Bellator Heavyweight Tournament: Frank Mir vs Fedor Emelianenko In The Works

Bellator MMA made a historic announcement yesterday when they revealed they will be hosting an eight man tournament in 2018 to decide their new heavyweight champion.

MMAJunkie.com yesterday revealed that the tournament will feature Frank Mir, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Fedor Emelianenko, Chael Sonnen, Ryan Bader, Roy Nelson, Matt Mitrione and Muhammed Lawal. The tournament will be known as the Bellator MMA Grand Prix 2018 and will begin in January with the intention of the final being held in December.

“This is going to be something that’s iconic for us,” Coker told MMAJunkie. “Tournaments, traditionally, are kind of the way martial arts contests happen. Now we get to put eight iconic brand names in our sport together over a year, and then whoever wins will be crowned the heavyweight champion.”

“I think there are certain fights that people want to see. Believe me, we’re going to have some amazing matchups in this tournament. These fights that we’re going to put together are something that the fans want to see. These are iconic names, big brands.”

Just 24-hours later Mir revealed on his ‘Phone Booth Fight Podcast” that his first round fight will see him take on Emelianenko in April. Denis Geyko of RT Sports first announced the news on Twitter and MMAFighting.com followed up shortly reporting that the bout was verbally agreed, but that contracts had not yet been signed.