25 greatest Bellator fighters who never fought in UFC

Bellator career: 2018-2023Bellator record: 8-1Bellator notable achievements: Welterweight champion

Yarolsav Amosov was widely considered one of the top pound-for-pound Eastern European fighters outside of the UFC when he he made his Bellator debut in July 2018. With a pro record of 18-0 and with all 18 of those fights in Russia and his native Ukraine, Amosov was matched against UFC veteran Gerald Harris at Bellator 202 in Oklahoma in his first fight for the promotion. Amosov won 30-27 on all 3 judges scorecards to claim the unanimous decision, and then recorded another unanimous decision win against a UFC alum, defeating Erick Silva seven months later. In his seventh fight for Bellator, Amosov defeated then-champion Douglas Lima to claim the promotion’s welterweight title. At 28 years old and now 26-0, Amosov had a strong case to be considered the best non-UFC fighter in all of MMA. As reigning champion, Amosov enlisted in his nation’s defense forces in Ukraine’s war against Russia. This decision kept Amosov out of the sport for 19 months, although he remained the titlist. On his return in February 2023, Amosov defeated interim welterweight champion Logan Storley by unanimous decision to successfully defend the strap. In November of that year, Amosov was on the bad end of a third-round knockout vs. Jason Jackson in the final Bellator event before the full PFL takeover. The loss cost Amosov the title and ended the winning-streak start to his career at 27. Despite this defeat, Amosov is unquestionably a Bellator all-time great, even when factoring in all of the UFC alumni.

Bellator career: 2018-2022Bellator record: 9-3Bellator notable achievements: Bantamweight champion

Juan Archuleta entered Bellator with an 18-1 record, yet was largely unknown in the sport outside of his native California, where he’d fought 13 of those bouts. In his second fight for the promotion, Archuleta knocked out UFC veteran Robbie Peralta 14 seconds into the third Round, a win which served to further validate his outstanding record. A second-round knockout victory over former Bellator bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas directly led to Archuleta’s placement in the 16-man featherweight grand prix. In his opening-round bout, which was also a title fight, Archuleta was defeated by then-145-pound champion Patricio Freire via unanimous decision. Archuleta followed that defeat four months later, in January 2020, by beating Henry Corrales. Next up was the fight for the vacant bantamweight strap as Archuleta dropped down a division and claimed a unanimous decision victory vs. Patchy Mix. In his final two fights for Bellator, Archuleta defeated UFC veteran and “The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America 2” winner Enrique Barzola by unanimous decision and then former Road FC bantamweight champion Soo Chul Kim by split decision. Those quality wins concluded an extremely impressive Bellator career for Archuleta, who achieved major success in the promotion’s talent-filled featherweight and bantamweight divisions of the time.

Bellator career: 2015-2021Bellator record: 9-1Bellator notable achievements: Inaugural women’s featherweight champion

Julia Budd started her pro career at 2-3, and then went on an 11-fight winning streak, which included her first seven bouts in Bellator. In her fourth fight for the promotion, she defeated former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Marloes Coenen by fourth-round TKO to become the first Bellator women’s champion at 145 pounds. Budd then made three successful defenses of the strap – vs. Arlene Blencowe, Talita Nogueira, and Olga Rubin – before losing the belt to Cris Cyborg (in Cyborg’s Bellator debut). This proved to be the only defeat of Budd’s Bellator career. She followed the title-fight loss to Cyborg with decision wins vs. Jessy Miele (unanimous) and Kaitlin Young (split), before exiting the promotion for PFL in September 2021. Although she was overshadowed during her time in Bellator by both Cyborg and inaugural women’s flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane, Budd was one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the promotion (male or female) for her entire six-year run. Budd’s seven-fight winning streak ties her for second best with Liz Carmouche, and behind only Macfarlane, for the longest of any female fighter in Bellator history.

