Written by Charles Csizmadia Jr.
For many years, the UFC light heavyweight division was concentrated with star power with names like Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, and Rampage Jackson. Nowadays, especially with Jon Jones moving up to heavyweight, the division's names lack draw. Concurrently, Bellator has added some big names over the past several years to bolster their light heavyweight roster, announcing a Grand Prix to take place this year, starting in just over two weeks. Why is this the highly-anticipated Grand Prix so captivating to MMA fans and pundits across the globe?
Chances are if you are reading this, you are aware that weight classes were not exactly a thing in the dark ages of MMA. Once they were though, they started out heavy, adding more and more weight classes as time went on and the talent pool grew more diverse.
One thing was for certain: Light heavyweight was the deepest and most enthralling division. The first UFC light heavyweight champion was crowned in 1997 in Frank Shamrock, who reigned for several years.
With his departure from the promotion, a young and brash “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” burst onto the scene, as Tito Ortiz would win the title and make five defenses before losing the belt to Randy Couture, the only man to have won a belt in two separate weight classes in the UFC at the time.
“The Iceman” Chuck Liddell followed, then Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, Shogun Rua…
Then a young man by the name of Jon “Bones” Jones would change the landscape of the UFC and mixed martial arts forever. The then soft-spoken athlete out of Jackson Wink MMA in Albuquerque had just one blemish on his record up to that point, a disqualification loss due to the illegal “12-to-6 elbows” to the back of Matt Hamill’s head in 2009.
Once capturing UFC gold in 2011, Jones would never allow another man to take it from him, that is, besides himself. He would go on to beat many of the names mentioned, legend after legend, racking up title defense after title defense. His dominance continued while the ushering of the new generation of fighters commenced.
Then he popped for PEDS, and cocaine, and got in a DUI, and a hit-and-run of a pregnant woman and the list goes on and on. I cannot even tell you the order in which all of these incidents happened.
Daniel Cormier served as a proficient champion in his absence, but given a loss to Jones, which would have been two if it were not for the positive test that overturned the second Jones victory to a no-contest, he just could garner the respect he deserved.
After Jones' return in 2018, he just did not look the same, and the challengers to his throne also dropped in name value. You went from former titleholders in Rampage, Shogun, even further along with future double-champ DC, to names like Thiago Santos, Anthony Smith, and Dominick Reyes.
Finally, we find ourselves where we are today. Jones vacates and makes a long-yearned for move to heavyweight to try to solidify his case as the greatest of all time. Jan Blachowicz has a career resurgence to claim the title and makes his first defense against middleweight superstar Israel Adesanya.
Blachowicz will next fight Glover Teixeira, a 41-year-old that has lost to three Bellator light heavyweights and Jones, a loss that came in his prime. Nobody else around him has really made a strong case to be next in line.
The UFC light heavyweight division has suddenly gone from the talk of the town to one of the dullest divisions in the sport, which marks the perfect time for Bellator to make a splash, and boy did they.
Former Strikeforce CEO and current Bellator boss Scott Coker is quite a fan of the Grand Prix. As I write this, Bellator is in their final stages of a Featherweight Grand Prix with rising star AJ McKee waiting in the trenches for the winner of the champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire versus Emmanuel Sanchez, which goes down April 2nd. The winner will face McKee in the final.
With all of the additions made, Coker had no choice but to jump on the opportunity for his light heavyweights. The promotion signed four-time UFC title challenger, eight-time UFC bonus winner, and Olympic silver medalist Yoel Romero, along with two-time UFC title challenger, eight-time UFC bonus winner, and knockout machine Anthony “Rumble” Johnson this year.
Their roster already employed the talents of former UFC contender and Bellator champion Phil Davis, former UFC contender, Bellator light heavyweight champion, and current Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader, former UFC champion Lyoto Machida, former UFC contender Corey Anderson, and their current light heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov, protege to PRIDE legend and the greatest heavyweight to never fight for the UFC, Fedor Emelianenko.
