The lightweight division in mixed martial arts consists of B.J. Penn and everyone else.
We all know that Penn, the UFC champion, has established himself as the top lightweight in the sport. But after Penn, there are about a dozen guys who are practically interchangeable. That list includes UFC fighters like Penn's next opponent (Diego Sanchez), his last opponent (Kenny Florian), and some past and future UFC opponents like Gray Maynard, Frank Edgar and Sean Sherk.
Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard, recovering from a concussion that led to the postponement of the entire Oct. 9 Cage Fighting Championship 11 card in Queensland, Australia, will meet UFC veteran Kalib Starnes in the rescheduled date and location of Nov. 20 in Sydney.
It will be Lombard (22-2-1)'s first trip back into the cage since he was crowned the Bellator champion in June by stopping previously undefeated Jared Hess. Video of the fight is above.
In a match-up of the Bellator Fighting Championships lightweight champion and the DEEP lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez demonstrated by defeating Katsunori Kikuno with a second-round submission at Dream 12 that he's a fighter who just keeps getting better.
Bellator FC recently announced a new television deal with Fox Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo, which will begin airing in April 2010, but the organization has yet to finalize its broadcasting team.
Jon Anik, the host of ESPN.com's MMA Live and the English play-by-play man for the first season of Bellator FC action, told FanHouse on Tuesday that despite the fact that the events will be airing live Thursdays on FSN, which is the same day MMA Live currently tapes its weekly show, he was "confident" he will return to call the action once again.
Bellator Fighting Championships became the latest mixed martial arts promotion to announce a TV deal on Tuesday, with word that the promotion will have live fights on Fox Sports Net in 2010, as well as highlight shows on NBC and Spanish-language broadcasts on Telemundo.
In an interview with FanHouse, Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney said the new TV deals are a major boost for Bellator, but he added that not much else will change for the promotion. He said Bellator will continue to arrange its seasons around tournament formats, and will continue to put its best fights on YouTube. Rebney's comments are below.
The upstart MMA promotion Bellator Fighting Championships has announced that it will be back in 2010, with shows airing live on Thursday nights on FOX Sports Net. Taped highlight packages will air in the wee hours of Sunday mornings on NBC, and Bellator has also reached an agreement with Telemundo for Spanish-language distribution.
On this week's edition of The MMA Hour, we were joined by Strikeforce commentator Mauro Ranallo to talk about his career in MMA media and the future of the organization.
Later in the show, we spoke to the host of ESPN.com's MMA Live, Jon Anik, about the evolution of the program and the UFC 103 vs. HBO boxing pay-per-view clash coming up on Sept. 19. Check out the newest episode below.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney has no qualms with admitting that his organization is currently not competitive with the UFC, but he's holding high hopes that Bellator's tournament format and over 150 million-home distribution platform will eventually make them a major player in the fight promoting business.
"If your intent is not to at some point compete with the UFC, then you shouldn't be in the business," Rebney tells FanHouse in this exclusive interview.
In the final video of our five-part interview, I asked Rebney how he compares his promotion at this stage to other organizations like Strikeforce and the UFC.
The Bellator Fighting Championships has not yet determined what day its weekly live events will be held on for its second season beginning early 2010.
Season one events were held live every Friday accompanied by a tape-delayed broadcast Saturday on ESPN Deportes. However, for next season's live televised events, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are all possibilities.
In this FanHouse exclusive, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney shares his insight on programming MMA events for television.
Tournaments featuring featherweights, lightweights, welterweights, middleweights, heavyweights and possibly females, bantamweights and light heavyweights are in store for season two and three of the Bellator Fighting Championships.
In this exclusive interview with FanHouse, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney says his plan for season two is to name challengers for its four current champions, and in season three he'll crown titleholders in the heavyweight class, in either the bantamweight or light heavyweight division and perhaps a women's division.
The lightweight division in mixed martial arts consists of B.J. Penn and everyone else.
Bellator Fighting Championships became the latest mixed martial arts promotion to announce a TV deal on Tuesday, with word that the promotion will have live fights on Fox Sports Net in 2010, as well as highlight shows on NBC and Spanish-language broadcasts on Telemundo.
On this week's edition of The MMA Hour, we were joined by Strikeforce commentator Mauro Ranallo to talk about his career in MMA media and the future of the organization.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney has no qualms with admitting that his organization is currently not competitive with the UFC, but he's holding high hopes that Bellator's tournament format and over 150 million-home distribution platform will eventually make them a major player in the fight promoting business.