Bellator career: 2010-2019Bellator record: 13-6Bellator notable achievements: Two-time featherweight Champion; Season 2 lightweight tournament winner; 2011 summer series featherweight tournament winner

As a 22 year-old American Midwest circuit fighter, Pat Curran (younger cousin of UFC and Pride veteran Jeff Curran) entered Bellator’s Season 2 lightweight tournament in April 2010 as a late replacement for the injured Mike Corey. Three successive victories in as many months vs. a then-5-0 and pre-UFC Mike Ricci (by first-round knockout), UFC veteran and Bellator’s first major signing Roger Huerta (by unanimous decision), and Toby Imada (by unanimous decision) made Curran the most unlikely tournament winner to that point in Bellator’s very brief history. The following year, Curran would drop to 145 pounds and win that division’s summer series tournament, defeating former Pancrase featherweight champion Marlon Sandro by first-round knockout in the final. That win made Curran Bellator’s first two-weight class tournament champ. In March 2012, Curran brutally knocked out then-champion Joe Warren in the third round to claim the Bellator featherweight belt. Two years later, in March 2014, Curran reclaimed the title as he dramatically submitted then-champion Daniel Strauss with 14 seconds remaining in the fifth round.

Bellator career: 2011-2019Bellator record: 11-4Bellator notable achievements: Two-time bantamweight champion; Season 5 bantamweight tournament winner

Eduardo Dantas ranks as the second youngest Bellator tournament winner at 22 and youngest champion (23) in the promotion’s history. He made his spectacular debut in September 2011 by defeating Wilson Reis with a flying knee in the quarterfinal round of the 135-pound tournament. Two fights later, Dantas defeated Cuban freestyle wrestling Olympic bronze medalist Alexis Vila (who was 18 years his senior) by unanimous decision in the Tournament final. That victory gave Dantas a title shot vs. then-champion Zach Makovsky, who Dantas defeated by second-round technical submission. In the span of seven months, Dantas had won all four of his Bellator fights, knocking out (Reis) and choking out (Makovsky) two future UFC fighters in the process. Dantas was 6-0 in Bellator and one of the absolute top bantamweghts in the world outside of the UFC when he dropped his title by unanimous decision to Joe Warren. Two years later, in June 2016, Dantas regained the Bellator bantamweight strap with a unanimous decision win vs. then-champion Marcos Galvao, and then successfully defended the title in his rematch against Warren by majority decision. What followed, though, were two wins in his final five Bellator fights, and the once young phenom was released from the promotion at age 30. Still, Dantas’ impact on Bellator was massive, especially before he reached his late 20s.

Bellator career: 2019-2023Bellator record: 10-0Bellator notable achievements: Final middleweight champion

Johnny Eblen was 4-0 in Bellator before he made it to the main card in July 2021. Eblen had even been relegated to the dreaded post-lims in the second fight of his Bellator career. At Bellator 262, Eblen was in the main card opener, which resulted in his solid but unspectacular unanimous decision win vs. Travis Davis. What followed, though, was a truly spectacular run in which Eblen looked utterly dominant, winning three fights in six months. The third of those victories was one of the biggest upsets in Bellator history, as well as one of the biggest upsets in all of MMA for 2022: Eblen’s unanimous decision win over then-middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi. Eblen claimed the title by unanimous decision as he won 50-45 on all three judges’ scorecards and gave Mousasi just his second loss in a span of 14 fights. As champion, Eblen then made two successful title defenses, the second of which was a third-round knockout win vs. Fabian Edwards. Eblen finished his Bellator career with the most victories of any fighter with a perfect winning percentage in the promotion, surpassing Ben Askren, who went 9-0.

Bellator career: 2010-2012Bellator record: 6-1Bellator notable achievements: Inaugural (and only) women’s strawweight champion; Season 3 women’s strawweight tournament winner

Zoila Frausto made her promotional debut at Bellator 23 in June 2010 as the B-side vs. Rosi Sexton. The fight was meant to be a showcase for Sexton, who entered 10-1 (her lone loss coming vs Gina Carano five years prior) and was considered one of the top female fighters in the sport. The fight, however, fully belonged to Frausto as she knocked out Sexton exactly 2 minutes into Round 1. Sexton was then pulled from the tournament, with her spot now given to Frausto. A unanimous decision win vs. a pre-UFC Jessica Penne in the quarterfinals, a split decision win vs. a pre-UFC Jessica Aguilar in the semifinals, and a split decision win vs. Megumi Fujii (who entered the bout 22-0) in the final earned Frausto the tournament championship, as well as the inaugural Bellator women’s strawweight belt. As Bellator then discontinued its women’s 115-pound division (and subsequently never held another women’s tournament), Frausto moved up to 125 pounds in 2012 and went 2-1, exiting the promotion after a first-round technical submission loss vs. a pre-UFC Jessica Eye in December of that year. Of all of the great Bjorn Rebney-era Bellator fighters, Frausto is unfortunately the least known.

