Welterweight tournaments come and go but as the fifth (full) season of Bellator dawns on us the take away news story is the oh so obvious tip off of things to come as it was announced recently that all of their prelims will now be broadcast live on Spike.com. That is as clear of signal as we will ever get that the once beleaguered promotion will be making the jump from MTV2 to the UFC’s soon to be ex-home of Spike TV. And this despite the nasty rumors that persist that state that Spike is looking to rebrand itself as a network for 18-45 males AND females (Bravo2?). It is worth noting that this is all very well deserved and Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney has done a lot more to further his cause than just sit around and wait for Strikeforce to evaporate. He has taken a fairly brilliant business model and executed it flawlessly, sticking to his guns and is now reaping the rewards. In the past few months alone his roster of fighters has exploded as he has gobbled up tons of prospects who were simply too green for the UFC’s bright lights. He’s clearly looking to home grow a stable of fighters all his own as opposed to taking the Strikeforce approach which was to just slurp up any leftovers abandoned by their big brother.
So with that in mind how does the welterweight tournament, which holds its opening round Saturday night at Bellator 49, look this time around? Well, honestly, and I say this with love, not so great. Earlier this year in Season 4 the welterweights were where it was at as that was the division to watch. This time around the polar opposite is true as I find it to be the weakest bracket of the four (give me the middleweights this season, thank you very much). What happened? Well Ben Askren and Jay Hieron sit comfortably atop the mountain and wait to duke it out later this fall. Rick Hawn is out with an injury and former champ Lyman Good is nowhere to be seen. Word is that he has a bum hamstring but whatever the case he is not on this card. Dan Hornbuckle is there, surprise surprise. He’ll be taking on the little known though highly experienced Luis Santos who has racked up 56 career fights and 49 wins. He was on the undercard of Bellator 45 but other than that his career has taken place well off the North American media’s radar, way down south in Brazil. He is definitely the X factor of this card as we all wait with anticipation to see if he’s got the chops to send Bellator’s company man home early for a second straight time.
My tournament favorite, as of now, is Brent Weedman who was the guy who squeaked out a crazy close decision victory over Hornbuckle in March in one of the most insane grappling contests you will ever see. From there he got robbed by the judges in his semi-final bout against Jay Hieron and is now back for redemption. His road there starts with Chris Lozano, another season 4 vet who got bounced in the opening round against Lyman Good. The man with the most name value on this card is Ben Saunders and that is due mainly to his lengthy stay in the UFC (2007-2011). He draws Chris Cisneros here, a man who has spend most of his career on the local Hawaii circuit and now, at the ripe old age of 31, hopes to make it big. Finally we get the return of Steve Carl who takes on Douglas Lima. Lima, another Brazilian, missed weight as of this writing and was trying to sweat off another quarter pound in the allotted 2 hour time frame. But assuming he knows how to utilize his local spa this fight will go on and I’m looking for an upset here. Lima has been most dominant in his recent MFC run (where he is the reigning welterweight champ) and his tough BJJ game should cause Carl’s submission defense major problems. What gives me pause about this pick is the level of competition Lima has faced thus far as the only person with real credentials on his resume is Brent Weedman, and that was a fight he lost.
All in all this card and this season provides plenty to be pumped up for, especially if you’re like me and grow queasy around the UFC’s hegemony. We all know Rebney is stealing every one of Dana White’s tricks, but it has resulted in a better product that is now granting more access to the fans. For the time being sit back enjoy the fights. The production value will still be a little shoddy and we’ll still have to live with standard definition but know that in the months to come you will be able to see them on a larger platform and, God willing, in HD!
