{"id":189360,"date":"2016-03-14T11:27:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T18:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=189360"},"modified":"2016-03-14T11:27:43","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T18:27:43","slug":"breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Matt Mitrione leaves the UFC for Bellator MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bellator MMA has acquired another big name from the UFC following the signing of former UFC lightweight champion <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/benson-henderson\/breaking-benson-henderson-announces-move-bellator-mma\/\">Benson Henderson<\/a> and MMA legend <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/wanderlei-silva\/breaking-wanderlei-silva-ends-retirement-signs-bellator-mma\/\">Wanderlei Silva<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Former NFL player and UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione announced his decision to sign with Bellator MMA on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2016\/3\/14\/11223028\/former-ufc-heavyweight-matt-mitrione-signs-with-bellator-mma\" target=\"_blank\">MMA Hour<\/a> on Monday. <\/p>\n<p>Mitrione said that the UFC did not come up with a match of what Bellator was offering him and he decided to go with the best choice for his career.<\/p>\n<p>Mitrione holds a professional record of 9-5 and grew in the UFC as one of the stars of The Ultimate Fighter season 10 series.<\/p>\n<p>While Mitrione is coming off two losses, he is <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/matt-mitrione-officially-appeals-tko-loss-to-travis-browne\/\">appealing his last loss<\/a> to Travis Browne as Mitrione was on the receiving end of some controversial eye pokes that he says played a major role in the outcome of the fight.<\/p>\n<p>Mitrione will look to make a statement in the Bellator heavyweight division and prove his worth to the promotion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bellator MMA has acquired another big name from the UFC following the signing of former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson and MMA legend Wanderlei Silva. Former NFL player and UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione announced his decision to sign with Bellator MMA on the MMA Hour on Monday. Mitrione said that the UFC did not come [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54422,"featured_media":182769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10220],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Matt Mitrione leaves the UFC for Bellator MMA | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Matt Mitrione leaves the UFC for Bellator MMA | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bellator MMA has acquired another big name from the UFC following the signing of former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson and MMA legend Wanderlei Silva. Former NFL player and UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione announced his decision to sign with Bellator MMA on the MMA Hour on Monday. Mitrione said that the UFC did not come [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-14T18:27:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Mitrione-wins.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Russell Ess\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Russell Ess\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Russell Ess\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/38bb728c4095a34ce673601d63c55be3\"},\"headline\":\"BREAKING: Matt Mitrione leaves the UFC for Bellator MMA\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-14T18:27:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-14T18:27:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/\"},\"wordCount\":169,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Matt Mitrione\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/\",\"name\":\"BREAKING: Matt Mitrione leaves the UFC for Bellator MMA | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-14T18:27:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-14T18:27:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/breaking-matt-mitrione-leaves-ufc-bellator-mma\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Matt Mitrione\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/matt-mitrione\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"BREAKING: Matt Mitrione leaves the UFC for Bellator MMA\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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Former NFL player and UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione announced his decision to sign with Bellator MMA on the MMA Hour on Monday. 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