Bellator 116 set for April 11 in California with welterweight tourney semis, Beltran-Matyushenko
Bellator MMA’s Season 10 welterweight tournament field has been set, which means in theory, we may know the man who will succeed Ben Askren as the promotion’s 170-pound champion.
In fact, the promotion’s poster for the event says as much: “Who’s moved on, who’s gone home?†the poster asks, a not-so-subtle reference to Askren, who left as a free agent this past fall and signed with ONE FC after a failed bid to sign with the UFC.
The tourney kicks off at Bellator 112, which takes place March 14 at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., and continues at Bellator 116, which hosts the semifinals on April 11 at Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, Calif. The promotion announced the tournament news on Monday night.
Bellator 116 will feature a light heavyweight bout between UFC vets Joey Beltran and Vladimir Matyushenko, plus the semifinals of the welterweight tournament.
Jesse Juarez (21-8 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) takes on Andrey Koreshkov (14-1 MMA, 5-1 BMMA), and Adam McDonough (9-0 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) meets Mark Scanlon (9-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) on one side of the opening-round bracket at Bellator 112. On the other, Sam Oropeza (10-2 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) fights Joe Riggs (40-14 MMA, 1-0 BMMA), while Nah’Shon Burrell (11-3 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) meets War Machine (14-5 MMA, 2-1 BMMA).
The winners of the eight-man tournament’s opening round tournament are scheduled to meet at Bellator 116.
Juarez this past November won for the fourth straight time and stayed unbeaten under the Bellator banner when he stopped Joe Williams with a guillotine choke just 57 seconds into their fight at Bellator 106. Juarez has won six of his past seven, and his resume includes fights for Strikeforce and MFC. Koreshkov was stopped in the fourth round of a title fight against Askren after winning the Season 7 welterweight tournament. In December, he took a fight in his native Russia to get back in the win column with a unanimous decision.
McDonough made his Bellator debut in September and stopped Johnny Buck with a spinning back kick and follow-up punches at Bellator 100. Eight of his nine wins have come by stoppage with five knockouts. Scanlon, from England, will make his Bellator debut after returning to MMA after nearly three years away in 2013. After losing to Pascal Krauss at UFC 122 in November 2010. He came back in June of this past year and went 2-1 with a pair of submissions.
Oropeza, a training partner of former Bellator champ Zach Makovsky in Philadelphia, has won five straight fights, including a pair of Bellator wins in 2013. Riggs won Bellator’s “Fight Master†title in November, his sixth straight win. The 12-year veteran has a staggering 90 percent of his 40 wins by stoppage.
Burrell made his Bellator debut in November and picked up a unanimous decision win over Jesus Martinez at Bellator 108. It was his second straight win after the UFC cut him loose following a 1-2 run. War Machine had a three-fight win streak snapped in October when he was choked out by Ron Keslar at Bellator 104. Prior to that, he had stoppage wins over Roger Huerta, Blas Avena and Vaughn Anderson, the latter two in Bellator.