Sure, there is an outstanding drop-off after these guys, but this group of men is a lot more decorated and accomplished than the UFC elite in the division, and I am willing to bet some of them may even be able to do damage against the top UFC talent given the chance.
Many were fascinated by the spectacle of Rumble vs. Romero but were unsure after the signings if or when they would meet. When news of a potential Grand Prix being put together spread, fans assumed the two would likely be placed on opposite sides of the bracket with hopes of meeting in the final.
Then, the bracket dropped. The longtime UFC fan-favorites were paired up with each other in the first round, set for April 16th.
At first, I was bummed at the thought of one getting eliminated so early, but then I realized: Bellator is genius. Instead of having fans wait to see if it was ever going to happen, they ensured MMA fans across the globe that it would happen no matter what.
They know the windows of their careers are closing, so they decided to give us “dessert before dinner”, as MMA personality Luke Thomas so eloquently put it.
Then you have the champion. Vadim Nemkov is only 28 years old and has finished 11 of his 12 wins, including a dominant outing against Ryan Bader last August to win the belt. Being such a young and exciting budding star, you know any other top MMA promotion would love to have him aboard.
His only losses date back five years ago, one via split decision and a stoppage loss to surging fifth-ranked UFC light heavyweight Jiri Prochazka in the 2015 Rizin Heavyweight Grand Prix Semifinal. Nemkov had Prochazka hurt and nearly finished the bout more than once, but an arm injury sustained from a late armbar attempt by Prochazka forced a doctor stoppage.
Nemkov was only a fresh 23-year-old at the time and has improved tremendously since.
He takes on Phil Davis, who has victories over Glover Teixeira, the number one contender in the UFC, Lyoto Machida twice, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and Alexander Gustafsson. He only has three losses since 2014, all split decisions to the former champ Bader (twice) and Nemkov.
Next, we go to the aforementioned Bader. Ryan Bader, though losing his last time out to Nemkov decisively, has had a career resurgence since moving from the UFC to Bellator.
The decorated former Arizona State wrestler had only lost twice since 2013 and was undefeated in his Bellator run before Nemkov. He won the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix to become a two-weight division champ, still holding claim to that belt.
He faces Lyoto Machida in a rematch to a 2012 KO loss that he has wanted to avenge for quite some time.
Machida has been mentioned many times throughout this piece. He is a 24-fight UFC veteran and will be making his third walk to the Bellator cage April 9th. He is a nine-time UFC bonus winner and a former UFC champion with one title defense to his name.
Machida has wins over Bellator middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi, Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson, Ryan Bader, Randy Couture, Shogun Rua, Rashad Evans, Tito Ortiz, Rich Franklin, and an openweight bout with BJ Penn in 2005.
Every single one of those men has held a major title in mixed martial arts besides Chael Sonnen, who came awfully close to defeating Anderson Silva in their first meeting for UFC gold, as well as defeated WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho in 2008 in a non-title bout due to Filho missing weight.
In the last rung of the Bellator Light Heavyweight Grand Prix, we have Corey Anderson versus Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov.
Corey Anderson is a 15-fight UFC vet, The Ultimate Fighter Season 19 winner, and two-time UFC bonus winner. He has wins over Glover Teixeira and Jan Blachowicz. Up until his knockout loss to Blachowicz in their rematch, his last fight in the UFC, Anderson had been in the title conversation for quite some time.
Now with one fight under his belt in his new home of Bellator, he looks to rejuvenate his career after making easy work of Melvin Manhoef in November.
Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov is the lone “no-name” participating in the Grand Prix. I, for one, had not heard of him until the announcement.
The Turkmenistanian fighter is 18-5-1, with 15 of his 18 wins coming by finish (11 knockouts, four submissions). He has not been defeated since 2015, the longest time without a loss for any of the fighters participating. There are no notable names amongst his victories, but he took 7th-ranked UFC light heavyweight Magomed Ankalaev to a decision in 2014.
These eight men are without a doubt competing in the most exciting action at 205 pounds in the foreseeable future of the sport. It will be interesting to see how the Grand Prix plays out, I for sure will be tuning in.
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