Bellator’s $100,000 Lightweight Tournament Begins From Portland’s Rose Garden Arena Friday, September 27th

Newport Beach, CA. (July 24, 2013) –  The Toughest Tournament In Sports continues as Portland’s Rose Garden Arena plays hosts to Bellator MMA on Friday, September 27^th. The night will showcase the opening round of the Bellator Lightweight Tournament, as well as stacked preliminary card.

Tickets for the event are on sale Friday at 10 a.m. and can be purchased by visiting the Rose Garden Arena Box Office. The event will broadcast LIVE starting at 6 p.m. PST on Spike, as well as in Spanish language on mun2. The preliminary card will be streamed LIVE and FREE on Spike.com starting at 4 p.m. PST.

No stranger to the MMA game, Marcus Davis will use his veteran talent as he faces Russian submission artist Tiger Sarnavskiy. Davis is well aware of the opportunity at stake for his future, but will have to hold off Sarnavskiy, who holds an impressive 24-1 professional record.

After spending only 74 seconds in the cage with two first round knockouts last season, but falling to David Rickels in the Season 8 Tournament Final, Saad Awad is ready for redemption. Awad will face UK striker Martin Stapleton, who enters the fight riding an eight fight win streak and brings an impressive 12-1 record to the cage.

“Bellator always brings top tier athletes from around the world and I’m excited that I get to be a part of this upcoming tournament again,” Awad said. “I’ve added a few things to my arsenal and I can’t wait to showcase them and put on a great show.”

Fan favorite Will Brooks will also return to the big stage and battle MMA veteran John Alessio. After suffering just the first loss of his professional career in the Season 8 Lightweight Tournament Semifinal to Saad Awad, Brooks is ready to get back under the bright lights.

“I just want to get back in the winner circle,” Brooks said. “I have some unfinished business from last season and I am going to keep it simple, to the point and devastating for every fight. I need and want the belt and I am going to take it from whoever has it, but I am hoping it will be Michael Chandler.”

Making his Bellator debut, England’s own Rob Sinclair will battle long time veteran Rich Clementi on September 27th. With 27 submission wins in his professional career, Clementi will look to his experience in the cage to take down Sinclair, and put it all on the line for a last tournament run.

“I am so excited to have the chance to compete again,” Clementi said. “For those who have been following me, I made an official retirement a few months ago and was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. The last few years of competing, I’ve been running on four flat tires, but after being under treatment for the last three months and my body is responding well. Fighting is who I am and the thought of not being able to do that was devastating. I am so excited to get back in the cage and show people what I am made of.”

Bellator Lightweight Tournament Opening Round: Marcus Davis (22-9) vs. Tiger Sarnavskiy (23-1)

Bellator Lightweight Tournament Opening Round: Will Brooks (10-1) vs. John Alessio (34-16)

Bellator Lightweight Tournament Opening Round: Saad Awad (14-5) vs. Martin Stapelton (12-1)

Bellator Lightweight Tournament Opening Round: Rob Sinclair (12-2) vs. Rich Clementi (45-22-1)

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA, follow Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney @BjornRebney and check out Bellator on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BellatorMMA  

Bellator MMA is the world’s largest tournament based Mixed Martial Arts organization. Televised to nearly 500 Million homes worldwide in over 107 countries, Bellator’s majority owner is entertainment giant Viacom.  In the United States, Bellator can be seen on Spike TV, the MMA television leader. With over 150 world-class athletes under contract, Bellator is home to many of the sport’s top mixed martial artists. Bellator’s founder & CEO, Bjorn Rebney, is an experienced fighting sports and entertainment executive with a deep commitment to the purity and integrity of the sport of MMA and its athletes.  Bellator’s core philosophy is that title shots should be earned, not given. This belief gave rise to Bellator’s real sport, tournament-based format, which gives Bellator’s tournaments a true playoff feel that keeps the sport true and distances itself from the subjective side of fighting sports found in organizations that utilize a matchmaking/casting formula.  Bellator MMA is comprised of an executive team that includes top industry professionals in television production, live event orchestration, fighter development/relations, venue procurement, sponsorship creation/development, international licensing, marketing, advertising, publicity and commission relations.  Bellator is based in Newport Beach, California.

Spike TV is available in 98.7 million homes and is a division of Viacom Media Networks.  A unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), Viacom Media Networks is one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.  Spike TV’s Internet address is www.spike.com and for up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs, visit Spike TV’s press site at http://www.spike.com/press.  Follow us on Twitter @spiketvpr for the latest in breaking news updates, behind-the-scenes information and photos.

mun2 is the leading Hispanic cable network for young millennial adults 18-34.  From reality to music, on-air to digital, mun2 creates original content that resonates across a multi-screen platform.  Young, vibrant and unabashedly Latino, mun2 has a distribution to over 38 million households. The network is part of Telemundo Media, a division of NBCUniversal.

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