What Should Bellator Do With The Vacated Middleweight Title?

What Should Bellator Do With The Vacated Middleweight Title?

By Dan McConnell

It was recently announced that newly-crowned Bellator middleweight champion Rafael ‘Lovato’ Jr has been forced to relinquish the 185-pound title, due to complications with a brain scan that has cut his career short and was recently discussed on the Joe Rogan podcast.

The 36-year old was signed by Bellator MMA in 2017 and went on to defeat former champion Gegard Mousasi in June of 2019 in a huge upset.

A 10-fight career was cut short due to brain complications, which have been tricky passing medical tests for Lovato who made the transition to MMA after a hugely successful Jiu-Jitsu career.

This throws up the question what will Bellator’s next move be? And who will fight for the recently vacated title?

Should we see a middleweight Grand Prix or possible super-fight?

Mostly recently Bellator have returned to the old PRIDE FC method of crowning a champion. The tournament format has been re-invigorated by President Scott Coker, with the Bellator heavyweight and featherweight Grand Prix’s which have thrown up some excellent match-ups and entertainment.

Names such as Chael Sonnen, Rampage Jackson, Fedor Emeliamenko, Ryan Bader and Frank Mir have brought back entertainment to the Bellator heavyweight division. While a similar format was created to crowd the Bellator featherweight champion, which is currently ongoing.

Adam Borcis, Juan Archuleta, Patricio Freire, AJ McKee and Darrion Caldwell have given fight fights an excellent Grand Prix so far to crown who will be the best featherweight in the world.

The Bellator middleweight division includes huge names such as former champion Gegard Mousasi, the newly acquired Lyoto Machida, unbeaten Englishman Fabian Edwards, Ireland’s Charlie Ward, the undefeated Austin Vanderford, American John Salter and current welterweight champion Douglas Lima, who has hinted at a move up in weight to become a two-weight world champion!

Bellator have the option to select the two top contenders who deserve a title shot or create a middleweight Grand Prix which has been hugely successful in the past.

For entertainment, excitement and enthralling drama I think the tournament format should be the next step upon the completion of the featherweight tournament later this year. But if the organisation decides to book two top contenders against each other soon, I would make the Gegard Mousasi vs Douglas Lima super-fight right away!

The organisation has a whole realm of possibilities. It all comes down to timing and matchmaking in order to figure out the 185-pound title conundrum.