There is a saying in life that when opportunity knocks at your door, you need to answer and that is what Bellator welterweight Cristiano Souza did last week when he was offered a spot in the season ten welterweight tournament.
Following Jon “War Machine” Kopenhaver, Joe Riggs, and Mark Scanlon pulling out of the tournament for various reasons, Bellator matchmakers Sam Caplan and Zach Light needed to find three fighters to take their spot.
They ended up calling Souza, who was a contestant on the inaugural season of “Fight Master: Bellator MMA” and Souza immediately accepted the tournament spot and he will meet Sam Oropeza on Friday night.
Souza (7-0) won two fights in Bellator before taking part in the Bellator reality show and following the show, he defeated Alejandro Garcia by rear-naked choke submission at Bellator 106 in November. It was his third victory to come by submission and two of those have been by rear-naked choke.
While he admitted that he doesn’t know much about his opponent, he does know that Oropeza only needed 37 seconds to defeat Chip Moraza-Pollard at Bellator 108 in November.
“I don’t know very much about Sam Oropeza,” Souza said. “I saw his last Bellator fight and he knocked the guy out very fast. I wish I had the exact story or information about him but it’s still OK. I stand by for the tournament and when my manager called me about fighting, I said, ‘OK … that’s why I’ve been waiting. Put me in. I don’t care against who.’ So it’s OK.”
Oropeza (10-2) is currently on a five fight winning streak and one of his two professional defeats is against currently UFC lightweight Myles Jury. With Souza entering this tournament late, he feels that be will make him an underdog, but the opening betting lines have him as over a two and a half to one favorite against Oropeza.
“People think I’m gonna be the underdog and that’s good, because I don’t want to have the pressure on me,” Souza stated. “I want to win this whole tournament. It’s why I been working so hard and training, and why I moved away from Brazil. This is the opportunity for me, the biggest. That’s why I took it. First Capoeira guy to win the Bellator tournament, you know! [laughs] Feels really good. I just want to thank Bellator for this. I’m excited and I can’t wait!”