It is among the oldest of modern-day mixed martial arts staples: the one-night tournament.
The roots of what we now know as mixed martial arts began with tournaments designed to take place in a single night. The winner, having endured an evening of two or more grueling bouts, would be proclaimed the toughest man alive, at least for a night. They were often gory and grueling tests of will power more than fighting skill.
"It's hard to imagine those early UFC events without the one-night tournament as their conceptual foundation. While today's events are star-driven, when MMA first started the athletes were essentially unknowns,” MMA historian and Bleacher Report writer Jonathan Snowden said. "The tournament format offered fans a chance to get to know the fighters and to follow their journey to combat sports immortality. Instead of two random guys fighting in a cage, it was two random guys on the path to something special.
"That's a subtle difference, but one that paid off nicely."
Tournaments were eventually phased out, Snowden noted, because it was inevitable that mixed martial arts would develop a star system. In fact, it started even earlier than many of us may recognize.
"That started in the UFC from day one, when Royce [Gracie] and Ken Shamrock separated themselves from the pack,” Snowden said. "By UFC 5, though the tournaments continued on for several more years, the top stars were competing in ‘Superfights' instead of slogging through the tournament format."
Tournaments also fell by the wayside because it was difficult to predict how they would go, and thus was nearly impossible to build stars. If you wanted to turn Shamrock into a superstar, you had to sit back and hope that he would somehow make it through brutal hours of fighting to find himself in the finals.
"This issue came to the forefront when Steve Jennum came off the bench to win UFC 3 in 1994, entering the cage fresh against an opponent who had already competed, earning the win in dubious fashion," Snowden said. "Worse, Mark Coleman won UFC 11's eight-man tournament in an uncontested final after three fighters couldn't continue on.
"Football teams don't play doubleheaders for a reason. It's too much to ask of even the toughest athletes in the world."
This weekend, many years after being phased out in favor of single competition, Bellator returns to this early staple of mixed martial arts with a one-night tournament designed to crown the top contender for its light heavyweight championship.
Four men will step in the cage to determine who will face the winner of the main event, a title fight between current champion Liam McGeary and Tito Ortiz.
The Competitors
For Emanuel Newton, Mo Lawal, Linton Vassell and Phil Davis, the tournament represents a chance to leap to the top of the contenders' pack with a single night’s work. But making it through the tournament is far more difficult than it might sound on paper. Even booking a spot in the finals—and arriving there with at least some amount of health intact—is a difficult proposition.
Throughout MMA history, we have seen these tournaments drastically change on fight night from what they looked like on paper. A fighter might win his opening-round bout but be too injured to step in for the finals. In his place steps the loser or an alternate.
The notion of a final bout consisting of a fighter who lost in the first round and an alternate who is only there because he was healthy enough to answer the call is not far-fetched. Ideally, both first-round winners would be healthy enough to make the finals. In reality, however, that could be a long shot.
The unknown aspects of the tournament are what brings the intrigue. The fact that it’s shoehorned into a night quite unlike anything we’ve ever seen in North American combat sports seems fitting. In addition to the tournament, there are Glory kickboxing fights taking place in a ring sidled up to the Bellator cage. And Bellator will have the usual fancy lighting and graphics that we’ve become accustomed to seeing from these “tent-pole” shows from promoter Scott Coker.
All in all, it will look very different than what UFC fans are used to seeing. It might even be a little jarring at first. Some will complain that it’s more entertainment and sport, and that’s a notion that Lawal wholeheartedly agrees with. Mixed martial arts is more than just sport; it is entertainment, and Bellator is bringing the entertainment like few others.
"When fans are like 'this is a black eye for our sport?' No, it's entertainment. You got the game wrong,” Lawal said. "This is entertainment. We're here to entertain. It ain't really a true sport just yet. If it's gonna be a true sport, they gotta do a lot more to make it a true sport."
The two opening-round bouts will see former UFC contender Davis making his debut against former champion Newton. Davis entered the UFC in 2010 with a world of potential resting on his shoulders. A former standout wrestler for Penn State, he was widely considered a can’t-miss prospect. And in the first two years of his UFC tenure, Davis delivered on that promise, even scoring a win over eventual title challenger (and future teammate) Alexander Gustafsson.
But in early 2012, Davis lost his first professional bout to Rashad Evans. This was the start of something that seemed like a trend for Davis. He won the majority of his fights, but when faced with an opportunity to move from prospect to actual title contender, he fell short. It happened in a loss to Anthony Johnson in 2014, and again when he lost to Ryan Bader in the final fight of his UFC contract.
After the loss to Bader, Davis became a free agent, becoming one of the first major UFC fighters to make the leap to the new and improved Bellator. The move represented a chance for Davis to turn his career around and to finally cement himself as a champion; though it has rebounded in recent years, Bellator’s 205-pound division is much weaker than the UFC’s. Davis could be a big fish in a small pond.
Newton was already a longtime veteran of the sport when he beat Lawal on Feb. 21, 2013. But that win, which advanced Newton to the finals of Bellator’s season 8 light heavyweight tournament, was the start of a complete career overhaul. Newton won that season tournament, and then beat Lawal in a rematch for the interim light heavyweight title. He unified that title by beating Attila Vegh in March 2014.
Newton’s cosmic, rambling interviews turned him into one of MMA’s more interesting characters, while title defenses against Joey Beltran and Vassell cemented him as one of the sport’s best light heavyweights. He lost the belt to McGeary earlier this year, and has repeatedly noted his desire to bring the title back home with him.
