On Tuesday, Bellator Fighting Championship announced the addition of female 115 pound fighter Angela Magana (9-4) to their upcoming Bellator Season 3 Women’s Tournament which kicks off in August.
“We are very pleased to add Angela Magana to the compelling list of 115 pound women competing in our Season 3 tournament. There is not an easy fight anywhere in this tournament and Angela should present a very tough fight for everyone she faces in this tournament,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney.
The fighter currently trains at the Team Four Corners gym in Farmington, N.M.
Joining her for the Season 3 tournament will be the undefeated Japanese mma star Megumi Fujii, British fighter Rosi Sexton (currently ranked No. 1 in the 125 lbs. female weight-class), 11-5 Lisa Ward and 7-0 Jessica Pene.
CHICAGO, Ill. (June 15, 2010) — Ron “The Monster” Sparks, an undefeated heavyweight KO artist and Kentucky native has signed on to fight in the “Local Co-Main Event” during Bellator 23 at the Fourth Street Live entertainment district in downtown Louisville next Thursday.
Sparks, a longtime boxer and kickboxer who has also been training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for the past four years, is a perfect 5-0 as a pro MMA fighter, including four first-round knockouts. Three of his fights lasted less than 40 seconds.
He was originally scheduled to face the undefeated Bobby Lashley at tomorrow night’s Strikeforce event in Los Angeles, but was freed up to sign with Bellator after Lashley withdrew from the fight late last month because of injury.
“We are happy to have an up-and-coming heavyweight like Ron taking part in the Local Co-Main Event of our Louisville show,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “Ron knocks people out and fans love to see that in the heavyweight division, so Ron should put on a great show for the fans in Louisville.”
Sparks, 36, was introduced to combat sports by his father, who studied martial arts during the Vietnam War. He began taking classes in kickboxing as a teenager and became a regular sparring partner for a variety of local boxers and kickboxers while also competing in a wide variety of kickboxing promotions himself, including K-1.
In 2006, he met Louisville-based MMA manager and trainer Jason Weihe, who convinced him to give the sport a try. In addition to his five wins, he’s also been booked as an opponent for a bevy of top heavyweights including Ray Mercer, Tim Sylvia and Bob Sapp, only to have those fights fall through because when those opponents backed out.
Sparks calls his new contract with Bellator “the next big step” in his career.
“Bellator’s a great organization and this is a great opportunity to fight in front of my hometown crowd,” Sparks said. “I love to keep the fight on my feet and I love going for the knockout. There ain’t nothin’ better in this world than knockin’ a guy out.”
For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at Facebook.com/Bellator.
CHICAGO, Ill. (June 14, 2010) — Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that top-ten 115 pounder Angela Magana has been added to Bellator’s stellar list of top-competitors in the upcoming Bellator Season 3 Women’s Tournament. According to recently released rankings, the rising star is currently the #8 ranked female fighter in the world at 115 lbs. Magana, who holds a professional record of 9-4, faces the toughest test of her career in a stacked 115 lbs. tournament roster.
“We are very pleased to add Angela Magana to the compelling list of 115 pound women competing in our Season 3 tournament. There is not an easy fight anywhere in this tournament and Angela should present a very tough fight for everyone she faces in this tournament,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney.
Hailing from a rough beginning in Los Angeles, Magana eventually relocated to New Mexico where she found a healthy outlet for her aggression in high school wrestling. She excelled, making the varsity team and later going to the State finals. In addition, Magana also holds an impressive amateur boxing record compiled through junior high and high school.
However, it wasn’t until she first watched the 1988 Jean-Claude Van Damme film Bloodwork that she became interested in martial arts. “I watched it over and over again,” said Magana “It wasn’t exactly MMA, but it sparked my interest and really inspired me to start training.”
Magana found a gym and started to hone her jiu-jitsu skills by entering numerous grappling tournaments while still using her wrestling skills as a base. 13 MMA fights later, Magana stands ready to face the best-of-the-best in Bellator’s Season 3 Women’s Tournament. The New Mexico fighter says she hopes for a re-match with undefeated fellow tournament fighter Jessica Pene, whom she lost to last September. Although she makes no excuses for the loss, Magana said it was the toughest weight cut of her life.
