Bellator MMA is beginning to wrap up their eighth season as there is only four shows left in the season, which will conclude on April 4th in Atlantic City. 
In this week’s edition of the Bellator notebook, Daniel Straus pulls out of his title fight on April 4th against Pat Curran with an injury and gets arrested in South Florida.
Also, Bellator has their best TV ratings since the debut on Spike and the lightweight tournament finals are now set.
Daniel Straus suffers injury and out of title fight
Daniel Straus was scheduled to get his shot at the Bellator featherweight title on April 4th in Atlantic City against Pat Curran, but Straus broke his hand in his training camp and had to pull out of the fight. With Straus out of the fight, Curran will now defend the title against seasons seven tournament winner Shahbulat Shamhalaev.
This was not the only news surrounding Straus last week as he was arrested on Friday in South Florida. He was charged with driving on a suspended license, possession of cannabis of more than 20 grams, possession of MDMA/ecstasy, and use or possession of drug paraphernalia.
Since the news of his arrest became public, Straus or Bellator have released any comments about the situation.
Bellator has best TV ratings since the season eight premiere
Even though the main event at this past week’s Bellator 91 was not an exciting fight, Bellator and Spike TV saw there best audience since the season premiere in January.
Last Thursday nights show had 901k total viewers, which that number will go up once the DVR numbers are calculated. Also, Bellator had their best numbers of the season in the male demographics of 18-49 and 18-34. In the male demo of 18-49, last week’s rating was a 41% increase from the previous week and they saw a 46% increase in the 18-34 demo from the previous week.
This is a good sign for Bellator as they had not reached 800k viewers since Bellator 88, which was headlined by Alexander Shlemenko defeating Maiquel Falcao to win the vacant middleweight title.
Lightweight Tournament final set
This past week’s Bellator 91 card saw the semifinals in this seasons lightweight tournament as David Rickels and Saad Awad advance to the finals with victories. Rickels defeated Jason Fischer by decision and Awad defeated Will Brooks by knockout in the first round.
They will now face each other in the finals and are expected to face off at Bellator 94 on March 28th in Tampa. Awad was a last minute replacement for Patricky Pitbull in this tournament and both of his wins have come by knockout in less than one minute.
Whoever wins between Awad and Rickels will be guaranteed a title shot, but may have to wait for a title shot. Marcin Held and Dave Jansen will meet in the season seven lightweight final later this month and Eddie Alvarez could be looking at a title shot if he comes back to Bellator.