Bellator announces fighters to compete in ten-man welterweight tournament

Bellator president Scott Coker has announced nine of the fighters who will fight in their welterweight tournament. The tournament begins on 29^th September in San Jose and will be Bellator’s first live stream on DAZN.

The announced fighters include Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald, British star Michael Page, Douglas Lima, Andrey Koreshkov, Jon Fitch, Neiman Gracie, Yaroslov Amosov, Lorenz Larkin and Ed Ruth. The tournament will also feature a tenth fighter who is yet to be named with some speculating if it will be Page’s rival, Brit Paul Daley who recently signed a new deal with the promotion.

The first bout of the tournament features a trilogy fight between Douglas Lima and Andrey Koreshkov at Bellator 205. Koreshkov won their first outing at Bellator 140 by decision whilst Lima won the second by knockout at Bellator 164.

On the same card welterweight champ Rory MacDonald will challenge the middleweight champ Gegard Mousasi for his belt in the main event at Bellator 205.

Bellator’s welterweight tournament was announced during a press conference for the U.S launch of broadcasting partner DAZN. The conference featured boxing promoter Eddie Hearn who has struck a $1 Billion deal with the streaming service to provide boxing content for DAZN.