TEMECULA, Calif. – Daniel James added a powerful knockout to his highlight reel Friday, but Linton Vassell is solidified as the next man up for a crack at gold.
Although James (15-6-1 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) knocked out Marcelo Golm with a three-punch combination in Friday’s Bellator 293 main event, the heavyweight title shot for Vassell has been hinted at in multiple recent Bellator broadcasts.
According to promotion president Scott Coker after Bellator 293, Vassell (24-8 MMA, 12-5 BMMA) will be the next challenger for champion Ryan Bader (31-7 MMA, 9-2 BMMA).
“The title shot is most likely going to go to Linton Vassell, because he’s been on a tear or two,” Coker said. ” But I think (James) is right up there. We definitely will invite him to come fight (at Bellator 297) in Chicago.”
Vassell, 39, has won five in a row at heavyweight, with victories over the likes of Valentin Moldavsky, Tim Johnson, Tyrell Fortune, Ronny Markes, and Sergei Kharitonov during that stretch.
The upcoming heavyweight title fight between Bader and Vassell will be a rematch of their November 2017 matchup. Bader defeated Vassell by second-round TKO due to ground-and-pound.
As for James, the aforementioned Bellator 297 card in Chicago takes place June 16 at Wintrust Arena, and according to Coker, he’ll be a part of it. That notion James later affirmed.
“Yeah, my leg will be healed. I heal like a dog,” James said. “My leg will be healed fast, but you can’t have nothing in Chicago without me. People are already buying tickets. … Chicago, they’re waiting on me.”
James and Bader were jawing last night
James looks pretty good and he’s fucking huge
The problem with Bellator, PFL, ACA, ONE and KSW running HW divisions its like… who gives a fuck who is the best and carrying the belt between those ten fighters they got under contract. That still don’t tell ya much.
Even with UFC, they got like forty HW’s under contract.
HW is way to chopped up to be that interesting right now.
The average UFC card now delivers a single HW fight and its usually the #18 ranked guy in the world vs the the #35 ranked guy in the world on average.
Just a very boring and redundant way to deliver HW combat to fans compared to what we had during the peak of PRIDE and K1.
I usually care about like four or five HW fights a year these days.
Bellator’s entire premise of HW is, hey tune in to find out who is the best between Bader, Kongo, Fortune, James, Tim Johnson, Vassell and Moldavsky.
Yeah you only get to see one fight a month between those guys and you got to watch them rematch at times but isn’t it interesting?
No, not interesting at all. Who cares.
Heavyweight is just extremely boring in all organizations. Lack of depth
I wish UFC would just open their wallet and snatch up every top 60 HW. Put on more big boy fights and less women.