It was thirteen months ago that Frodo Khasbulaev won the season eight featherweight tournament and secured his Bellator title shot with a victory over Mike Richman at Bellator 95. 
He was expected to get his title shot in the early part of 2014, but visa issues have caused his title shot be be delayed.
Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney has told TheMMAReport.com in the past that his organization has been working on this issue and attempting to find out why Khasbulaev has been unable to travel to the United States. Following the Bellator 118 Weigh-Ins, Rebney stated that there were just given the go ahead to resubmit Khasbulaev’s visa paperwork and are waiting for approval on the application.
“It has been resubmitted, which is a great first step because we finally got the green light to resubmit his visa,” Rebney told TheMMAReport.com. “Which is something we have been waiting for literally four months and finally they said, ‘ok, you can resubmit.’ We got all the paperwork one hundred percent A to Z. The guy has no affiliations, no dangerous connections, no criminal history, he is married and has kids.”
“There is no conceptually reason that you can pull out. We have done a deep dive on the kids history and there is nothing there. He is not hiding something or apart of some foreign group. He is just a guy that got blitzed in the visa process and it’s just one of those things where it’s a governmental thing and you scratch your head. Why is this happening? It has been resubmitted and we are waiting for the results. Hopefully, knock on wood, it gets approved this time and he is able to get back in.”
If Khasbulaev gets his visa application approved, he will have to wait in line for a title shot. Current Bellator featherweight champion Pat Curran will defend the title next month at Bellator 121 when he has a rematch with Patricio “Pitbull” Freire. The winner of that fight is scheduled to face former champion Daniel Straus in the fall, so it’s likely that Khasbualev will not get his title shot until the beginning of 2015.