After being stripped of Bellator title, Brandon Halsey claims he's 'still the champ'

Brandon Halsey

Ex-champ Brandon Halsey was punished for missing weight for his Bellator middleweight title fight earlier this year when he was stripped of his title belt.

“The Bull” said he learned a lesson about professionalism from the situation, but losing the belt didn’t have a particularly devastating impact on his life or career – especially because he has the chance to regain the gold one fight later at Bellator 144.

“I was always the champion; you have to get your belt taken from you by losing, not because of some controversy,” Halsey told MMAjunkie. “I’m still the champ in my eyes and I always believed it. No one has beaten me for the belt, so being stripped didn’t bug me too much.

“It’s a technicality. It wasn’t like I lost the belt because I took a loss. You have to get our belt taken from you and I never lost. I’m still the champ in my eyes.”

Halsey (9-0 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) meets Rafael Carvalho (11-1 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) for the vacant 185-pound belt in Bellator 144’s headliner on Oct. 23. The main card airs on Spike TV following prelims on MMAjunkie at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

After he captured the belt in September 2014, Halsey was tabbed for his first title defense against Kendall Grove at Bellator 137 in May. His weight cut was made more difficult by a leg injury suffered during training camp, and ultimately he was unable to drop to the required 185-pound limit.

Bellator officials took swift action against the 29-year-old. Halsey was stripped of the belt, but was still allowed to fight. He stopped Grove by fourth-round TKO to keep his undefeated record in tact, but his reputation was tarnished by the mishap.

Instead of allowing the situation to consume him, Halsey said he focused on moving past the unfortunate event. He wanted to figure out how to be better going forward.

“There was a bunch of crap going on behind the scenes; I try not to dwell on it,” Halsey said. “I definitely learnt what to do and what not to do and how everything goes. I took away the positives from it and I don’t like to dwell on it. That’s what a champion does is overcome adversity. I just took away that you can always make yourself stronger.

“I’m a wrestler, of the thousands and thousands of weigh-ins I’ve done over the years, I’ve never missed weight once in my life. That was something hard to take away from the fight. I carried it on my sleeve a little bit because it was hard for me to take, missing weight. There was factors, but I’m not going to let it hold me back, that’s not who I am. It was tough fighting in the moment, trying to deal with that emotionally, I tried not to carry it into the fight but it’s something I had to deal with.”

Although the belt is no longer in his possession, Halsey made is clear he still believes he’s the best middleweight on the Bellator roster. He plans to prove as much against Carvalho, who was placed in the title fight after a victory over Joe Schilling at Bellator 136 in April.

Halsey is confident he’ll regain the gold and said he has grand aspirations for his second title reign. After Bellator free agent signings of notables such as Phil Davis, Josh Koscheck and Josh Thomson, Halsey hopes the organization will sign middleweight talent with similar name value.

When evaluating his own career, Halsey said he wants to compete in big fights on Bellator’s “tent pole” events so he gains more notoriety and popularity. He knows that’s a challenging task with Bellator’s current crop of middleweights, which is why he hopes the division expands in the future.

“The goal is to headline one of these big shows,” Halsey said. “They have the big event on New Years in Japan, and those are the cards I want to be on. Those are the cards where people will really get to see me in a main or co-main event. My goal is to be the main event of every single one of those big shows.

“I’m hoping they get some big-name guys because I want to test myself against the best. I’m hoping they throw someone big at me and I look forward to the challenge.”

For more on Bellator 144, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.