{"id":263467,"date":"2017-11-10T07:26:28","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T15:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=263467"},"modified":"2017-11-10T07:26:28","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T15:26:28","slug":"breaking-bellator-will-crown-new-champion-heavyweight-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/breaking-bellator-will-crown-new-champion-heavyweight-grand-prix\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING | Bellator Will Crown a New Champion with Heavyweight Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

The grand prix is the pinnacle of combat sport. It is the most difficult tournament format and has the potential to produce absolutely chaotic results. That chaos is why that, for the most part other than Japan’s RIZIN, the creation of an MMA grand prix is few and far between. However, there is a man who has never strayed from that chaos, but welcomes it to put on exciting fights throughout the years. That man is Scott Coker and he is at it again. Bellator will put on a heavyweight grand prix to crown its first heavyweight champion in four years.<\/p>\n

“This is going to be something that\u2019s iconic for us. Tournaments, traditionally, are kind of the way martial arts contests happen. Now we get to put eight iconic brand names in our sport together over a year, and then whoever wins will be crowned the heavyweight champion.\u00a0<\/span>I think there are certain fights that people want to see. Believe me, we\u2019re going to have some amazing match-ups in this tournament. These fights that we\u2019re going to put together are something that the fans want to see. These are iconic names, big brands.”\u00a0\u2014 Scott Coker speaking to MMA Junkie<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who are these eight iconic names who will be fighting in the heavyweight grand prix? Former UFC fighters Frank Mir, Roy Nelson and Matt Mitrione will all be in the tournament along with greatest-of-all-time candidate, Fedor Emelianenko. Light heavyweight fighters on the roster are also jumping up to participate in this glorious grand prix. Newly-signed Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson<\/a>, Muhammad ‘King Mo’ Lawal, Chael Sonnen and even current Bellator light heavyweight champion\u00a0<\/span>Ryan Bader will all attempt to win the Bellator heavyweight title.<\/p>\n

The date of the first heavyweight grand prix bracket will be announced soon for 2018. This huge tournament will kick-off with Bellator\u2019s events on Spike’s new re-branded Paramount Network launching in January.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Scott Coker signed on with Bellator in 2014, we knew that he would constantly innovate and bring new and creative ideas to the promotion. The heavyweight grand prix is a perfect example of that. The tournament will provide outstanding sports content for the soon-to-launch Paramount Network in 2018, and we\u2019re excited about delivering this type of entertainment to our viewers.\u201d\u00a0\u2014 Spike Senior Vice President of Sports and Specials Jon Slusser speaking to MMA Junkie<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 11\/10\/2017<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The grand prix is the pinnacle of combat sport. It is the most difficult tournament format and has the potential to produce absolutely chaotic results. That chaos is why that, for the most part other than Japan’s RIZIN, the creation of an MMA grand prix is few and far between. However, there is a man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54442,"featured_media":223723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,10121,10230,10197,10172],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBREAKING | Bellator Will Crown a New Champion with Heavyweight Grand Prix | 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\/bellator\/breaking-bellator-will-crown-new-champion-heavyweight-grand-prix\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING | Bellator Will Crown a New Champion with Heavyweight Grand Prix | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The grand prix is the pinnacle of combat sport. It is the most difficult tournament format and has the potential to produce absolutely chaotic results. That chaos is why that, for the most part other than Japan’s RIZIN, the creation of an MMA grand prix is few and far between. However, there is a man […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/breaking-bellator-will-crown-new-champion-heavyweight-grand-prix\/\" \/>\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=\"2017-11-10T15:26:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Fedor-Emelianenko-Matt-Mitrione.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=\"Justin Golightly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" 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