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QUOTE Former Midwest Cage Championship featherweight champion Eric Marriott (17-2) is the eighth and final fighter to join Bellator Fighting Championships' season-two featherweight tournament.
first reported the likelihood of Marriott's involvement this past November, and Bellator officials today made an official announcement.
The Team Grindhouse fighter brings a nine-fight win streak to the eight-man bracket.
Marriott has fought at a torrid pace since turning professional in 2008, and he competed 11 times during 2009 while earning victories in 10 of the contests. Fighting on just two-weeks' rest at times, the grueling tournament format of Bellator will likely prove just fine for Marriott.
"I've been working all my career to get signed by a big-time promotion like Bellator," Marriott stated in today's release. "Bellator has gotten a lot of recognition over the past few months from the fans and from the fighters as well, and it's very well-deserved.
"It's a great organization for me because there's not a lot of politics. If you keep winning, you keep fighting, and I really like that."
Marriott, just 23 years old, owns eight of his career wins by submission, as well as another two stoppage wins by knockout or TKO.
Bellator already announced season-one runner-up Wilson Reis (9-1), Shad Lierley (5-2),Bao Quach (17-9-1), Patricio "Pitbull" Freire (12-0), Georgi "Insane" Karakhanyan (12-1-1), William Romero (5-0) and Joe Warren (2-1) for the season-two featherweight tourney, which runs during the 12-week season. The winner gets a shot at season-one champ Joe Soto's featherweight title.
While all eight competitors in the promotion's 145-pound field are now official, brackets for the tournament have yet to be announced.
Bellator's second season, which commences in April, airs live on FOX Sports Net affiliates on Thursday nights, and highlights packages air on NBC and Telemundo over the weekend. The organization also recently announced it will air on The Score Television Network in Canada, though exact deals of the deal have yet to be released.
Bellator's second and third seasons take place in 2010 and run for 12 weeks each |
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