Bellator Welterweight MMA Tournament Kicks Off In Chicago Thursday

Chicago, IL, United States (AHN) – Bellator Season Two begins their welterweight tournament and continues the featherweight and lightweight brackets Thursday night in Chicago at Bellator 14.

Four tournament bouts and four prelims highlight the second of Bellator’s weekly cards which run for the months of April and May.

Round One of the featherweight tournament continues as a third semifinalist is selected to join Georgi Karakhanyan and Eric Marriott in the semis.

Shad Lierley taks on Wilson Reis in one featherweight quarterfinal. Lierley is a former college wrestler for NYU with a 5-2 career record. He fought in a non-tournament Bellator bout last May, beating Nathan Murdock by unanimous decision.

Reis is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt who reached the semi-finals of last season’s Bellator featherweight tournament. He beat Henry Martinez via unanimous decision before losing to eventual champion Joe Soto for his only career loss. He defeated Roberto Vargas by split decision in a non-tournament bout later in the Bellator season.

Reis is also a former Elite XC fighter who went 4-0 for the now-defunct circuit and was crowned the first Elite XC Bantamweight champion.

The first round of the lightweight tournament concludes as the final two semifinalist slots are determined, joining Roger Huerta and Joe Duarte who won at last week’s Bellator 13 in Hollywood, Florida.

Pat Curran and Mike Ricci face off in one quarterfinal.

Ricci is an undefeated Canadian fighter who is coming south to make his U.S. debut. He is a training partner of UFC Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre in Montreal.

Curran is a 9-3 veteran and a cousin of former WEC and Strikeforce veteran Jeff Curran, who will also be in action on the card in a non-tournament bout against Bryan Goldsby.

A late addition to the card is the Lightweight bout between James Krause and Toby Imada.

The 23-12 Imada made it to last year’s Bellator tournament finals before losing to champion Eddie Alvarez on a second round rear naked choke. Imada gained attention across the MMA world with a inverse triangle choke in the semifinals over Jorge Masvidal. The seemingly newly invented move was voted by many publications as the Submission of the Year for 2009.

Krause is a late substitution for former Olympian Ferrid Kheder who came down with appendicitis in the week leading up to the tournament. He is 11-2 but lost two straight bouts in the WEC before bouncing back with a win in December. Imada and Krause are a combined 0-3 in the WEC.

The Bellator Welterweight tournament starts action in Chicago with one bout. Ben Askren takes on Ryan Thomas.

Askren was a two-time national wrestling champion at Missouri and made the 2008 Olympic team. He has four minutes and seven seconds pro experience, with three first-round wins on two submissions and a TKO.

Thomas will provide an experienced and dangerous opponent who has fought at a high level. He is 10-3 with two losses in the UFC–to Ben Saunders and Matt Brown. All three of his career losses are via armbar submission, so he will have to keep careful track of him limbs against the former standout wrestler.

In addition to Curran-Goldsby, Bellator has three other non-tournament bouts. In a women’s matchup, Felice Herrig takes on Canadian Jessica Rakoczy. Herrig appeared on Oxygen Network reality show Fight Girls.

Ryan Sturdy takes on Louis Taylor in a Middleweight bout, and Jonatas Novaes battles Daniel Straus at Lightweight.

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