Bellator career: 2013-2016Bellator record: 7-2Bellator notable achievements: Middleweight champion; Season 10 middleweight tournament winner

Brandon Halsey won his first seven Bellator fights and then lost what proved to be his final two in the promotion. During his winning streak, though, Halsey could fairly lay claim as the most dominant pound-for-pound Bellator fighter at the time. Halsey submitted Brett Cooper in Round 1 of the Season 10 middleweight tournament final, and with that victory earned a shot at the belt. In the fight for the Bellator middleweight strap in September 2014, Halsey submitted then-champion Alexander Shlemenko 35 seconds into Round 1, ending Shlemenko’s 13-fight winning streak in the weight class. In his next fight vs. Kendall Grove, Halsey missed weight and was stripped of his title. The bout, though, still took place, and Halsey won by fourth-round TKO, improving his record to 9-0. Halsey was then given the chance to regain the title five months later in a fight for the vacant belt and was defeated by Rafael Carvalho. His next bout, which proved to be his last in Bellator, was a first-round submission loss to John Salter. The way that he rapidly ended his Bellator career on back-to-back losses by finish has no doubt taken away from the reality that Halsey was, albeit briefly, an absolute phenom in the promotion. And at that time, he was rapidly emerging as one of the elite middleweights in the world outside of the UFC.

Bellator career: 2010-2014Bellator record: 10-4Bellator notable achievements: Season 6 lightweight tournament winner; Season 9 welterweight tournament winner; one-time lightweight title challenger; one-time welterweight title challenger; Season 4 welterweight tournament runner-up

Six years after representing the United States in judo at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Rick Hawn made his Bellator debut at age 34, recording a first-round knockout of LeVon Maynard. Having begun his pro MMA career just 22 months prior and entering Bellator with a record of 8-0, Hawn made an immediate impact in the promotion. He recorded wins in six of his first seven Bellator fights, with the sole loss in that span being a split decision vs. UFC veteran Jay Hieron in the Season 4 welterweight tournament final. Over the course of his time in Bellator, Hawn flowed between welterweight and lightweight, eventually winning tournaments in both divisions and receiving the requisite title shots that came with those achievements. Hawn faced then-Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler in January 2013, losing by second-round submission, and faced Douglas Lima in April 2014 for the vacant Bellator welterweight title, losing by second-round TKO. Those defeats no doubt hurt his overall legacy in the promotion. Hawn is, however, a true Bellator all-time great, ranking as one of only three fighters in Bellator history (Joe Warren and Pat Curran are the other two) to have won tournaments in two different weight classes and the only fighter in Bellator history to have fought for both the lightweight and welterweight titles.

Bellator career: 2010-2012Bellator record: 7-0Bellator notable achievements: Inaugural heavyweight champion; Season 3 heavyweight tournament winner

Cole Konrad came to Bellator with a phenomenal collegiate wrestling pedigree as an NCAA Division 1 two-time national Champion, three-time national finalist and four-time All-American while competing at the University of Minnesota. A close friend and regular training partner of fellow Minnesota wrestling alum Brock Lesnar, Konrad had an inauspicious start to his Bellator career, winning a lackluster fight vs. Pat Bennett in May 2010. When Konrad recorded a Round 1 submission win over Neil Grove in the final of the Season 3 Heavyweight Tournament five months later, his massive potential seemed to be coming to fruition. Konrad was now 7-0, with his last five fights having taken place in Bellator, and all seven of his pro MMA bouts having occurred across a span of just 10 months. As the inaugural heavyweight tournament winner, Konrad automatically became Bellator’s inaugural heavyweight champion. The vagaries of the Bellator system at that time, however, dictated that a title challenger had to be the winner of a tournament, and the next Bellator heavyweight tournament did not conclude until March 2012. During this long gap, Bellator gave Konrad just one fight – a non-title bout vs UFC and Affliction veteran Paul Buentello, which Konrad won by unanimous decision. It took until May 2012 for Konrad to finally have a fight with the Bellator heavyweight belt at stake, and it lasted exactly 60 seconds as he defeated Eric Prindle by first-round submission. Following this win, Konrad quietly and politely informed Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney that he was retiring from the sport. The inactivity, he told Rebney, had further soured him on a sport that he had never really enjoyed in the first place. Thus, Konrad ranks as one of the biggest “what if” cases in MMA history.

