Friday’s Bellator 292 event marks the start of an ambitious lightweight grand prix for the promotion, enlisting eight of the organization’s best 155-pounders all vying for a tournament title and the $1 million prize that comes with it.
With the athletes involved hailing from four different continents, each brings a particular flavor to the field, and picking one as surefire victor is a daunting task.
With 163 combined professional wins among them, not to mention a stunning 73.6% of those earned by way of knockout or submission, the matchups seem certain to produce fireworks.
Bellator president Scott Coker believes it’s the best tournament the promotion has ever put together, which is saying quite a bit since the California-based organization has been hosting annual competitions for the past 15 years.
“This is going to be, I think, arguably the greatest lightweight tournament in the history of MMA,” Coker told MMA Underground. “I mean, you guys saw the gantlet of fighters that are going to be in this tournament, and I think there’s two or three dark horses that could upset a lot of these other fighters, and it’s going to depend on how they perform under pressure.”
Photo courtesy of Lucas Noonan/Bellator MMA
The first two quarterfinal matchups take place Friday at SAP Center, headlining the Bellator 292 broadcast on Showtime (10 p.m. ET). The night’s main event sees reigning lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov (16–0 MMA, 5–0 BMMA) put his title on the line in a grand prix bout with former UFC and WEC champion Benson Henderson (30–11 MMA, 7–6 BMMA).
Meanwhile, the co-main event featured a few lesser-known but dangerous fighters with Russia’s Alexander Shabliy (22–3 MMA, 3–0 BMMA) taking on Azerbaijan’s Tofiq Musayev (20–4 MMA, 1–0 BMMA).
Coker said enlisting both household names and up-and-coming stars was a must for the field and thinks it could prove a breakout opportunity for some of the organization’s newer faces.
“This is a business where you need constant talent, and those young guys that we have coming up are the future of this company,” Coker said. “I guarantee you after this tournament is over, everybody is going to know all these guys because they’re all really, really good.”
Additional opening-round matchups scheduled for upcoming Bellator events include French-Tunisian newcomer Mansour Barnaoui (20–4 MMA, 1–0 BMMA) vs. former lightweight champ Brent Primus (11–3 MMA, 9–3 UFC) and former featherweight titleholder A.J. McKee (20–1 MMA, 20–1 BMMA) vs. former lightweight champion Patricky “Pitbull” Freire (24–11 MMA, 15–9 BMMA).
Quite simply, there doesn’t seem to be an easy path for any of the eight competitors in the field, and Coker believes the winner will have a real claim at being the best 155-pounder in the world, regardless of organization. It’s a bold claim, but one he believes holds merit, and Coker points to the likes of American Top Team founder and industry veteran Dan Lambert to help support his belief.
“Honestly, come on, how could you deny that?” Coker asked. “The guy is not going through one, two—he’s going through three fights in a one-year period of the fighters of this quality; he’s got to be the best lightweight. And listen, talk to Dan Lambert. Who’s the best 185 in the world right now? Johnny Eblen. He’ll tell you, and he fights for Bellator. Who’s the best 170? [Yaroslav] Amosov, right?
“These guys, you know, they don’t think they get the respect they deserve, but I’m telling you right now, they are the best fighters. We have the best 205 in [Vadim] Nemkov, the best 185 in Eblen. We’ve got the best 170-pounder, and then to me, the gantlet is here. We’ll see in a year who comes out No. 1.”
UFC president Dana White would likely have a different opinion, but then again, so would the heads of other major promotions such as ONE Championship and the PFL, as well as top regional organizations around the world such as KSW, Rizin Fighting Federation and more.
Traditional MMA business practices leave very few opportunities for these various organizations’ rosters to intermingle and back those claims up in an actual fight, but Coker—who partnered with Rizin FF CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara for a copromoted event in December—isn’t ruling out the idea of such an arrangement in the future.
“Listen, we wake up and focus on our business,” Coker said. “But should it happen one day? It definitely should happen one day, and it’s not us stopping it, right? And when it does happen, hopefully one day, it’ll be big, and it’ll be not just us or not just the UFC, but it’ll be ONE FC, it’ll be everybody—Rizin, and everybody all over the world. Let’s put together a World Cup, a true World Cup, not an intramural World Cup, and let’s get it on.”
Easier said than done, but it’s an idea for the future. In the meantime, Bellator officials will focus on their own brand, and Coker said he’s truly excited to see who will ultimately emerge from the grand prix that kicks off Friday night.
“I’m really excited about this first night of fights because Shabliy and Musayev are killers, and Benson has been around a long time, but he’s still got it,” Coker said. “The guy is going to be scrappy, and he’s going to be in Usman’s face. He’s going to put a lot of pressure on them, and let’s see how Usman handles that pressure.
“I would say this tournament is super exciting. This might be the best tournament we’ve hosted yet to date, and it’s going to be a year of just great matchups, and I can’t wait to see who the finalists are.”
