Bellator institutes 'tournament champion replacement clause' for title fights

While officials don’t expect it to use it very often, Bellator MMA has instituted a new rule to dictate which fighters get title shots if tournament winners aren’t available.

Dubbed a “tournament champion replacement clause,” the system grants title shots to replacement fighters when tournament winners are injured or otherwise unavailable for their promised title shots.

Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney unveiled the plan on Monday, stressing, “I don’t expect this situation to occur very often, but when it does – in those unexpected (‘worst case scenario’) circumstances – we owe it to our champions to have a fair format in place to ensure that our champion doesn’t have to wait for his world title defense when that occurs.”

The points and voting system includes:

Bellator will refer to the most recent completed tournament (in the instance of a four-man tournament being the most recent tournament, we would expand this to be the most recent two tournaments), and tabulate tournament points based on the following criteria with fighters that are still under contract with Bellator:

- For every decision victory, fighter will record one point – For every KO/TKO/submission win in the third round, fighter will record two points
- For every KO/TKO/submission win in the second round, fighter will record three points
- For every KO/TKO/submission in the first round, fighter will record four points

From the above list, the top three point earners in the applicable weight class in which a replacement title challenger must be determined will be chosen. Bellator MMA executives may also include a fourth fighter on the ballot as well. This list of four will comprise the list of available fighters for the title shot.

Once the list has been established, three different groups, each holding 33 percent voting power, will vote on who rightfully deserves a shot at the Bellator World Title:

- Current Bellator MMA world champions (including the champion in the division under consideration)
- Current Bellator MMA tournament winners
- Bellator executives, including CEO Rebney, President Tim Danaher and the top two executives on Bellator’s talent development team, Sam Caplan and Zach Light

Once the voting concludes, the winning fighter will be booked for the available title fight.

“By employing this new format adjustment to our existing tournament structure, Bellator will be able to determine new title challengers in the event of a catastrophic injury situation while still remaining true to its core belief that politics should not play a role in determining who fights for a world title,” Rebney stated in the announcement. “This formula will also allow Bellator to gain input from some of the most credible pundits around: the fighters themselves.”

The clause is the second one Bellator has added to its championship structure since its launch. In November, the organization announced a clause that allows Rebney to book title-fight rematches when he feels they’re warranted. The recently announced Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez championship rematch, for example, was recently booked for Bellator 106 even though Alvarez didn’t win a tournament after the initial loss.

For more on Bellator’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Bjorn Rebney)