Bellator’s Heavyweight Division is Now Being Left in Limbo

Earlier this week, Bellator announced that it will soon be hosting a stacked light-heavyweight tournament beginning in April. One of the men scheduled to compete in this tournament is Ryan Bader, the current heavyweight champion for the promotion. His participation now leaves Bellator’s heavyweight division in limbo.

There are several men closing in on a title shot at heavyweight. Today, we’ll talk about what these fighters will be facing this year. We will also talk about the exciting tournament kicking off in a couple months.

Here’s what we know.

Showtime is the New Home for Bellator MMA

Over the past decade, Bellator MMA has slowly grown to become one of the world’s most successful mixed martial arts promotions. Initially, Bellator aired all of its events on Spike TV. It then was moved to the Paramount Network.

News has just come out that Bellator has now officially moved over to Showtime. Moving forward, all of this promotion’s events will be airing live on Showtime. Many fans and analysts were unsurprised to hear this news.

Scott Coker has been the president of Bellator MMA for years. Prior to this position, he successfully ran another MMA promotion called Strikeforce. Coker formed a partnership with Showtime during his run with Strikeforce and used the network to air live events around the world.

This was a successful partnership for many years. Showtime aired some of the biggest fights of the 2010s during its time with Strikeforce. That includes many of Fedor Emelianenko’s fights after his departure from Pride Fighting Championship. Fans around the world flocked to different online sports betting sites to wager on these fights.

Showtime will feature on its first Bellator event on April 2. This card will be headlined by a featherweight clash between Patricio Pitbull and Emmanuel Sanchez. Several other exciting bouts will be taking place on the undercard of this event, too.

This isn’t the biggest news Bellator has broken recently. Most fans are looking ahead to the promotion’s massive tournament taking place in a couple of months!

What Does the 205-Pound Tournament Mean for Bellator’s Heavyweight Division?

Bellator held its last event of 2020 on December 10. Since that time, the promotion has been working hard to come up with exciting plans for 2021. The original plan was to begin hosting events in February and was then moved to April.

Bellator held a special announcement this week and revealed its incredible new light-heavyweight tournament scheduled to begin on April 9. This is an eight-man tournament featuring some of the best 205-pound fighters in the sport.

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Bellator revealed their Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix bracket 👇 pic.twitter.com/LiLNARgB5S

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 9, 2021

The first matchups can be seen below.

• Ryan Bader vs. Lyoto Machida
• Corey Anderson vs. Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov
• Vadim Nemkov vs. Phil Davis
• Anthony Johnson vs. Yoel Romero

Many of these names are well-known even to casual MMA fans. The biggest fight is of course the one between Yoel Romero and Anthony Joshua. Each of these bouts has huge implications for the light-heavyweight division moving forward, though.

Many in Bellator’s heavyweight division are voicing their disappointment, though. The division’s champion, Ryan Bader, will clearly be busy competing in this tournament. Scott Coker claims we could see an interim heavyweight title shot take place while Bader is away.

“We’re going to wait to see how he does on [April 9], and then if he wins and he’s going to continue on into the tournament, we might consider having an interim belt,” Coker said. “We’re going to wait to see how the 9th goes first. If he does [continue], we can’t just leave that heavyweight division out there like that, so we’re going to give other fighters opportunities. But for right now, because the fight is a couple months away, we’re going to see how it goes for Bader, and then we’ll decide what to do from there.”

April is shaping up to be an amazing month for MMA fans. Odds on some of these upcoming Bellator fights are now becoming available online!

Here’s How to Find Odds on Bellator’s Next Tournament

Bellator isn’t the only MMA promotion with big plans this year. The UFC has already been putting on massive events over the past few weeks. It has many more scheduled to take place heading into summer.

Many fight fans are interested in betting on all of these events. We highly recommend heading over to BetOnline. This site is well-known for being one of the safest and most complete online sports betting websites in the United States.

This site is offering some great odds on Bellator’s upcoming bouts. That includes the one between Yoel Romero and Anthony Johnson on April 16. Johnson enters as the +100 underdog. Romero comes into this fight as the -130 favorite.

Bellator’s heavyweight division will be interested to see what happens with Ryan Bader. He enters the upcoming fight with Lyoto Machida as the -350 favorite. Machida comes into this bout as the +275.

Each of these fights are expected to be fantastic. It’s clear that Bellator is looking to expand its fan base this year. We’ll offer more information on the promotions upcoming plans over the next few weeks.

Are you excited to see this light-heavyweight division? Do you think it’s fair for Bellator’s heavyweight division? Let us know in the comments section below!