Bellator’s motto is that title shots are earned and not given, which means that fighters must go through a tournament to secure a title shot in the promotion.
Less than two years ago, Bellator added a clause to how title shots are earned, which allows the promotion to have an immediate rematch of a title fight. This clause has been used twice by the promotion and the most recent time it was used came in March when Pat Curran got a rematch with Daniel Straus.
The next title clause came last year when they introduced the tournament champion replacement clause. This was a clause that was put into place to keep a champion active if for whatever reason, a tournament champion was unable to compete.
Now, Bellator has put in a new clause that will allow former tournament champions to get a title shot without having to go back into a tournament. Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney announced the change in a press release on Thursday.
“Just like we’ve done since day one, any fighter who wins The Toughest Tournament in Sports will still be guaranteed a World Title fight,” Rebney said. “The addition I’m making here, that I’m really excited about, is if you’ve won a tournament, you’ll join an elite group of athletes who we can grant a world title fight to at any time.”
“For example, if you win a tournament, fight for the World Title and lose, you forever remain in that elite group of fighters who can be awarded another shot at the title. We will place some fighters back into tournaments, while others may lose a world title fight, win some non-tournament fights and be awarded another shot at the title. We won’t be implementing any hard and fast rule as to when a fighter will go back into a tournament and when he’ll fight non-tournament fights and potentially be granted another title shot.”
“What’s great about this addition is that it allows us to stay true to our core format, where title shots can only be earned through a tournament win, while also providing us tremendous flexibility to make the great fights fans want to see. And, we can do all this while keeping our fighters busy and battling in meaningful fights on a re-occurring basis. This is another step in our constant evolution and most importantly it’s a win for the fighters and the fans.”
With this new clause when it comes to title shots in Bellator, below is a list of fighters that could be given a title shot without having to go back into the tournament.
Bantamweight:
Eduardo Dantas*, Joe Warren*, Marcos Galvao, Rafael Silva
Featherweight:
Pat Curran*, Patricio Pitbull, Daniel Straus, Shahbulat Shamhalaev, “Frodo” Khasbulaev, Daniel Weichel, Joe Warren.
Lightweight:
Eddie Alvarez*, Will Brooks*, Michael Chandler, Pat Curran, Rick Hawn, Dave Jansen, David Rickels
Welterweight:
Douglas Lima*, Karl Amoussou, Andrey Koreshkov, Rick Hawn
Middleweight:
Alexander Shlemenko*, Brennan Ward, Doug Marshall
Light Heavyweight:
Emanuel Newton*, Rampage Jackson, King Mo, Christian M’Pumbu, Atilla Vegh,
Heavyweight:
Vitaly Minakov*, Alexander Volkov, Cheick Kongo, Eric Prindle
* – Current Bellator Champion or Interim Champion
Following the announcement of the new clause, TheMMAReport.com reached out to Bellator for clarification on this rule if a tournament winner moves to a different weight class. According to a Bellator official, if a fighter moves from the weight class that he won a tournament in, he will have to win a tournament in his next weight class to secure a title shot.