Bellator announces opening round of Featherweight World Grand Prix

The Bellator Featherweight World Grand Prix tournament is about to get underway this Fall, and President Scott Coker just announced the opening round matchups in the tournament. Speaking to Ariel Helwani of ESPN, Coker announced all eight fights with the 16 featherweight tournament participants which will be split up between two events in September.

Breaking: @ScottCoker just announced the first-round matchups for @BellatorMMA's 16-man featherweight grand prix (via @arielhelwani) pic.twitter.com/lOXPbYnzzI

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 15, 2019

On September 7 at SAP Center in San Jose, California, the tournament will begin at Bellator 226 with the following four matchups including two former champions, Daniel Straus and Pat Curran returning to the cage.

• Daniel Straus vs Derek Campos
• Sam Sicilia vs Pedro Carvalho
• Emmanuel Sanchez vs Tywan Claxton
• Pat Curran vs Adam Borics

The Featherweight World Grand Prix will continue on September 28 at The Forum in Inglewood, California featuring the current champion putting his title on the line.

• (Champion) Patricio Pitbull vs Juan Archuleta (5-round title fight)
• Daniel Weichel vs Saul Rogers
• AJ McKee vs Georgi Karakhanyan
• Darrion Caldwell vs Henry Corrales

Scott Coker also announced that the second round matchups will be selected through a random draw that fans will be able to watch live. The Featherweight World Grand Prix is expected to conclude in September 2020.

Notably absent from the featherweight tournament is prospect Aaron Pico who suffered his second consecutive loss at Bellator 222 in June.

Scott Coker also included in his conversation with ESPN that the Featherweight World Grand Prix will be streamed exclusively on DAZN.

Patricio Pitbull’s featherweight title will be on the line throughout the tournament as the promotion’s second-ever double champ looks to build off his win over Michael Chandler earlier this year at Bellator 221.

When the Featherweight World Grand Prix kicks off at Bellator 226 in September, the main event will be a heavyweight title fight between Ryan Bader and Cheick Kongo. Bader won the Bellator Heavyweight World Grand Prix and became the promotion’s first champion to hold two titles in two separate weight divisions.

Now that the opening round fights have been announced, which ones are you most excited for?

on 7/15/2019