Bellator career: 2012-2023Bellator record: 16-4Bellator notable achievements: Welterweight champion; Season 7 welterweight tournament Winner; Season 10 welterweight tournament winner

The protege of Alexander Shlemenko, Andrey Koreshkov was part of the first wave of top Russian fighters in Bellator. And like his countryman Shlemenko, Koreshkov made an immediate impact in the promotion. After winning a non-tournament fight in his Bellator debut in March 2012 vs. Tiawan Howard by first-round knockout, Koreshkov won the Season 7 welterweight tournament, defeating former Bellator 170-pound champion Lyman Good by unanimous decision in the Final. That win gave Koreshkov a pro MMA record of 13-0 and an immediate title shot vs. then-champion Ben Askren, which Koreshkov lost by fourth-round TKO. Twelve months after the first defeat of his pro MMA career, Koreshkov won the Season 10 welterweight tournament, defeating Adam McDonough by unanimous decision in the Final. Thirteen months after that victory, Koreshkov took the Bellator welterweight title from Douglas Lima by unanimous Ddecision. The pinnacle of Koreshkov’s career in the promotion came in his next fight when he was spectacular in successfully defending the belt vs. Benson Henderson in Henderson’s promotional debut straight from the UFC. This made Koreshkov 19-1 and, at the time, arguably one of the top-five welterweights in the world, with everyone in the UFC most definitely included.

Bellator career: 2011-2024Bellator record: 15-8Bellator notable achievements: Three-time welterweight Champion; Season 5 welterweight tournament winner; Season 8 tournament winner; welterweight grand Prix winner

Douglas Lima is the only fighter in Bellator history to have won a tournament in the Bjorn Rebney era (two actually) and a grand prix in the Scott Coker era, an accomplishment that speaks both to his long-term excellence in and unwavering loyalty for the promotion. After a solid but unspectacular Season 5 tournament quarterfinal unanimous decision win vs. Steve Carl in his first Bellator fight, Lima then went 7-1, with all seven of those wins by finish. His only loss during this eight-fight span was to then-champion Ben Askren by unanimous decision for Bellator’s 170-pound title. These seven wins included the Season 5 and Season 8 welterweight tournament finals in which he defeated UFC veteran Ben Saunders by second-round knockout in both bouts, as well as a second-round TKO vs. Rick Hawn for the Bellator 170-pound title that Askren had vacated when he went to One Championship. Lima lost and then won back the belt vs Andrey Koreshkov for his second title reign, and vs. Rory MacDonald in his third title reign. The victory over MacDonald in October 2019 also gave Lima the grand prix championship eight years after his Bellator debut.

Bellator career: 2017-2019Bellator record: 6-0Bellator notable achievements: Middleweight champion

Rafael Lovato Jr. has the fewest Bellator fights of anyone on this list, yet his impact in the promotion was massive. He arrived in Bellator as the most recent LFA middleweight champion and with a well earned reputation as one of the best pure grapplers in all of mixed martial arts. Lovato fought five times in his first 18 months in the promotion, recording victories in all five bouts, including first-round submission wins over UFC veterans Mike “Biggie” Rhodes and Gerald Harris. Lovato’s final Bellator fight was also his biggest: against then-champion Gegard Mousasi. In that June 2019 title bout, Lovato took the belt with a split decision win and immediately gained the reputation as one of, if not the absolute best middleweight in the world outside of the UFC. The following January, Lovato publicly revealed that he had been diagnosed with cerebral cavernoma, which resulted from a brain lesion that had formed before birth. One month later, Lovato relinquished his middleweight strap and halted his MMA career. Lovato did continue to grapple competitively and resumed his fighting career in a one-off MMA bout in Japan. That first-round submission win vs. Taiga Iwasaki in December 2022 was, however, on the card Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye x Ganryujima in Ryogoku, and not in Bellator, where he had, albeit briefly, laid claim as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the promotion.

