Bellator
Bellator tournaments nearly finalized
The eight-man tournament fields for Bellator Fighting Championship’s Season Six lightweight and welterweight tournaments are set. Well, almost. The promotion has revealed all eight of the welterweights competing, but a single lightweight slot still needs to be filled.
The season will be featured on MTV2 on Friday nights, while preliminary card action will stream live on Spike.com.
In the lightweight division, Patricky Freire and Rick Hawn are frontrunners to challenge for Michael Chandler‘s lightweight title. Chandler, the winner of the Season Five lightweight tournament, shocked Eddie Alvarez at Bellator 58 to earn the strap. Freire was defeated by Chandler in the Season Five tournament finale, but went on to knock out Kurt Pellegrino in just 50 seconds in his next contest.
While the lightweight division features a highly competitive group, the welterweight division tournament is even more promising. Featuring Ultimate Fighting Championship veterans Ben Saunders, Brian Foster and War Machine, the 170-pound tournament lineup includes some of the biggest names outside of the UFC.
Each tournament winner will earn a total of $100,000 for his efforts and a title shot against the champion of his respective division. The lightweight winner will face Chandler, while the welterweight winner will look to rob Ben Askren of his gold.
The full tournament fields can be found below:
Lightweight Tournament:
Patricky Freire
Thiago Michael
Rick Hawn
Brent Weedman
J.J. Ambrose
Lloyd Woodard
Ricardo Tirloni
Welterweight Tournament:
Ben Saunders
Brian Foster
War Machine
Bryan Baker
Karl Amoussou
Raul Amaya
Carlos Pereira
David Rickels