Magana is one of five announced participants in Bellator’s forthcoming Season 3 Women’s Tournament along with Japanese MMA sensation Megumi Fujii, widely regarded as the No. 1 pound-for-pound female fighter in the world, 11-1 British tae-kwon-do black belt Rosi Sexton (the world’s No. 1-ranked 125 lbs. female fighter), 12-5 Seattle submission artist Lisa Ward and 7-0 Southern California striker Jessica Pene. The tournament kicks off in August.
Magana currently resides in Farmington, N.M with her 8 year old daughter, where she trains with Greg Jackson sister gym Team Four Corners.
For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (June 10, 2010) – Pat Curran completed his unlikely Cinderella-story run through Bellator Fighting Championships’ Season 2 Lightweight Tournament on Thursday, scoring a split decision victory over MMA veteran and 2009 Submission of the Year titleholder Toby Imada to win the tournament championship.
Curran’s win headlined another great night of fights from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in South Florida, roughly 30 miles south of the high school that Curran represented in the state wrestling finals just four years ago.
On Thursday, with dozens of his friends and family looking on, the 22-year-old impressed the judges with an athletic takedown defense and a series of powerful blows to the head that opened two cuts around Imada’s right eye. With the win, Curran earned the Season 2 Championship and the right to fight reigning Bellator Lightweight Champion and 20-2 MMA star Eddie Alvarez.
Alvarez, who watched the fight cageside with his son, Eddie Jr., called Curran’s performance “tough” and “impressive.”
“The guy’s powerful and he hits hard,” Alvarez said as Curran (12-3) was presented with a check for $100,000. “I’m looking forward to fighting him.”
Curran, who was inspired to begin a career in MMA by his cousin, UFC, WEC and Strikeforce veteran Jeff Curran, said afterwards that Bellator “changed my life.” It was his third consecutive upset victory along with a quarterfinal KO of Georges St.-Pierre training partner Mike Ricci and a semifinal decision win against UFC veteran and early tournament favorite Roger Huerta.
“What Pat Curran accomplished tonight is exactly what Bellator is all about,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “He proved to himself and to the world that he deserves this championship and he deserves a fight with Eddie Alvarez thanks to three straight outstanding wins against three very tough opponents.”
Imada, who helped put Bellator on the map during its inaugural season with his now-famous inverted triangle choke submission of Jorge Masvidal, accepted the defeat graciously, congratulating Curran and saying “that’s what I get for leaving it up to the judges.”
The night also featured an impressive statement from Megumi Fujii, the consensus No. 1-ranked female fighter in the world, who improved her pro MMA record to an impressive 20-0 with a third round TKO of Missouri-based jiu-jitsu specialist Sarah Schneider in the evening’s “Female Showcase Fight.”
Schneider turned in a gutsy performance to survive the first two rounds but Fujii took the fight to the ground early on in Round 3, moved quickly to full mount and unleashed a rapid-fire ground-and-pound that forced the stoppage at 1:58. It was Fujii’s first-ever TKO and she admitted afterwards that she was “very surprised” not to have won via submission.
The win cemented Fujii’s position as the overwhelming favorite in Bellator’s upcoming Season 3 women’s tournament, despite the inclusion of a bevy of the world’s top 10 female fighters including 11-1 British tae-kwon-do black belt Rosi Sexton (the world’s No. 1-ranked 125 lbs. female), 12-5 Seattle submission artist Lisa Ward and 7-0 Southern California striker Jessica Pene.
“I will show my skills and I will be the champion,” Fujii told Bellator TV commentator Jimmy Smith after her fight, which also marked her first appearance on national television in the U.S.
In the evening’s first televised bout, a “Heavyweight Showcase Fight,” Seattle-area native Mike “300” Hayes (12-3-1) overcame a 30-pound weight disadvantage to win a unanimous decision victory over former Arena Football League player Steve Banks (4-3). The southpaw Banks used his size to claim the center of the cage and control the fight during Round 1, but he began showing signs of serious fatigue early on in Round 2. Hayes used his superior conditioning to control the fight the rest of the way and earn his fourth straight victory.
Later, in a “Bantamweight Feature Fight,” Philadelphia brawler Zack Makovsky (9-2) defeated local fan favorite and American Top Team product Eric Luke (4-3) with a crafty kimura submission at 4:28 into Round 2. With the win, Makovsky earned a spot in Bellator’s upcoming eight-man Season 3 Bantamweight Tournament.