Bellator career: 2015-2024Bellator record: 12-3Bellator notable achievements: Inaugural women’s flyweight champion, tied (with Michael Page) for second longest winning streak in promotion history

Bellator had all but abandoned women’s MMA, save for occasional random matches, when Ilima-Lei Macfarlane made her debut in August 2015. Bellator had not had a female titlist since Zoila Frausto at 115 pounds five years earlier, and Frausto had been the promotion’s only female titlist of any kind. Thus Macfarlane’s split decision victory in the opening prelim of Bellator 141 hardly seemed a harbinger of things to come. Yet Macfarlane quickly established herself as one of the biggest names and most popular fighters in the promotion, winning her next nine bouts, with seven of those by finish. In the fifth fight of this span, Macfarlane defeated Emily Ducote by dramatic fifth-round submission to become the first Bellator women’s flyweight Champion. Four more successful title defenses followed before Macfarlane lost the belt, and the first fight of her pro MMA career, to Juliana Velasquez. Macfarlane is rightfully credited with playing a major role in revitalizing women’s MMA for Bellator during the Scott Coker era. While she was champion, Macfarlane arguably ranked just behind Kayla Harrison as the top female MMA fighter outside of the UFC.

Bellator career: 2015-2024Bellator record: 21-1Bellator notable achievements: Featherweight champion; featherweight grand prix winner; second most wins in promotion history; longest winning streak in promotion history

Widely viewed as the quintessential representative of Scott Coker-era Bellator, A.J. McKee is the only fighter on this list who pro debuted in Bellator. That bout occurred in April 2015, three days after McKee’s 20th birthday;, which he won by first-round submission vs. Marcos Bonilla. The son of UFC, Dream and IFL veteran Antonio McKee, A.J. McKee had a steady climb to 14-0, with notable wins vs. Justin Lawrence, John Macapa, and former champ Pat Curran. Following the victory over Curran, McKee entered the Bellator featherweight grand prix and won all four matches by finish, including over Darrion Caldwell in the semifinals and Patricio “Pitbull” by first-round technical submission in the final. As “Pitbull” entered the grand prix as the reigning champ, when McKee recorded the win, he claimed two titles. That victory in July 2021 also gave McKee a record of 18-0 and put him in serious consideration as the best fighter in Bellator, as well as the entire sport. A unanimous decision loss in the immediate featherweight title rematch to “Pitbull” nine months later ended McKee’s title run, undefeated streak and, perhaps unfairly, much of his mystique. Regardless, his career accomplishments in Bellator, emerging from prelim local ticket seller to 145-pound Champion, are truly outstanding.

Bellator career: 2012-2021Bellator record: 6-2Bellator notable achievements: Heavyweight champion; 2013 summer series heavyweight tournament winner

Vitaly Minakov had perhaps the oddest Bellator career of the 25 fighters on this list, as well as the oddest career of any champion in Bellator history (no small feat). He entered the promotion as a four-time International Federation of Amateur Sambo world champion and 9-0 in his pro MMA career, with all nine of those bouts having taken place in Eastern Europe. Minakov recorded three straight wins, all by finish, to start his Bellator career. Fight No. 3 was the 2013 summer series heavyweight tournament final, which Minakov won by third-round TKO vs. Ryan Martinez. That victory meant a title fight followed, and in that November 2013 bout, Minakov thoroughly dominated then-Bellator heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov, taking the belt by first-round TKO. Six months later, Minakov looked far from dominant as he recorded a lackluster win over UFC veteran Cheick Kongo in what would prove to be his lone fight as Bellator heavyweight champion. What followed was a bitter contractual dispute, which saw Minakov ultimately stripped of his belt and have his next seven bouts for the Russian based promotion Fight Nights Global. In February 2019, Minakov finally returned to Bellator under a new six-fight contract and after almost five full years away, he lost the rematch to Kongo. Following that defeat, Minakov recorded a first-round knockout win over Timothy Johnson and then in October 2021, fighting in his home Russia, Minakov lost to Said Souwma by injury TKO due to a broken finger. That bizarre finish proved to be the final fight of Minakov’s ultimately bizarre career, in which he briefly looked like the best heavyweight (by far) outside of the UFC and perhaps the most dominant pound-for-pound fighter in all of Bellator.

