Bellator's Season 10 middleweight tourney features Grove vs. Cooper, Marshall vs. Cramer
The field is set for Bellator MMA’s Season 10 four-man middleweight tournament, officials today announced.
The first semifinal takes place March 28 with Kendall Grove (20-13 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) vs. Brett Cooper (19-9 MMA, 6-4 BMMA) at Bellator 114.
The second semifinal takes place a week later, April 4, with Doug Marshall (18-7 MMA, 4-1 BMMA) vs. Dan Cramer (10-4 MMA, 7-2 BMMA) at Bellator 115.
Both bouts will be part of the Spike TV-televised main cards. Bellator 114 takes place at Maverik Center in West Valley, Utah. Bellator 115, meanwhile, takes place at Reno Events Center in Nevada.
The two semifinal-round winners will meet later in the season at an event to be determined.
Grove, perhaps known as a UFC vet who won Season 3 of “The Ultimate Fighter,†is 8-4 since his UFC release in 2011. The 31-year-old Hawaiian recently made his promotional debut and scored a decision victory over Joe Vedepo at Bellator 104.
His opponent, 26-year-old Cooper, fights for the first time since a September title loss to champ Alexander Shlemenko. The Season 8 tourney runner-up has now dropped two straight since a career-best six-fight winning streak from 2011-2013.
Marshall, meanwhile, also is coming off a title loss to Shlemenko. The 37-year-old former WEC champion snapped a four-fight winning streak with the setback, which also included a suspension after he failed a drug test due to an undisclosed substance.
Cramer had won three straight fights and six of seven bouts before a knockout loss to Cooper in March 2013 in a Season 8 middleweight-tourney semifinal. The 28-year-old scored a decision win over Brian Rogers in the tourney’s opening round.
