of their work and their previous fights and things like that. But until like the last three weeks of camp, I really don’t pay attention to it. That’s not really my concern.”

Opponent number three would be Rakim Cleveland, a former PFL heavyweight. Prior to that, there were Steve Mowry and Tim Johnson. The Johnson fight, which was at one point formally announced by the promotion, wasn’t one Fortune was even aware of.

“See I never even got Tim Johnson’s name. The only person I knew I was supposed to fight was Steve Mowry, and then it fell out,” Fortune revealed. “So I didn’t even know Tim Johnson was an option. Like I said, I tell my management, I say yes. Whoever Bellator asks me to fight, it’s a yes, it doesn’t matter to me.”

Johnson, mind you, would have been a welcome fight for Fortune, who admits that while he focuses on what’s in front of him, “Bellator knows I’ve been very vocal about me getting my rematches. They know that’s the fights that I want. But at the same time still, that’s not my job. I’m not the matchmaker, I’m the fighter. I just try to worry about my job, and I gotta win. Once you win, that pretty much handles all your problems.”

Fortune is appearing on a stacked card on Friday at Bellator 277 — a card rife with home-grown success stories. A.J. McKee headlines, in a rematch with Patricio Pitbull. Aaron Pico is also featured on the card. And then there’s Fortune himself.

On his own development, Fortune said that he’s “really happy” with the position he’s in right now — but added “Honestly I still feel really green. Every camp I go back, I feel like I’m learning more and more. I try to get more exposure to professional, high level boxers and kickboxers and jiu jitsu guys. I feel like my game is constantly growing. I feel like I’m still in my rookie season; MMA, we don’t really have a season, it’s all year round, but five years in with 13 fights, I still feel like I’m pretty much a rookie, maybe moving into my sophomore year a little bit.”

“My last fight was the first fight where I was able to throw caution to the wind. I was like ‘okay, I’m probably down, second round, who cares what happens?’ And I was able to put that behind my head and step into the danger zone and throw hands,” Fortune continued. “For me to feel that comfort with danger present was very good for me, it was very comfortable, and I used that my whole camp. My whole camp, I felt way better in the pocket and actually looking for targets and being able to see things better. So for me its just trying to grow and trying to develop every little skill I can to bring into the cage.”

As for the fight on Friday, Fortone expects to put on a dominant performance. “Rakim’s plan is to wrestle me, I think I’m going to outclass him easily.”

Watch the full Bellator 277 media day appearance with Tyrell Fortune above. The event is set to take place this Friday, April 15, 2022 at the SAP Center in San Jose, CA.

The post Tyrell Fortune Had No Idea He Was Once Linked to Tim Johnson Rematch at Bellator 277 appeared first on Cageside Press.

Originally scheduled for the April 15, 2022 event in San Jose, CA was a rematch between Tim Johnson (15-8) and Tyrell Fortune (11-2, 1NC). However, promotion officials confirmed Monday that the pairing had been split, following an initial report by MMA Junkie.

Instead, Johnson will face Linston Vassell (22-8, 1NC), while Fortune will take on the undefeated Steve Mowry (10-0).

Johnson had won the first meeting against Fortune, knocking the prospect out when they first met in February of 2020. That was the first bout of a three-fight win streak for the two-time Division II All-American wrestler. He’d go on pick up wins over Matt Mitrione and Cheick Kongo, before dropping an interim title fight to Valentin Moldavsky.

Most recently, Johnson was on the wrong end of a highlight reel knockout at the hands of Russian legend Fedor Emelianenko.

Vassell, meanwhile, has won three straight fights, starting in 2019 with a win over Sergei Kharitonov. Victories against UFC vet Ronny Markes and Fortune followed. “The Swarm” is a former two-time light heavyweight title challenger in the promotion.

Mowry and Fortune represent two pillars of the heavyweight division’s future in Bellator. Fortune will be looking to bounce back from his loss to Vassell in the fight, but overall, he had a successful 2021, going 2-1 with wins against Jack May and Matt Mitrione.

Sanford MMA’s Mowry has finished all ten of his professional MMA fights to date.

Bellator 277 is set to take place at the SAP Center in San Jose, California on April 15, 2022. Two title fights headline the show: In an immediate rematch, A.J. McKee defends his featherweight title against Patricio Pitbull, while the light heavyweight grand prix concludes as Vadim Nemkov puts his belt on the line against Corey Anderson.

The post Bellator 277 Changes See Vassell Fighting Johnson, Fortune Lined Up with Mowry appeared first on Cageside Press.