Bellator career: 2019-2024Bellator record: 9-1Bellator notable achievements: Bantamweight champion; Interim bantamweight champion; bantamweight grand prix winner

Following back-to-back first-round submission wins vs Ricky Bandejas and Isiah Chapman, Patchy Mix was placed in a title fight in just his third bout for Bellator. Matched against Juan Archuleta for the vacant 135-pound belt in September 2020, Mix fought well losing a unanimous decision in which two judges had it 48-47 Archuleta. In his next bout, seven moths later vs. Albert Morales, Mix recorded a third-round submission win, which started a phenomenal run of form that lasted the remainder of his Bellator career. Mix followed his defeat of Morales with a third-round submission of James Gallagher and then a unanimous decision win vs. Rizin bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi in the quarterfinals of the bantamweight grand prix. In the semifinals, Mix recorded a second-round technical submission win over Magomed Magomedov, which secured his place in the final. In that bout, Mix defeated then-Bellator interim champ Raufeon Stots in 80 seconds to claim that title, as well as the bantamweight grand prix championship. Next up, Mix faced Sergio Pettis in a title unification bout and defeated Pettis by second-round submission in his final Bellator bout before the PFL takeover. Mix won his rematch vs. Magomedov by split decision to successfully defend the strap and finished as the final champion of arguably Bellator’s most talent-laden division of all time.

Bellator career: 2017-2023Bellator record: 9-0, 1 NCBellator notable achievements: Final light heavyweight champion; 2021 light heavyweight grand prix winner

Vadim Nemkov debuted in Bellator with a first-roumd knockout win over Philipe Lins, who had entered the bout 10-2 and who would move to the UFC three years later. Nemkov was then matched against former Bellator light heavyweight champions Liam McGeary and Phil Davis, and former middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho in this next three bouts. Nemkov won all three (a third-round TKO vs. McGeary, split decision vs. Davis, and second-round submission of Carvalho), and then faced Ryan Bader, who at the time simultaneously held the heavyweight and light heavyweight straps. Nemkov defeated Bader by second-round TKO to take 205-pound title in absolutely dominant fashion. Now champion, Nemkov entered the light heavyweight grand prix, defeating Davis in the rematch and Julius Anglickas in the semifinals. In the Final in April 2022, an accidental clash of heads directly led to a no contest vs. UFC veteran Corey Anderson. In the rematch seven months later, Nemkov defeated Anderson by unanimous decision to successfully defend the title and claim the grand prix championship. In his final fight for the promotion, Nemkov defeated former UFC middleweight title challenger Yoel Romero by Unanimous Decision, a result that allowed him to finish as the final and most dominant light heavyweight champion in Bellator history.

Bellator career: 2021-2024Bellator record: 7-0, 1 NCBellator notable achievements: Final lightweight champion; lightweight grand prix finalist

Bellator career summary: Usman Nurmagomedov’s lackluster win over Mike Hamel in April 2021 was notable only for the fact that Khabib Nurmagomedov’s cousin had made his Bellator debut. What followed, though, was extremely notable as Usman went on an outstanding run of form in which he recorded three straight first-round finishes: a TKO win vs. Manny Muro, a submission win vs. Patrick Pietila, and a submission win vs. Chris Gonzalez. Next up was a fight vs. then-Bellator lightweight champion Patricky Freire, which Nurmagomedov won by unanimous decision. As the titlist, Nurmagomedov then entered the lightweight grand prix and defeated former UFC and WEC champ Benson Henderson by first-round submission in the quarterfinals. In the semis, Nurmagomedov defeated former Bellator lightweight champion Brent Primus by unanimous decision. The result, however, was changed to a no contest after Nurmagomedov tested positive for an unnamed banned substance, which was directly related to a prescribed medication. As such, Nurmagomedov was suspended six months by the California State Athletic Commission, but he was not stripped of his title by Bellator. In the interim, the lightweight grand prix was canceled following PFL’s acquisition of the promotion. In his first fight back from suspension, Nurmagomedov faced the fighter who would have been his opponent in the grrand prix final: fellow Russian Alexandr Shabliy. Nurmagomedov won by unanimous decision, successfully defending the title in his final Bellator fight.

