Tag: Bellator News

Gegard Mousasi Hints At Heavyweight Move Before Retiring

Gegard Mousasi could move up to heavyweight before hanging up his gloves.

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Current Bellator middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi has silently had an extremely impressive career as a mixed martial artist.

Mousasi is gearing up to defend his 185-pound title against welterweight champion Rory MacDonald. That will happen this weekend (Sat. September 29, 2018) in the main event of Bellator 206. The 33-year-old has had a long career, fighting since 2003.

While he doesn’t have much time left in the sport, Mousasi tells MMA Fighting he wants to do more “fun fights” once he begins to wind down in his career. That could include a jump up to heavyweight:

“I think as I get older, I’m going to look for the fun fights. Maybe heavyweight, light heavyweight. I’m tired of the weight cut, so I’ll want to fight at the highest levels for these four fights, and then from there fight old men,” Mousasi said.

“I don’t know. I think I will be close to the end of my career, so if I continue to fight, I would like to have more comfort. I don’t want to lose a lot of weight anymore. I’ll fight heavyweight too, I don’t have a problem with that.

“I always said after these four fights, I would want to retire, but like I said, everything depends on the result. If I win every fight in four or five minutes, I keep winning, yeah, the desire will be to continue. But if I have fights like Shlemenko, then I have to rethink [things].”

Mousasi is currently on a seven-fight win streak that extends back to his days in the UFC. He has not lost since being TKO’d by Uriah Hall back in 2015. Finishing all but one of his seven wins, Mousasi eventually found himself holding the Bellator middleweight title.

If Mousasi’s career is indeed winding down, it should be interesting to see if he does decide to jump up to heavyweight.

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Bellator 206 Preview, Predictions & Analysis

Bellator is back with perhaps their best card ever on paper with tomorrow night’s (Sat., September 29, 2018) Bellator 206 from the SAP Center in San Jose, California. The main card will stream live on new Bellator partner DAZN. The card’s headlining bout features a highly anticipated middleweight super fight between 185-pound Gegard Mousasi and welterweight […]

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Bellator is back with perhaps their best card ever on paper with tomorrow night’s (Sat., September 29, 2018) Bellator 206 from the SAP Center in San Jose, California.

The main card will stream live on new Bellator partner DAZN. The card’s headlining bout features a highly anticipated middleweight super fight between 185-pound Gegard Mousasi and welterweight champion Rory MacDonald. In the co-main event, former PRIDE rivals Rampage Jackson and Wanderlei Silva will meet for an incredible fourth time.

The Bellator World Welterweight Grand Prix will also kick off at the event. Former champions Douglas Lima and Andrey Koreshkov will square off in the inaugural bout of the buzzworthy tournament. Touted rising star Aaron Pico also has next fight on the main card, facing Leandro Higo on his continued rise.

All of that adds up to an incredibly packed Bellator 206 main card. We broke down the important aspects of each major bout. Check out our Bellator 206 preview, predictions, and analysis here.

Gegard Mousasi vs. Rory MacDonald

Hyperbole aside, this is probably the biggest fight Bellator could put on right now due to the track record of both fighters.

Mousasi has won seven straight bouts since his fluky TKO loss to Uriah Hall in September 2015. He’s finished five of those opponents by knockout and may be at his peak as a result. Mousasi did have some trouble in his Bellator debut against Alexander Shlemenko. He most recently destroyed former champion Rafael Carvalho in one round at May’s Bellator 200.

Likewise, MacDonald has been on a tear since coming to Bellator, albeit a smaller one. He’s won both of his fights against Paul Daley and Lima, winning the belt from the latter at Bellator 192 this January.

Both of these fighters bring a wealth of relevant in-cage knowledge and experience, a wholly well-rounded skillset, and the experience to back it up. Therefore, this is truly as elite a fight Bellator could make. In honesty, Mousasi and MacDonald are somewhat similar in style. They both employ crisp, accurate, and measured striking on the feet, choosing to pick their spots with peerless efficiency. Mousasi has shown much more knockout power on the feet, however, and does hold a size edge here.

Both can also finish the fight when it hits the ground. While neither is known as a world-class wrestler, both can take nearly any opponent down and defend opposing takedowns sufficiently. If and when the bout hits the ground, both fighters can absolutely finish the fight with an extensive list of submissions. Mousasi is a black belt in judo and MacDonald is in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

That all boils down to an incredibly close fight on paper. When that happens, the size advantage may play the biggest deciding factor. As you can see from above, Mousasi is the bigger fighter. It’ll be close, but I think he outlasts MacDonald by decision in a back-and-forth battle.

