The next Bellator bantamweight tournament will take place in the fall during season eleven and two of the tournament participants will be Rafael Silva and Marcos Galvao.
Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney made the announcement during the Bellator 118 Post Fight Press Conference.
Silva (21-4) won the Summer Series tournament last year and was defeated by Joe Warren last night by unanimous decision in an interim title fight.
The defeat snapped a thirteen fight winning streak and it was a fight that he took on three weeks notice. Rebney confirmed to TheMMAReport.com after the fight that Silva was 36 pounds over when he got the call to step up and decided the opportunity was worth it.
Galvao (16-6-1) won his third straight fight on Friday night with a decision over Thomas Vasquez on the main card of Bellator 118. He has won six of his last seven fights and was the season six tournament winner.
Both Galvao and Silva will be the tournament favorites in the upcoming tournament and could end up facing each other in the tournament final. Rebney did not give any details on whether the tournament would be a 4 or 8 man tournament. The previous two Bellator bantamweight tournaments have been 4-man fields.