Bellator Welterweight Tourney Starts March 5 in California

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney (left) | Keith Mills/Sherdog.com

Bellator Fighting Championships will kick off its fourth season and third welterweight tournament on March 5 at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in Lemoore, Calif., Sherdog.com has learned from multiple sources.

While not confirmed, the card could feature all four quarterfinals from the 170-pound bracket. The event will mark the promotion’s live broadcast debut on MTV2, the network with which Bellator agreed to a multi-year deal last month.

Bellator 115-pound women’s champion Zoila Frausto has been rumored as a possible competitor on the March 5 show, but sources tell Sherdog.com that her participation remains unofficial. Meanwhile, Strikeforce veteran Waachiim Spiritwolf and “Tachi Kid” Poppies Martinez will likely square off against to-be-named opponents on the event’s undercard.

Sherdog.com has also been informed that Bellator has expressed interest in holding a Season four event at the nearby Eagle Mountain Casino in Porterville, Calif.

Bellator’s inaugural welterweight tournament was won by Tiger Schulmann product Lyman Good in 2009. Last year, Olympic wrestler Ben Askren won the tournament’s second iteration and later defeated Good to become the promotion’s undisputed champion.

The tournament field for Season four includes former champion Good, as well as Dan Hornbuckle, Jay Hieron, Rick Hawn, Jim Wallhead, Chris Lozano, Brent Weedman and Steve Carl. While not officially announced by the promotion, Hieron-Carl and Wallhead-Hawn matchups have been reported for the opening round.

Jeff Sherwood contributed to this report.

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Bellator Featherweight Tourney to Feature Reis

Wilson Reis | Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

The pool of featherweight competitors participating in Bellator Fighting Championships’ upcoming 145-pound tournament continues to grow, as the promotion on Friday announced that Brazilian Wilson Reis would join the field.

Reis is now the sixth official participant in the tournament, which will also feature the talents of Kenny Foster, Zac George, Eric Larkin, Georgi Karakhanyan and Daniel Straus. Announcements confirming the participation of Nazareno Malegarie and Patricio “Pitbull” Freire are expected to come soon.

A black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Reis has won four of his last five, with his only loss in that span coming to his aforementioned countryman Freire in the semifinals of Bellator's second-season featherweight tournament. Reis also competed in the promotion's first 145-pound bracket, falling to eventual champion Joe Soto, again in the semifinals.

“I came up short in the first two tournaments and this is my chance to make things right,” said Reis in the official release. “I absolutely believe that I can win it, and that's why I decided to get involved this time around. I'm going to give it all I have, take it one fight at a time, and in every fight, do my best.”

After beginning his career a perfect 5-0, the Brazilian became EliteXC’s first and only bantamweight champion when he defeated Abel Cullum in 2008. Most recently, Reis got his hand raised in October, outpointing WEC veteran Deividas Taurosevicius in a split decision at Bellator 33.

“I'm wiser in this sport right now than I've ever been before,” said Reis. “I've been training for four years now, so I'm really starting to understand every aspect of the game. The wrestling, the jiu-jitsu, the kickboxing and blending them all together. I'm better than I've ever been right now.”

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‘Tooth Fairy’ Foster Joins Bellator Featherweight Tourney

Kenny Foster (green trunks) | Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

Featherweight Kenny Foster will take part in Bellator Fighting Championships’ upcoming 145-pound tournament, the promotion announced Wednesday.

Foster joins Eric Larkin and Zac George on the list of official participants for the Season 4 tournament field. Other featherweights rumored to compete include Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, Georgi Karakhanyan, Wilson Reis and Nazareno Malegarie.

An NCAA Division II All-American wrestler at Tennessee’s Carson-Newman College, Foster began his amateur career with no formal mixed martial arts training. The “Tooth Fairy” joined the New York-based Team Bombsquad when he turned pro and has worked his way up by fighting in local shows. Foster made his Bellator debut in October, when he earned a unanimous decision over Lester Caslow at Bellator 33.

“If any of my opponents take me lightly, I think that’s great,” Foster said in a press release. “That’s their own fault. We’re all here for a reason, and you don’t just end up in one of these tournaments because you got lucky. You're there because you are one of the top guys in your division.”