Newton was happy about Davis’ decision to sign with the UFC, recognizing that adding anyone with name value to Bellator’s division is a good thing.
"I think Phil is going to bring a lot more light and a lot more eyes on the 205-pound division, for the fans and for the people watching,” he said. "Having a guy like Phil that has a name like that is very important to the growth of the organization. So I'm happy he's here."
On the other side of the bracket, there are Lawal and Vassell.
Lawal has long been one of the sport’s more flamboyant fighters. He came from a wrestling background, where he was one of the top athletes in the 84kg division for several years. After narrowly missing out for a spot on the 2008 Olympic team, Lawal entered mixed martial arts.
After growing up as a fan of professional wrestling, Lawal discovered that the theatrical side of fighting perfectly suited him. As it turned out, he was also pretty good at the fighting part of it, too. He captured the Strikeforce light heavyweight title with a decision win over Gegard Mousasi, who had quickly become one of the best fighters in the world during a stint in Japan. Lawal knocked out Roger Gracie to defend that championship, but then had a win over Lorenz Larkin overturned when he tested positive for Drostanolone.
Upon his return a year later–and after a run-in with Nevada State Athletic Commission member Pat Lundvall cost him a gig with the UFC—Lawal signed with Bellator. He debuted in the season 8 tournament, and was the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing until he ran into Newton’s spinning back fist. He lost to Newton again in an interim title fight, and then lost to Quinton Jackson in controversial fashion in the season 10 tournament final.
Outside of those losses, Lawal has been perfect in the Bellator cage, and he goes into this tournament as someone who can be considered a favorite to win it all.
Across the cage will be Vassell, a 32 year old jiu-jitsu expert with the memorable nickname “The Swarm.” Growing up in England, Vassell was an anomaly among his peers for his lack of desire to play or watch football, the country’s biggest sport. Instead, Vassell fell in love with fighting, and he began mixed martial arts training at age 23 in the Buckinghamshire suburb of Milton Keynes.
Vassell made his professional fighting debut in 2008 with a win over Chris Greig. Until 2013, the majority of his career would be spent fighting in England, with only one fight in Sweden taking place outside of his home country. But in September 2013, Vassell signed with Bellator, and made his debut in November with a win over Matt Jones. He would score three straight wins before earning a title shot against Newton; he lost that fight in October 2014, but rebounded with a knockout win over the one-hit wonder Sokoudjou.
The Predictions
Phil Davis vs. Emanuel Newton
This is certainly the marquee matchup of the first round, mostly because it’s Davis’ debut in the Bellator cage. It’s one of Bellator’s notable free-agent signings—or at least a signing of a free agent who is not already past his prime—taking on the former champion of the division who surprised a lot of people with his run to the title.
Davis’ time in the UFC will likely be categorized as a failure due to his inability to live up to the hype that accompanied him to the Octagon. But make no mistake about it: Davis is still one of the very best light heavyweights in the world today. His wrestling skills are prodigious, even if he has recently relied more on a developing striking game. If he’s smart, it’s hard not to imagine Davis eventually getting Newton to the ground and working for a submission.
But Newton, as he is known to do from time to time, can surprise people. And he can certainly surprise Davis here. His arsenal of spinning attacks can catch his opponents off guard, just as he did to Lawal in their first meeting. And his takedown defense is very good, if not occasionally stellar.
But Newton’s weakest area is off his back, and I suspect he’ll find himself there more often than not against Davis. With the prospect of another fight later in the night looming on the horizon, I think Davis will look to put Newton on his back and keep him there in an attempt to minimize damage. With just two rounds to complete in the first round, Davis should be able to do this often enough to earn a decision win in a fight that could be a snoozer.
Prediction: Phil Davis by decision
Mo Lawal vs. Linton Vassell
Vassell will go into the cage with a size advantage on Lawal, who is among the smaller light heavyweights in the game. But that’s the only area where he’ll have any sort of advantage.
Lawal is a power puncher with excellent technique honed by several years of training with top boxing trainer Jeff Mayweather. But his boxing game isn’t the strongest aspect of his arsenal; that is and will always be his true world-class wrestling. Like Davis, it seems logical that Lawal will opt for the safest possible opening-round fight, and use his wrestling to put Vassell on his back.
Vassell’s only real hope is to secure a takedown. Against Lawal, that’s going to be almost impossible. Lawal can win this one by knockout. But much like Davis, it seems logical that Lawal will opt for the safest possible opening-round fight, and use his wrestling to put Vassell on his back. He’ll keep him there and secure the decision win in two dominant rounds, setting up the final round fight that Bellator must secretly be hoping comes to fruition.
Prediction: Mo Lawal by decision
Mo Lawal vs. Phil Davis (Predicted Final)
Both men are heavy favorites to reach the finals, and I suspect it’s what we’ll end up seeing.
A fight between two excellent wrestlers often results in a striking battle, with neither man able to put the other on his back for any stretch of time. Davis will be overmatched against Lawal in the striking department, as he has never displayed any sort of knockout power and Lawal has a solid chin. Lawal, meanwhile, packs power in his punches and will do far more damage when he lands than Davis will.
With both men having already fought earlier in the night, they won’t be as fresh and crisp as they could have been in a non-tournament fight. So what we’ll see here is a slow-paced striking battle play out, and that will favor Lawal in the end.
Prediction: Mo Lawal
Jeremy Botter covers mixed martial arts for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
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