With a new influx of talent, and an unclaimed championship belt, Bellator’s heavyweight division is ripe for a tournament.
Bellator President Scott Coker, no stranger to the format, likes the idea of pairing the division’s baddest big guys against each other. But he said a new champion will be crowned before that happens.
“I think we will have some more fights, see how these guys fare, and then we can talk about something like that,” Coker today told MMAjunkie.
Coker said a matchup between Roy Nelson (23-14 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) and Matt Mitrione (12-5 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) “makes a lot of sense” as a fight for the title, though he also mentioned the surging Cheick Kongo (27-10-2 MMA, 9-2 BMMA) as a potential contender.
“I’d like to crown a heavyweight champ in the first part of (2018),” Coker said.
As UFC heavyweights, the trio are very familiar with each other. Nelson beat Mitrione and Kongo in succession, while Mitrione outpointed Kongo.
Kongo is the most experienced in the Bellator cage with 11 appearances, including a failed bid for the title against Vitaly Minakov, who left a void in the division when the promotion stripped him for inactivity.
Mitrione, meanwhile, joined the fold in March 2016 and has won three straight, with a June knockout of Fedor Emelianenko marking his most recent appearance.
This past Saturday, Nelson made a successful debut with a decision over Jay Ayala at Bellator 183. Before stepping into the cage, Nelson suggested a tournament would be the best way to establish a pecking order.
Coker has held several high-profile tournaments as the head of the now-defunct Strikeforce, including a one-night middleweight tournament in 2007 and the highly hyped Strikeforce World Grand Prix Heavyweight tournament in 2011. But he shifted away from the format after taking the reigns at Bellator in 2014, emphasizing super fights and “tentpole” events over the tournament format favored by previous Bellator chief Bjorn Rebney.
Coker isn’t opposed to the idea of crowning a heavyweight tournament champ, as he did for the Strikeforce grand prix. But in Bellator, he first wants to establish a champion to challenge a tournament winner.
Scott Coker open to Bellator heavyweight tournament but wants to crown champion first
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