Bellators future stars

[FKA]

I'm a big fan of Bellator and of Scott Coker he has a very good eye for talent as was seen in StrikeForce and how succesful the guys were moving on to the UFC after the buyout.

Im going to bring up the guys and girls i think will eventually become big stars for bellator and/or at least become elite fighters.


So lets get right to it....,,

Womans 125lb Division

Keri Melendez (1-0)
Lena Ovchynnikova(10-4)
Ilima Lei MacFarlane (5-0)

I fully expect Ilima to become the champion and hold it for a while,she will be the face of the division,meanwhile Keri and Lena have great striking and good looks making a promotional push easy it will be entirely up to them how far they can go but both have high potential.


Heavyweight Division

Javy Ayala(10-5)
Justin Wren(13-2)
Tyrelle Fortune (3-0)

In a division ruled by legendary and household names like Fedor,Big Country,and Frank Mir there are some gems i see being able to shine.Ayala is a Bellator homegrown guy and has flashed with high level ability but struggled with consistency.Wren has a very good wrestling game and amazing Pygmy backstory you cant help but root for him.Once he's back in shape hes a tough fight for alot of guys.Fortune is one of the SAVAGE SEVEN high level wrestling guys they picked up and he hasn't disappointed.With more growth he can become a very dominant fighter.


Light Heavyweight Division

Jarod Trice(2-0)
Tyree Fortune(3-0)
Vadim Nemkov(8-2)


Trice is another one of the SAVAGE SEVEN and is a work in progress but has very dominant top game and can become a real elite guy.Tyree is the recently signed twin brother of Tyrell Fortune,he doesn't have the wrestling accolades cuz he quit to start his amateur mma career and is a well rounded guy that has lots of room to grow into a beast.Vadim is the brother of Viktor Nemkov former M-1 champion and all around killer lol.Vadim has the toolkit to be a tough fight for anyone and is still growing one of my favorite fighters.

 

[FKA]

Middleweight division

Ed Ruth (3-0)
Romero Cotton(0-0)
Anatoly Tokov(25-3)

Welterweight division


Dillon Danis(0-0)
Logan Storley(6-0)
Joey Davis(2-0)


Lightweight division

Carrington Banks(5-0)
Adam Piccolotti(8-0)
Brent Primus(8-0)


Feather weight division


Aaron Pico(0-1)
Aj Mckee(6-0)
Goiti yamauchi(20-3)

 

[qw3rty]

what about Heather Hardy?

 

[GoldenAzazel]

James Gallagher (7-0), Heather Hardy (1-0), and Neiman Gracie (6-0) could also be possibilities.

 

[FKA]

Heather hardy didn't impress me tbh.Shes a decent fighter but i don't see her being champ or a star.

I simply picked 3 ppl to try and keep this somewhat short haha

I will do a more in depth version soon just checking the general feedback.

 

[CC27]

Good fighters but future stars? Like real stars? Yeah I dont know about any of them.

Real stars are so rare these days in mma its hard to tell who will get over and who wont.

 

[FKA]

By star i mean a household name,popular,or face of the division.

McGregor/Rousey stardom can't even be reproduced in the UFC i don't hold those expectations for anyone as its unrealistic.

Douglas lima,michael chandler are guys i consider stars for Bellator for comparison purposes.

 

[DarkneT]

Dillon Danis is literally fucked

 

[cheesus]

lol @ Danis being a star, I've seen that guy hit pads.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

Wow, you really think Danis will make a splash, TS?

 

[TheBrownRanger]

Javy Ayala has been around forever, since the Volkov-era, I think.

Only reason Rousey, Rockhold, and Cormier became stars was because of the UFC hype machine. Only way guys like Gallagher and Pico will have more than a couple thousand fans is if Bellator gets bought by the UFC.

Coker is good at selling fighters to hardcores but it ends there. His reach doesn't go far with the casual audience of MMA. Ilima MacFarlane is my favorite out of that group. College wrestlers have been figured out a long time ago.

 

[agibmxmma]

I'm a big fan of Bellator and of Scott Coker he has a very good eye for talent as was seen in StrikeForce and how succesful the guys were moving on to the UFC after the buyout.

Im going to bring up the guys and girls i think will eventually become big stars for bellator and/or at least become elite fighters.


So lets get right to it....,,

Womans 125lb Division

Keri Melendez (1-0)
Lena Ovchynnikova(10-4)
Ilima Lei MacFarlane (5-0)

I fully expect Ilima to become the champion and hold it for a while,she will be the face of the division,meanwhile Keri and Lena have great striking and good looks making a promotional push easy it will be entirely up to them how far they can go but both have high potential.


Heavyweight Division

Javy Ayala(10-5)
Justin Wren(13-2)
Tyrelle Fortune (3-0)

In a division ruled by legendary and household names like Fedor,Big Country,and Frank Mir there are some gems i see being able to shine.Ayala is a Bellator homegrown guy and has flashed with high level ability but struggled with consistency.Wren has a very good wrestling game and amazing Pygmy backstory you cant help but root for him.Once he's back in shape hes a tough fight for alot of guys.Fortune is one of the SAVAGE SEVEN high level wrestling guys they picked up and he hasn't disappointed.With more growth he can become a very dominant fighter.