The event also played host to four Local Feature Fights, a sampling of which will be aired at Bellator.com beginning this Sunday as part of Bellator’s ongoing “Sunday Night Fights” promotion. The results of the local fights were:
- Brian Eckstein def. Mitchell Chamale via unanimous decision
- Moyses Gabin def. Chris Boffil via rear-naked choke submission (4:41)
- Sabah Homasi def. Frank Carrillo via TKO (13:36)
- Luis Palomino def. Jose Figueroa via unanimous decision
Fans who missed Thursday night’s action can watch all the best moments this weekend during special highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2. Check your local listings for exact dates and times.
Bellator returns to action next Thursday night from the Kansas City Power & Light District, where former NCAA wrestling champion and U.S. Olympian Ben Askren faces MMA rising star Dan Hornbuckle in the championship round of Bellator’s Season 2 Welterweight Tournament.
For more information, visit www.Bellator.com follow us on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/BellatorMMA.
MMAjunkie.com Radio welcomes "The Ultimate Fighter 11" correspondent
Josh Bryant to today's show, as well as Bellator Fighting Championships
CEO Bjorn Rebney.
Bryant calls in to discuss Wednesday's two-hour season finale and his
impressive run to the semifinals. Meanwhile, Rebney updates us on the
latest happenings in his organization while previewing tonight's
Bellator 21 event and lightweight tournament final.
MMAjunkie.com Radio airs live from the Mandalay Bay Resort &
Casino's Race & Sports Book. Listen to and watch a video stream of
the two-hour show at www.mmajunkie.com/radio.
CHICAGO, Ill. (June 7, 2010) — Japanese MMA sensation Megumi Fujii, widely regarded as the No. 1 pound-for-pound female fighter in the world, will make her U.S. television debut on Thursday night on FOX Sports Net as part of the LIVE broadcast of Bellator 21 from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla.
The judo and jiu-jitsu black belt will take on 9-3 Kansas City product Sarah Schneider in the hopes of improving her unblemished pro MMA record to 20-0 and notching her 17th career submission win during what will be her first major-promotion fight on U.S. soil.
Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.com and at the Hard Rock Live box office.
The 36-year-old Fujii is also one of four confirmed participants in Bellator’s forthcoming Season 3 Women’s Tournament along with 11-1 British tae-kwon-do black belt Rosi Sexton (the world’s No. 1-ranked 125 lbs. female fighter), 12-5 Seattle submission artist Lisa Ward and 7-0 Southern California striker Jessica Pene. The tournament kicks off in August.
“With our Season 3 Women’s Tournament now just three months away, this fight between Megumi Fujii and Sarah Schneider on Thursday gives U.S. MMA fans their first opportunity to see the woman many believe is the best female fighter in the world,” Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney said. “This fight will be a tough test as she prepares for an extremely strong tournament field. As a fan, I can’t wait to watch on Thursday and in August.”
Fujii was trained in MMA by Shooto veteran Hiroyuki Abe and top heavyweight Josh Barnett and is known for her quick takedowns and skilled submissions. Remarkably, only three of her 19 victories have come by decision with the rest coming via a wide variety of submissions – most frequently the inazuma toe hold, which has been dubbed the “Megulock.”
Fuji said through her translator that she is ecstatic to be fighting under the Bellator banner.
“Bellator is a great organization and they have some excellent competition,” she said. “I’m looking to stick to my game plan, get submissions and win the tournament. That’s my only goal.”
For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator. Tickets are available at www.Ticketmaster.com.
About Bellator Fighting Championships
Bellator Fighting Championships is a Mixed Martial Arts promotional company with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. Bellator’s founder/CEO, Bjorn Rebney, is an experienced fighting sports and entertainment professional with a deep commitment to the purity and integrity of the sport of MMA and its athletes. Bellator Fighting Championships’ executive team is comprised of top industry professionals in the areas of live event production, television production, fighter relations, venue procurement, sponsorship creation/development, international licensing, marketing, advertising, publicity and commission relations.
CHICAGO, Ill. (June 4, 2010) — Jared Hess, whose grit and determination following a gruesome knee injury at Bellator 20 last Thursday won him legions of new fans across the country, said today that he will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery next week and expects to make a full recovery in 4 to 6 months.
Hess revealed that he sustained the injury – a third-degree tear of the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) – early on in the first round of his Middleweight Tournament semifinal fight against Alexander Shlemenko. Still, he somehow managed to soldier on through the pain for a round-and-a-half until the knee buckled at the conclusion of Round 2 and the referee stepped in to stop the fight.
