Jorge Masvidal signs with the Bellator Fighting Championships
December 2, 2008 by Sam Caplan
Lightweight brawler Jorge Masvidal is the latest fighter to join the ranks of the Bellator Fighting Championships, which is scheduled to premiere in April on ESPN Deportes.
Masvidal is a heavy-handed striker that trains out of American Top Team in Florida. The Miami native is 16-3 during a pro MMA career that began in 2003. He has competed for major promotions such as BodogFIGHT, Strikeforce, and World Victory Road’s Sengoku.
Masvidal is 2-0 in his last two fights and 10-1 in his last eleven fights with his lone defeat during that span coming against Rodrigo Damm at Sengoku 3 this past June. Since the loss, Masvidal has recorded a TKO win over former IFL lightweight champion Ryan Schultz at Sengoku 5 and a unanimous decision victory over Seung Hwan Bang at Sengoku 6.
His most notable wins have come against current UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon at Absolute Fighting Championships 12 and former UFC and EliteXC lightweight title contender Yves Edwards during a Bodog event in July of 2007.
Masvidal will join Eddie Alvarez as the core of the promotion’s lightweight division. Despite both having competed at the same time for the now-defunct Bodog promotion, the two have never faced each other.
Bellator, which is Latin for Warrior, will hold eight-man tournaments at featherweight (145 pounds), lightweight (155 pounds), welterweight (170 pounds) and middleweight (185 pounds). The single elimination tournaments will be televised over the course of 12 weeks on Disney-owned ESPN Deportes, a Spanish language version of ESPN.
According to a recent press release, each tournament winner will be able to earn up to $175,000 for three wins. Fighters eliminated from tournament competition will also be well-compensated with opening round winners receiving $25,000, semi-finalists getting $50,000, and finalists netting $100,000.
In addition to Alvarez and Masvidal, FiveOuncesOfPain.com was the first to officially report the signing of welterweight prospect Lyman Good to the Bellator roster. This site was also the first to report the imminent signing of EliteXC bantamweight champion Wilson Reis to the upstar promotion. Bellator also reportedly has interest in former WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho and standout Cuban Judoka Hector Lombard.
Looks like Bellator is building a base with some quality fighters, we’ll see if it works out in the long run, or goes the way of WFC, IFL, EliteXC.
Wish I got ESPN deportes, I could work on my Spanish and watch some good fights at the same time.
I’ve watched several shows with Japanese and Korean commentary.So I don’t think I’ll mind watching events in Spanish in doesn’t bother me if the fights are good.Sometimes I don’t understand what Mike Goldberg is talking about and he’s speaking English.
i dont see them filling out their ranks with quality fighters.
WHY?
I see bellator making it big if they play theyre cards right. The latino group is still heavily involved in boxing, and has yet to favor mma. There is alot of potential in winning the latino crowd over, best of luck to you bellator because I think I speak for alot of us when I say how much I hate Dana dyke!!