Bellator MMA still growing, and a couple of divisions figure to be a big part of that.
The company has long teased women's titles, and currently is without a Bellator Heavyweight Champion. With this Friday's Bellator 163 featuring the likes of Marloes Coenen and Sergei Kharitonov, Fightful.com took the time to ask Bellator Preisdent Scott Coker about the plans in those two divisions.
"We tried to put the Marloes Coenen fight with Julia Budd together, but there was an injury and it didn't work out," Coker told Fightful.com of a rumored Women's Featherweight title. "Marloes fought and the girl she fought (Alexis Dufresne) was a little heavy, so it was outside the weight class. Julia just fought, Marloes is going to fight and we're going to come back and revisit that whole division."
Former Heavyweight Champion Vitaly Minakov was stripped of his title earlier this year due to inactivity. With well-known names such as Bobby Lashley, Matt Mitrione, Sergei Kharitonov and Cheick Kongo on the Bellator roster, Coker said that heavyweight plans will be set in motion sooner, rather than later.
"That's something we're working on right now. We're pretty diligent about putting something together. I can promise you in the first quarter of next year, we're going to make some moves on that division," Coker said.
Bellator 163 takes place November 5 from Uncasville, Connecticut, and features Phil Davis and Liam McGeary headlining.
