Former Bellator featherweight champion Daniel Straus stepped into the cage on Friday night at Bellator 127 looking to make a statement against Justin Wilcox and that is exactly what he did.
He landed a left hand that dropped Wilcox early and finished the fight on the ground. The victory came at the 50-second mark of the opening round and this is now the fifth fastest TKO/KO victory in Bellator featherweight division history.
While the next fight for Straus is not official, all signs would point to him getting a title fight against newly crowned champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire. In his post fight interview, Straus said that is the fight he wants and only time will tell if that is his next fight.
The Bellator featherweight title picture is cramped right now with Frodo Khasbulaev and Daniel Weichel already waiting for title shots by winning previous 145 pound tournaments. Bellator officials recently told TheMMAReport.com that the new regime will honor all of the promises from the previous regime, which means Khasbulaev and Weichel will get there title shots.
However, Bellator wants to put on fights that the fans want to see. It’s unknown if we will ever see Khasbulaev in the Bellator cage again due to his visa issues and no disrespect to Weichel, but Pitbull vs. Straus is the fight that fans will want to see.
Pitbull and Straus are considered top ten featherweights in the world in some MMA rankings, and this MMA reporter believes they are both top ten fighters. A fight between Pitbull and Straus would be a rematch as they initially met in 2011 at Bellator 45 and Pitbull won by unanimous decision.
It’s now Bellator President Scott Coker’s job to make this fight happen and it would seem likely that this is a fight that could take place in early 2015.