Prediction: Gegard Mousasi def. Rory MacDonald via unanimous decision

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Bellator 206 Weigh-In Results: Main Event Set

Fighters have hit the scales to officially weigh-in.

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Bellator 206 weigh-in results have been released as the fighters took the stage to get ready for battle inside of the cage under the promotion banner.

Bellator 206 is set to take place on Saturday, September 29, 2018 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. The preliminary card will air online at 7:00 pm EST while the main card will air on DAZN at 10:00 PM EST.

Gegard Mousasi vs. Rory MacDonald for the middleweight title will serve as the headliner. Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva in a heavyweight bout will be the co-main event, which marks the fourth time they have fought each other.

Rounding out the six bout main card is Andrey Koreshkov vs. Douglas Lima in a welterweight tournament opening round, Leandro Higo vs. Aaron Pico in a featherweight bout, Keri Melendez vs. Dakota Zimmerman in a women’s strawweight bout, and Gaston Bolanos vs. Ysidro Gutierrez in a featherweight bout.

Bellator officials held the weigh-ins for Bellator 206 on Friday and here are the weigh-in results:

MAIN CARD (DAZN, 10 p.m. ET)

  • Champ Gegard Mousasi (184.4) vs. Rory MacDonald (184.9) – for middleweight title
  • Quinton Jackson (254.4) vs. Wanderlei Silva ()
  • Andrey Koreshkov (169.3) vs. Douglas Lima (170) – welterweight tournament opening round
  • Leandro Higo (145.1) vs. Aaron Pico (145.7)
  • Keri Melendez () vs. Dakota Zimmerman (115.6)
  • Gaston Bolanos (145.2) vs. Ysidro Gutierrez ()

Preliminary Card (Online, 7 p.m. ET)

  • Adam Piccolotti (159.1) vs. James Terry ()
  • Jeremiah Labiano (144.9) vs. Justin Smitley (144.2)
  • Danasabe Mohammed () vs. Salvador Becerra ()
  • Arlene Blencowe (145.3) vs. Amber Leibrock (145.4)
  • Joe Neal (139.9) vs. Josh San Diego ()
  • Abraham Vaesau () vs. DeMarco Villalona ()
  • Cass Bell () vs. Ty Costa (136)
  • Isaiah Batin-Gonzalez (135.8) vs. Khai Wu (136)
  • Ignacio Ortiz (144.9) vs. Jacob Ycaro ()
  • Ricky Abdelaziz () vs. Laird Anderson ()
  • Chuck Campbell (205.6) vs. Joseph Ramirez (202.4)
  • Anthony Figueroa () vs. Samuel Romero (156)

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Rampage Jackson Won’t Be Surprised If Wanderlei Silva Retires After He Destroys Him

Jackson also credited something for a new lease on his career.

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Rampage Jackson won’t be surprised if Wanderlei Silva decides to hang up his gloves after their fourth fight at the Bellator 206 event.

One More Round

Bellator MMA is going back for more and is hoping that fight fans around the world are interested in seeing Silva fight Jackson for the fourth time.

Silva returned to action from an extended layoff last June. But was defeated by Sonnen over three rounds on pay-per-view at Bellator NYC at Madison Square Garden. Once this fight was rumored, Silva made it known that he was considering retirement.

Jackson recently did an interview where he talked about how using altitude tents once again has given him a new lease on his career. He used them when he was making a name for himself while competing in PRIDE.

Rampage Jackson Won’t Be Surprised

He started using them again for his last fight, which was against former title contender Chael Sonnen. The former UFC light heavyweight champ also made it known that if it was up to him, this fight against Silva will be the final bout for the career of the ‘Axe Murder.’

“I started doing it, and sure enough, in my last fight with Chael, no matter what happened, I didn’t get tired,” Jackson told MMAjunkie. “That’s one of my biggest fears is getting tired. When I hang up my gloves, it will probably be in training camp for a fight,” he said. “I’ll probably book a fight, be training for a fight, and I can’t go to the gym one day. I’ll be like, yeah I’m done.”

“I’ve trained really hard this camp,” he said. “I plan on destroying Wanderlei, so I’m not surprised he’s going to want to retire. Last time I beat him, he left the weight class. He’s got nowhere to go this time.”

Bellator 206 is set to take place on Saturday, September 29, 2018 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. The preliminary card will air online at 7:00 pm EST while the main card will air on DAZN at 10:00 PM EST.