Bellator career: 2010-2024Bellator record: 24-6Bellator notable achievements: Three-time featherweight champion; lightweight champion; Season 4 featherweight tournament winner; Season 9 featherweight tournament winner; Season 2 featherweight tournament runner-up; most wins in promotion history; most title fight wins in promotion history; most fights in promotion history; most title fights in promotion history

Patricio Freire made an immediate impact in Bellator, winning his Season 2 featherweight quarterfoial vs. Will Romero by inverted heel-hook submission in Round 1 in April 2010. What followed is a truly storied career that has “Pitbull” atop virtually every Bellator GOAT list, regardless of disclaimers and qualifiers. Entering the promotion 12-0, with those dozen previous pro bouts all having taken place in his native Brazil, “Pitbull” proceeded to claim victory in 12 of his first 14 Bellator fights. The two losses were both split decisions to Joe Warren in the Season 2 lightweight tournament final in June 2010 and to then-champion Pat Curran for the Bellator lightweight title in January 2013. As was noted at the time, had two judges both scored just one additional round in his favor, then “Pitbull” would’ve had a pro MMA record of 26-0. Perhaps most impressive in “Pitbull’s” extraordinary Bellator run was his unwavering loyalty to the promotion, which saw him outlast both the Bjorn Rebney and Scott Coker regimes. There is absolutely no question that “Pitbull” could have moved to the UFC on numerous occasions over the course of his 14 years in Bellator. His signing recently with the UFC feels like the right thing for the fighter, the promotion and the sport. If I were to rank my list right now of the greatest MMA fighters of all-time who never fought in the UFC, then “Pitbull” would be in my top three, alongside Fedor Emelianenko and Igor Vovchanchyn.

Bellator career: 2011-2023Bellator record: 16-10Bellator notable achievements: Lightweight champion; Season 4 lightweight tournament runner-up; Season 10 lightweight tournament runner-up; fifth most wins in promotion history; second most fights in promotion history

Upon his signing with Bellator, Patricio “Pitbull” famously told Bjorn Rebney, “Wait until you see my brother fight.” The older of the fighting Freire siblings by 19 months, Patricky “Pitbull” never fully matched Patricio’s greatness, but he still had a phenomenal career in the promotion. Twice Patricky “Pitbull” finished as lightweight tournament runner-up, with both losses by unanimous decision to future UFC fighters Michael Chandler in May 2011 and then Marcin Held in September 2014. These two defeats cost “Pitbull” a direct title fight under Bellator’s system at the time and no doubt placed him well below his brother in the Bellator hierarchy. After the tournament structure was abandoned by Scott Coker upon his replacing Bjorn Rebney as Bellator boss, “Pitbull” won eight of his next 11 fights in the promotion. This solid run of form gained “Pitbull” a place in the fight for the vacant lightweight title vs. Peter Queally in November 2021. In this immediate rematch of a bout won by Queally six months earlier, Patricky “Pitbull” claimed his own second-round TKO victory for the 155-pound title. His 25 fights in Bellator rank him second (behind only his younger brother, Patricio) on the promotion’s all-time list.

Bellator career: 2011-2019Bellator record: 15-6, 2 NCsBellator notable achievements: Season 8 lightweight tournament champion; one-time lightweight title challenger; tied (with Michael Chandler) for fourth most fights in promotion history; sixth most wins in promotion history

David Rickels arguably had the greatest career of anyone in Bellator history who was not a champion in the promotion. The five fighters who rank ahead of him on Bellator’s most all-time victories list were all belt holders. Although Bellator never publicly announced seeding for their tournaments in the Bjorn Rebney-era, there was always internal seeding, and Rickels was most definitely the eighth and final seed for the Season 6 welterweight tournament. In his quarterfinal, Rickels brutally knocked out Jordan Smith (who entered the fight with a 17-2-1 record) at 22 seconds of Round 1. After losing his tournament semifinal by split decision to Karl Amoussou six weeks later, Rickels chose to make the drop from 170 pounds. Rickels won the Season 8 lightweight tournament, defeating Saad Awad by second-round TKO in the final, which earned him a title fight vs. then- champion Michael Chandler in July 2013. Although Rickels lost by first-round knockout to Chandler in what proved to be his only Bellator championship bout, he remained extremely relevant in the promotion. Over the next eight years, Rickels fought in six co-main Events and recorded high-quality wins over a pre-UFC Davi Ramos (October 2014), Adam Piccolotti (December 2017) and Guilherme Vasconcelos (November 2018).

