Prior to the announcement of the Bellator MMA season ten featherweight tournament, it was expected that season seven tournament winner Shahbulat Shamhalaev would be placed in the tournament.
However, Shamhalaev was not placed in the tournament when the field was announced on January 24th by Bellator MMA.
After the announcement of the tournament field, there was a report that Shamhalaev was no longer interested in being placed into a Bellator tournament.
During an interview with TheMMAReport.com on Tuesday, Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney stated that Shamhalaev may be dropping down to the bantamweight division.
“We have been going back and forth with him,” Rebney said. “We made him a series of offers for fights, and of course he had the horrible situation with his dad, which he had to deal with, and we totally understand and respect. The question now boils down to, does he want to fight at 145 or does he want to fight at 135?”
“We have been trying to juggle to determine if he is going to get one more fight at 145, catchweight fight at 140, where is he going to find his career. We offered him a spot in this tournament again, and he didn’t take it. He may make a jump to 135, he may stay at 145. We will see where it plays itself out.”
Shamhalaev (12-2-1) entered Bellator MMA in 2012 after winning the WMAC 2011 Lightweight Tournament with a second round knockout victory against Ramazan Sulebanov. He opened his Bellator MMA career with three straight victories, which included a knockout victory against Rad Martinez to win the season seven featherweight tournament.
After Daniel Straus pulled out of his Bellator 95 title bout against Pat Curran, Shamhalaev stepped in to face Curran. He was submitted in the first round, and it was his first defeat since 2009, which was against current UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Shamhalev’s next fight has not been officially announced by Bellator MMA, but it has been reported that he will meet Fabricio Guerreiro at Bellator 119. Rebney admitted that this is a fight that may happen, but there have not been any signed contracts submitted at this time.
“It could be. We do not have everything back yet, signed, sealed, and delivered, but that would be a good fight for him and keep him busy. The key is to keep the guys fighting. Even when there is a kind of state of disconnect in the terms is a guy going to stay at 145 or is he going to look to bump down to 135 and how does he want to get there. Fighters have to fight.
In his fights against Martinez and Curran, Shamhalaev struggled to make weight and needed additional time to be able to make weight. After seeing the struggles he had to make weight at featherweight, Rebney and the Bellator MMA talent development staff have to wonder if Shamhalaev would be able to make bantamweight.