Light Heavyweight Division

Jarod Trice(2-0)
Tyree Fortune(3-0)
Vadim Nemkov(8-2)


Trice is another one of the SAVAGE SEVEN and is a work in progress but has very dominant top game and can become a real elite guy.Tyree is the recently signed twin brother of Tyrell Fortune,he doesn't have the wrestling accolades cuz he quit to start his amateur mma career and is a well rounded guy that has lots of room to grow into a beast.Vadim is the brother of Viktor Nemkov former M-1 champion and all around killer lol.Vadim has the toolkit to be a tough fight for anyone and is still growing one of my favorite fighters.

Agree with Lena, add Hardy and Yankova
Agree with Tyrell, add Dmitry and Siala.. still think Minakov and Lashley are two best at HW in Bellator
Agree with Trice, add Vladimir

 

[agibmxmma]

Middleweight division

Ed Ruth (3-0)
Romero Cotton(0-0)
Anatoly Tokov(25-3)

Welterweight division


Dillon Danis(0-0)
Logan Storley(6-0)
Joey Davis(2-0)


Lightweight division

Carrington Banks(5-0)
Adam Piccolotti(8-0)
Brent Primus(8-0)


Feather weight division


Aaron Pico(0-1)
Aj Mckee(6-0)
Goiti yamauchi(20-3)

Agree with Tokov, add Young.. still think Carvalho and Shlemenko are the two best at MW in Bellator
Agree with Storley, add MVP
Agree with all three you listed for LW, add Kozola
Agree with McKee, add Borics
At BW.. Davis and Garcia
At WFW.. Budd and Nogueira

 

[FKA]

Agree with Lena, add Hardy and Yankova
Agree with Tyrell, add Dmitry and Siala.. still think Minakov and Lashley are two best at HW in Bellator
Agree with Trice, add Vladimir

Dmitry sosnovsky is in the UFC

By saila i assume you mean Mighty Mo? Hasn't been in Bellator for quite a while.

 

[Falconkick]

Gregory Babene could be a star at MW....Kleber Silva could be a star at LHW or HW if they just give these guys more fights. They came in as stepping stones...got the upset win in Bellator than they just don't utilize them...LAME...Especially considering both mens finishing rates

 

[agibmxmma]

Dmitry sosnovsky is in the UFC

By saila i assume you mean Mighty Mo? Hasn't been in Bellator for quite a while.

Nope, meant Bilov.. the boxer, who's rumored to be in talks with Bellator for awhile. And being Saila has been on a winning streak, I could see him back in Bellator sooner then later.

 

[BenjaminRandalC]

Justin Wren is the man.

 

[FKA]

Javy Ayala has been around forever, since the Volkov-era, I think.

Only reason Rousey, Rockhold, and Cormier became stars was because of the UFC hype machine. Only way guys like Gallagher and Pico will have more than a couple thousand fans is if Bellator gets bought by the UFC.

Coker is good at selling fighters to hardcores but it ends there. His reach doesn't go far with the casual audience of MMA. Ilima MacFarlane is my favorite out of that group. College wrestlers have been figured out a long time ago.

Its not necessarily selling fighters i'm more talking about his ability to find talent.Rousey,Rockhold,Cormier didnt become stars just because they listened to looped commercials of joe rogan orgasm ranting lol....

They all came in and put on impressive performances and continued to win.Ufc complimented the rising with promotional push/Hype machine.

Coker has found tons of today's biggest fighters and continues to find young talents,i'm confident he can build a solid future crop of guys its already pretty much there.

Whats fun about the young wrestling guys is they all are placed with different camps and are evolving different styles to compliment there already extremely effective grappling.

 

[agibmxmma]

Its not necessarily selling fighters i'm more talking about his ability to find talent.Rousey,Rockhold,Cormier didnt become stars just because they listened to looped commercials of joe rogan orgasm ranting lol....

They all came in and put on impressive performances and continued to win.Ufc complimented the rising with promotional push/Hype machine.

Coker has found tons of today's biggest fighters and continues to find young talents,i'm confident he can build a solid future crop of guys its already pretty much there.

Whats fun about the young wrestling guys is they all are placed with different camps and are evolving different styles to compliment there already extremely effective grappling.

Those you mention in the AKA guys, well Scott use to train at AKA, and had for years.. so of course he knows talent from that gym and he use to train at Fairtex SF at times, where he got friendly with Gilbert, and eventually met Rhonda while she was training at the original El Nino (in Gils living room of his loft). It's not that he "found" talent, it's more the networks and friendships he has built through the years, opened up doors for some, early in career. While he has remained a decent promoter in regard to his role in mma.

 

[Falconkick]

Nope, meant Bilov.. the boxer, who's rumored to be in talks with Bellator for awhile. And being Saila has been on a winning streak, I could see him back in Bellator sooner then later.

He is at the tail end of his career making hundreds of thousands of dollars in ROAD ...I don't see him coming back to Bellator for peanuts