The welterweight tournament will begin in September.
On September 29th, Gegard Mousasi will defend his Bellator MMA Middleweight Championship against Welterweight Champion Rory MacDonald but Bellator has announced there will be more to the event. The LA Times reported that Bellator MMA will be starting a eight-man Welterweight Tournament on that night. The report also said MacDonald will take part in the tournament after his fight against Mousasi and the fights will extend into 2019.
Even though there have been high-profile welterweight bouts rumored for the September 29th event, the report was unable to confirm any more names of fighters who are officially in the tournament. The report did suggest names like Paul Daley, Michael Page, Douglas Lima, and Andrey Koreshkov.
Bellator used to be a mixed-martial-arts promotion which used tournaments almost exclusively to determine the challengers to Championships. The company stopped with that format to only start to include the occasional tournament like the 2018 Heavyweight Grand Prix with the introduction of Scott Coker to Bellator.
As September 29th nears, Fightful MMA will continue to provide information on the competitors of the Welterweight tournament and when the bouts will occur.