Foster holds a mark of 8-2 and owns all but one of his career victories by stoppage. The featherweight has been finished twice in his career, once by knockout and once by submission. His most recent defeat came in June, when he was knocked out by Donny Walker. Prior to that misstep, the two-time Georgia state high school wrestling champion had won six straight bouts.

While still without an official start date, Bellator's fourth season will begin in March and is set to air on MTV2.

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Lozano Joins Hornbuckle, Hawn, Weedman in Bellator Tourney

Unbeaten welterweight Chris Lozano will take part in Bellator Fighting Championships’ upcoming fourth season welterweight tournament.

The Chicago-based promotion confirmed Tuesday that the 28-year-old knockout artist will be a part of its next 170-pound bracket. Lozano is the fourth confirmed tourney participant, joining season two finalist Dan Hornbuckle, Olympic judo convert Rick Hawn and the surging Brent Weedman.

“It’s hard to put a limit to Chris’ potential in the welterweight division,” Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney said in a release. “His skills and ability have shown through devastating stoppages time and time again.”

Lozano punched his ticket for the tournament last September, when he scored a technical knockout win over UFC veteran Yoshiyuki Yoshida. Lozano battered Yoshida for two rounds with knees and punches, swelling his opponent’s eye so severely that the Japanese corner halted the bout before it could reach the third frame.

“I fight to finish people,” said Lozano. “I don't fight to be nice. I understand that it's a sport, but at the same time, I'm in there to finish guys... I'm going to come into this tournament the same way I've come into every single one of my fights, and that's to put guys away.”

Despite a background which included tae kwon do, boxing and wrestling, Lozano began training in mixed martial arts just four years ago and has competed as a professional for less than two. The Ohio-based fighter knocked out the first four opponents of his career inside the first round. Last June, he forced another UFC veteran, Jason Dent, to retire four rounds into a five-round title fight.

Scheduled to begin in March, Bellator has yet to announce an official start date for its fourth season, which will air live on MTV2.

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Emelianenko-Silva, HW Tourney Slated for Feb. 12

Fedor Emelianenko | Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

Fedor Emelianenko will return to the Strikeforce cage on Feb. 12, as he takes on Antonio Silva in a heavyweight main event from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J.

Sources close to the negotiations informed Sherdog.com Sunday evening of the event’s date and location.

A match between former UFC heavyweight champions Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett is also said to be in the works for the February date. It remains to be seen how the New Jersey Athletic Control Board handles the licensing situation Barnett -- who allegedly tested positive for a performance enhancing substance prior to a scheduled bout with Emelianenko in the summer of 2009 -- is dealing with in California. His hearing before the California commission was pushed back at their Dec. 2 meeting.

As speculated, Strikeforce will indeed hold an eight-man heavyweight tournament in 2011, and Emelianenko-Silva and Arlovski-Barnett are set to serve as quarterfinal bouts. Though the remaining combatants could not be confirmed, a third quarterfinal matchup between Fabricio Werdum and Brett Rogers is expected to take place in Columbus, Ohio, on a planned March 5 event.

A fourth and final tournament bout is also set to take place on the March card. Semi-final and final bouts would then be held later in the year at to-be-announced events.

The promotion will also hold two alternate bouts in case injury sidelines competitors in the main draw. Potential contestants could include “Challengers” series standouts Lavar Johnson, Daniel Cormier and Shane del Rosario.

Regarded by many as the greatest heavyweight in the history of the sport, Emelianenko was shocked by Werdum, a heavy underdog, in June, losing for the first time in a decade. Though the sambo specialist floored the Brazilian early in the first period, his follow-up was a bit too aggressive. As Emelianenko attempted to finish the fight with his trademark ground-and-pound, the savvy jiu-jitsu black belt avoided the blows and caught the Russian in a textbook triangle choke. Emelianenko holds notable victories over Mirko Filopovic, Arlovski and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice).

Silva is fresh off a come-from-behind win over King of the Cage light heavyweight champion Mike Kyle on Dec. 4 in St. Louis. Taking the fight on just five days' notice, Kyle shocked spectators by landing a crisp right hand to the jaw of the heavily-favored Brazilian, knocking him to the mat. Though the American Kickboxing Academy product pounced with heavy punches and hammer fists, the mammoth Silva would not give up. Round two was all “Bigfoot,” as the former EliteXC champion lived up to his moniker by dropping brutish blows on Kyle's skull and forcing a referee stoppage.

Greg Savage contributed to this report.

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