“The thing is, I really didn’t even feel it at the time … I don’t know if it was my adrenaline, but all I could think about was trying to finish that guy,” Hess said. “I had a chance to watch it on TV after the fight and I think it really looked a lot worse than it is. It’s a bad tear, but the three other ligaments (the ACL, the PCL and the MCL) are all fine. My spirits are high, and I have no doubt in my mind that I’ll be back in the cage soon. The thing I’m most upset about is that, in my eyes, I was winning that fight. I’d love to get a rematch with [Shlemenko] once I come back.”
Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney, meanwhile, vowed that Hess “will always have a home with Bellator,” calling the 26-year-old Oklahoman “the personification of the Bellator spirit.”
“Jared Hess is really a throwback to the kind of warrior mentality that existed long ago. You don’t see that very often in sports today and, when you do, it speaks loudly to the power of the human spirit and the will to win,” Rebney said. “I can’t say enough about the character that Jared displayed in our cage last week. His level of courage, determination and never-say-die spirit is something very special to see. Immediately after his knee buckled and the referee forced Jared to sit down, he turned to me and started asking me to step in and tell the referee that he should be allowed to finish the fight. He did exactly the same thing last year in his championship fight against Hector Lombard, when he argued with the doctor to let him keep fighting with a gaping cut on his head. I’m proud that Jared is a part of our organization and I am 100 percent confident that he’ll be back fighting again under the Bellator banner better than ever following his rehab.”
For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator.
CHICAGO, Ill. (June 1, 2010) — Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that it will bring the much-anticipated finale of its highly successful second season to the Fourth Street Live entertainment district in downtown Louisville, Ky., on June 24th.
The event—which will be broadcast LIVE on FOX Sports Net and during weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and mun2—marks the first time ever that a major national mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion has staged an event in the Bluegrass State.
It will also mark the first time that a live sporting event will be held at Fourth Street Live, a state-of-the-art, open-air, mixed-use entertainment venue owned and managed by The Cordish Company.
Tickets are on sale now at Ticketsweb.com.
“If you’ve ever been to Fourth Street Live, I think you can envision what a spectacular and exciting event this is going to be,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “We are extremely proud to be partnering with The Cordish Company to bring the Bellator brand of MMA to Louisville and the hundreds of thousands of MMA fans in the Greater Louisville area.”
The evening will feature two championship fights in Bellator’s ongoing Season 2 Middleweight and Featherweight Tournaments.
In the first fight, world champion Greco-Roman wrestler and former NCAA all-American Joe Warren (4-1) will face undefeated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black-belt Patricio Pitbull (14-0) in the Featherweight Tournament Finals. The winner will earn the title of No. 1 Contender to reigning Bellator Featherweight Champion Joe Soto (9-0) and the chance to face Soto in a title fight later this year.
Then, in the Middleweight Tournament Finals, 13-1 WEC veteran Bryan “The Beast” Baker looks to continue his seven-fight winning streak when he squares off with Russian striker Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko (29-4). The winner will earn the title of No. 1 Contender to reigning Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard (25-2-1) and the chance to face Lombard in a title fight later this year.
In the spirit of Rocky Balboa, the Louisville card will also include six “Local Feature Fights” showcasing top up-and-coming fighters from Louisville, Cincinnati and Southern Indiana with selected winners qualifying to compete at future Bellator events. Competitors will be announced over the coming weeks.
This is the final event in Bellator’s 12-week-long second season. Season 3 kicks off on Aug. 12 in Hollywood, Fla.
Bellator has also held highly successful Season 2 events in Miami, Chicago, Kansas City, Boston, Dallas and San Antonio this year.
For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at Facebook.com/Bellator.
Bellator Fighting Championship's traditional post-event press conference
for Thursday's Bellator 20 event takes place tonight, and you can watch
a live video stream of the presser on MMAjunkie.com.
Tonight's press conference takes place at the Majestic Theatre in San
Antonio, Texas, and the Bellator-provided stream begins at approximately
11 p.m. ET (8 p.m. PT).
Taking part in tonight's event are Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney and the big
winners from Bellator 20.
On Tuesday, Bellator Fighting Championship announced the addition of female 115 pound fighter Angela Magana (9-4) to their upcoming Bellator Season 3 Women’s Tournament which kicks off in August.
MMAjunkie.com Radio welcomes "The Ultimate Fighter 11" correspondent
Bellator Fighting Championship's traditional post-event press conference