Bellator career: 2010-2018Bellator record: 12-5, 1 NCBellator notable achievements: Middleweight champion; Season 3 middleweight tournament winner; Season 5 middleweight tournament winner

In the very early 2010s, Alexander Shlemenko ranked with Hector Lombard (then-Bellator middleweight champion) and Luke Rockhold (then-Strikeforce middleweight champion) as one of the top three 185-pound fighters in the world fighting outside of the UFC. By 2013, both Lombard and Rockhold were now fully entrenched in the UFC, yet Shlemenko remained in Bellator where he recorded 11 victories in 12 fights, including a second-round Knockout of Maiquel Falcao for the vacant middleweight strap (he also fought in numerous Russian and European MMA promotions during this time, one of the few elite Bellator fighters ever to have this level of contractual autonomy). Tainting Shlemenko’s Bellator legacy was a positive test for elevated levels of testosterone following his February 2015 knockout win vs. Melvin Manhoef. The fallout was a victory changed to a no contest and a suspension by the California State Athletic Commission, which kept him out of the promotion for the next three-and-a-half years. Had Shlemenko fought exclusively in Bellator during his dominant prime (from February 2010 to November 2013, Shlemenko had 11 bouts in Bellator and seven outside of the promotion, going a 17-1 combined), and had he not been caught using performance-enhancing drugs, then numerous Bellator records would almost certainly be his.

Bellator career: 2019-2023Bellator record: 8-1Bellator notable achievements: Interim bantamweight champion; bantamweight grand prix runner-up

A two-time NCAA Division II wrestling national champion at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, Raufeon Stots opened his Bellator career with five straight wins. The final bout of these five was a thorough unanimous decision over Magomed Magomedov, who had entered the bout 18-1. This impressive result led Stots to being selected for the promotion’s grand prix. In the quarterfinals, Stots defeated former Bellator champ Juan Archuleta by third-round KO, which gave him a place in the semifinals, as well as the interim 135-pound belt. After defeating Danny Sabatello by split decision in the grand prix semifinals, Stots lost to Patchy Mix in the final by first-round knockout. This defeat cost Stots his interim bantamweight title and snapped his Bellator winning streak at seven. Stots’ next match for the promotion was on the final Bellator event before the PFL takeover. At Bellator 301 in November 2023, Stots won the rematch vs Sabatello by unanimous decision. In a weight class that was consistently deep throughout Bellator’s 15-year history, Stots is unfortunately often lost in the proverbial shuffle, partially because he was never undisputed champion and partially because of his quiet and polite demeanor. Yet Stots was an elite fighter throughout his Bellator career when the upper echelon of the bantamweight division was not that far off from the UFC’s at the time.

Bellator career: 2010-2018Bellator record: 13-7Bellator notable achievements: Bantamweight champion; featherweight champion; interim bantamweight champion; Season 2 featherweight tournament winner; Season 9 bantamweight tournament winner

A 2006 Greco-Roman wrestling world champion, Joe Warren came to Bellator in 2010 at age 33 with and just three fights and 13 months into his pro MMA career. As Bellator had yet to launch its bantamweight division, Warren entered the Season 2 featherweight tournament, fighting at essentially his walk-around weight. A split decision victory over Patricio “Pitbull” in the tournament final in June 2010 earned Warren a title shot vs. Joe Soto three months later. Warren defeated the inaugural Bellator featherweight champion and future UFC fighter Soto by second-round knockout in stunning come-from-behind fashion to take the title after he had nearly finished numerous times in Round 1 (my all-time favorite Bellator fight that I commentated, by the way). Three years later, Warren won the Season 9 bantamweight tournament, defeating Travis Marx by second-round TKO in the final in November 2013. Six months later, Warren beat Rafael Silva by unanimous decision to become Bellator’s interim bantamweight champion and then in October 2014, Warren recorded a unanimous decision win over the promotion’s undisputed bantamweight champion, Eduardo Dantas, to unify the title. This victory also made Warren the first fighter in Bellator history to claim titles in two different weight classes. Warren stands as the only fighter in the promotion’s history to have held the bantamweight and featherweight straps, and is widely regarded as one of the biggest personalities ever to have fought in Bellator.