Bellator to crown Grand Prix champ
MMA promotion starts year-long tournament
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Chael Sonnen are two of the most recognizable stars in the history of mixed martial arts. A fight between them never seemed possible, much less necessary.
Enter Bellator MMA President Scott Coker.
The veteran promoter has brought together an eclectic collection of eight competitors for a heavyweight grand prix, which will play out this year and ultimately crown a champion for the California-based promotion.
Jackson (37-12 MMA, 4-1 BMMA) and Sonnen (29-15-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) kick off the tournament in the headline bout of Saturday’s Bellator 192 event at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. The main card airs on Paramount (formerly Spike) at 9 p.m. ET.
Sonnen has spent most of his 20-year career competing at
185 pounds, while Jackson has fought almost exclusively over
18 years in the 205-pound weight class. Now they’ll meet in the heavyweight division, where they must simply weigh in at 265 pounds or under.
“It’s different,” Sonnen told USA TODAY. “I’ve done this 49 times, and it has been the same a lot, good and bad, but there’s something new here.
“It’s good to be part of a tournament. I prefer tournaments. This sport has so much politics. It’s very tough to get into those spots, and it’s just the history of combat. But when you’ve got a bunch of guys telling Coker they’re all the toughest, then he goes, ‘To hell with it. I’ll just put you all in a tournament. Who- ever is left standing, we’ll put the belt around.’ It’s a pretty fair way of doing things.”
There are a few legitimate heavyweights in the field, including former UFC champ Frank Mir and former Pride titleholder Fedor Emelianenko, still considered one of the greatest competitors in MMA history.
There are more light heavyweights, as well, including current Bellator champ Ryan Bader and former Strikeforce belt holder Muhammed Lawal.
How each fight could affect the world rankings isn’t clear, especially as fighters traditionally from different weight classes are paired together. But the grand prix is the biggest collection of talent Bellator can muster.
And with the MMA’s second-largest promotion in a constant battle for viewers with the sport’s original brand, Ultimate Fighting Championship, Bellator officials are wise to think outside the box, a belief Coker has embraced since taking the Bellator helm in 2014.
“When I came on board, they said, ‘Let’s put on the best events we can by the best fighters that we can get. Let’s build the best talent that we can build, and let’s go create a great league,’ and that’s what we’re doing,” Coker said.
The tournament format is a staple of martial arts, though UFC officials did away with the concept in 1999.
Bellator MMA launched in 2009 as a tournament-based organization but ultimately scrapped the concept because of the rigorous nature of scheduling based completely on brackets.
But by reviving the concept as a year-long affair and picking the biggest stars in the promotion rather than a group of up-and-coming potential challengers, Coker has ensured his promotion will get the maximum exposure. It’s equal parts freak show and pure competition, but it seems to have just the right amount of crazy to attract fan interest in an era of MMA that is often just as much about the show as it is the fighting.
“I’m a fighter; I think it’s a good challenge,” Jackson said. “Whoever beats all these heavyweights gets the belt.”