Bellator Releases Two Former Champions Along With 16 Others
Bellator MMA has become widely known as the premier mixed martial arts organization in the world, just behind the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and maybe ONE Championship.
With such reputation, they’ve been making some cuts recently, and they’ve been adding new talent to their roster.
For this piece though, we’ll talk about their releases.
They started by picking up a good amount of UFC veterans, and then cutting talents such as Brandon Girtz, Roger Huerta, and professional kickboxer Gabriel Varga.
That happened earlier this year, and now there have been 18 more names to add to that list:
- Daniel Straus (26-9 ~ former two-time Bellator featherweight champion)
- Bec Rawlings (8-9 ~ UFC veteran, three-time BKFC champion, 3-0 in Bare Knuckle)
- Heather Hardy (2-2 ~ 22-2 professional champion boxer)
- Tywan Claxton (6-3)
- John Teixeira (23-6-2)
- Khonry Gracie (2-2)
- Liam McGeary (13-4 ~ two-time Bellator light-heavyweight champion)
- Tyree Fortune (5-1)
- Alessio Sakara (21-13 ~ UFC veteran)
- Amanda Bell (7-8)
- Chuck Campbell (2-1)
- DeMarques Jackson (11-6)
- Dominic Mazzotta (15-3)
- Olga Rubin (6-2)
- Kirill Sidelnikov (12-6)
- Mike Jasper (13-6)
- Steve MacDonald (4-0)
- Ryan Spillane (0-0)
The last two never got to make their first walk under the Bellator banner, and a whopping eleven of them finished their promotional careers with negative records.
Of all the names mentioned above, Tywan Claxton and Liam McGeary have got to be the most surprising ones.
McGeary is a little more understandable, as he’s gone 2-4 in his last six after opening up his career at 11-0, but Claxton is interesting. He’s a stud wrestler that has good striking, and he has a very bright future in the sport if he wants it.
Not only is he 6-3 as a professional, but he’s 6-3 in Bellator, something that’s very hard to do. Not to mention, his only true defeat comes to Emmanuel Sanchez, who submitted him with a triangle choke.
Other than that, his only two defeats come in his last two outings, losing both via split decision.
Claxton is still in the beginning of his career, he’s just a sophomore at this point, and at 28 years of age, he’ll continue improving for at least five more years. Bellator grows a lot of their own prospects themselves, so why would they release a very promising homegrown talent?
Of all the names on this list, which surprises you the most?
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