Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler recently made his second title defense as he defeated season eight tournament winner David Rickels by knockout in the main event of Bellator 97.
Chandler only needed 44 seconds to get the victory against Rickels and Bellator is hoping to get him back in the cage in the near future.
A potential date for his next fight in the Bellator cage could be the inaugural Bellator pay-per-view on November 2nd.
Title shots in Bellator are decided in tournaments and the only lightweight tournament winner that could potentially face Chandler is season seven tournament winner Dave Jansen. However, Jansen informed TheMMAReport.com earlier this week that he is still recovering from his knee surgery and would not be ready to fight Chandler in November.
With Jansen being injured, Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney told TheMMAReport.com on Friday that he is currently looking to book a super fight for Chandler with Jansen being on the sidelines.
“Right now, we are looking at super fights for Chandler,” Rebney said. “I just love watching Michael Chandler fight and the one thing that Mike came to me with as we re-did his deal long term. He said look dude, more importantly to me than anything is just fighting on a regular re-occurring basis.”
“If we don’t have a title challenger lined up which with Jansen hurt and Rickels just lost and a new 55 tournament, which by the way is rock solid stacked going into this fall. There is not a challenger for the title coming up so I am looking at a lot of different super fight options right now for Chandler. We are looking at a lot of different options and hopefully we will be able to announce one of them over the next couple of weeks.”
Could one of those super fight options be former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez? Bellator and Alvarez are in a legal battle over his contract after Bellator matched the offer Alvarez received from the UFC. It has been reported that both sides are talking but there has been no indications that a settlement is close.
If Bellator and Alvarez are able to come to a settlement very shortly, it would make the most sense for the promotion to book the rematch and have it as the co-main event of the upcoming pay-per-view on November 2nd.