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‘Risk Taker’ Rory MacDonald Hopes To Make His Name At Bellator 206

Rory MacDonald hopes to ‘make his name’ against middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi at Bellator 206. As soon as MacDonald signed with the Scott Coker-run promotion, speculation began. What division would Rory Mac compete in? Could he really become a two-division champ? One of those questions has already been answered and we will watch in anticipation […]

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Rory MacDonald hopes to ‘make his name’ against middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi at Bellator 206.

As soon as MacDonald signed with the Scott Coker-run promotion, speculation began. What division would Rory Mac compete in? Could he really become a two-division champ?

One of those questions has already been answered and we will watch in anticipation Saturday night (Sept. 29, 2018) as MacDonald tries to capture the middleweight strap from Mousasi.

Although Coker wasn’t too keen on the potential superfight between these two initially, after Mousasi ran through Rafael Carvalho to win the 185-pound title, he changed his tune:

“We’ve got to make this fight happen,” said Coker following Mousasi’s title-winning performance.

“I think he didn’t want to rush into it,” MacDonald told MMAjunkie. “He wanted to make sure he could connect the dots first.”

More likely Coker envisioned a future for Rory that revolved around Grand Prix-style tournaments.

Regardless, MacDonald couldn’t be happier at the way everything has worked out. MacDonald has the opportunity to become only the sixth fighter in MMA history to hold two titles simultaneously in the UFC or Bellator.

The others are Randy Couture, BJ Penn, Conor McGregor, Georges St-Pierre, and most recently Daniel Cormier. The former UFC contender is relishing in the opportunity:

“It could be one of those fights that make my name,” MacDonald said. “It’s rare that you get a multi-weight champ, so it’s cool. It’s a great opportunity to be recognized in the sport as someone who’s not afraid to take risks.”

Even if the risk doesn’t pan out for MacDonald, he will still walk away as the welterweight champ.

But the Canadian will have a quick turnaround. He’s set to defend his title in the opening round of the welterweight GP against Jon Fitch next month.

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Rapper 50 Cent Offers $1 Million Cash To Bellator Grand Prix Winner

This weekend’s (Sat., September 29, 2018) Bellator 206 from the SAP Center in San Jose, California, features the opening round of the 170-pound Bellator Grand Prix. Some big stakes have reportedly just been attached to it. The tournament already features decorated welterweights like champion Rory MacDonald, Jon Fitch, Douglas Lima, Andrey Koreshkov, Paul Daley, Michael Page, Neiman […]

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This weekend’s (Sat., September 29, 2018) Bellator 206 from the SAP Center in San Jose, California, features the opening round of the 170-pound Bellator Grand Prix.

Some big stakes have reportedly just been attached to it.

The tournament already features decorated welterweights like champion Rory MacDonald, Jon Fitch, Douglas Lima, Andrey Koreshkov, Paul Daley, Michael Page, Neiman Gracie. It now features a famous name from a different sort of entertainment.

Partnership Of a New Kind

Bellator revealed in a press release today that they had partnered with rapper 50 Cent. They duo will promote his “Get the Strap” clothing line and Le Chemin du Roi champagne brand. 50 Cent has apparently decided to be generous with the money he’ll make from the partnership. The press release said he would donate $1 million to the winner of the Welterweight World Grand Prix:

“A passionate and knowledgeable MMA fan, Jackson has already agreed to re-invest a portion of his deal by offering one million dollars in cash to the winner of the upcoming Bellator Welterweight World Grand Prix that will air exclusively on DAZN.”

Bellator President Scott Coker gave his thoughts on the upcoming promotional partnership:

“We are thrilled to partner with such a legendary icon who has been a friend to the Bellator family for quite some time. The “Get The Strap” apparel line is just the beginning of many joint ventures we will explore together.”

Managing Fighters?

As the release closed, 50 Cent teased some other ventures in MMA. He said he was going to branch out into managing fighters:

“Bellator has a roster filled with some of the most charismatic athletes in the world. As my relationship with Bellator deepens, you will see me moving into fighter management opportunities that will allow me to integrate top stars into both scripted and unscripted projects across the Viacom networks, as well as the other outlets I have access to.”

Time will tell what that means for Bellator.

Welterweight champion MacDonald will meet middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi this weekend. He’ll then move on to meet Fitch in the Grand Prix. Meanwhile, ‘Rampage’ Jackson will take on Wanderlei a fourth time.

Finally, former champ Douglas Lima will rematch Andrey Koreshkov to kick off the Grand Prix at Bellator 206.

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