Bellator MMA: Season Eight


Bellator MMA: Season Eight was the eighth installment of the Bellator MMA, which began on January 17, 2013 and ended on April 4, 2013.
Mixed martial arts tournaments were held in five weight classes and all of the champions, except the heavyweight champion, placed their titles on the line during this season.
This season marked the beginning of Bellator MMA airing on Spike TV.

Events

Bellator 85

Bellator 85 took place on January 17, 2013 at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, California. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV. It marked the season debut of season eight.
Background
Bellator 85 was to open with a fight chosen exclusively by fans in the "Bellator: Vote For The Fight" contest. Fans could log onto Spike.com to select the two fighters they want to see square off in the first ever Bellator bout on Spike TV. The eligible fighters were all welterweights and included Paul Daley, Douglas Lima, Ben Saunders and War Machine. Initially a bout between Daley and War Machine was announced by Bellator, but it was subsequently cancelled when War Machine tore his ACL and broke his fibula.
Results

Bellator 86

Bellator 86 took place on January 24, 2013 at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV.
Background
Bellator 86 featured the opening round of the Season Eight Welterweight Tournament.
The card also featured the Bellator debut of Muhammed Lawal, against veteran Polish fighter Przemyslaw "Misiek" Mysiala.
Results

Bellator 87

Bellator 87 took place on January 31, 2013 at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV.
Background
Bellator 87 featured fights the quarterfinals of the Season Eight Lightweight Tournament.
Patricky Freire was originally supposed to face Guillaume DeLorenzi in the main event. However, on the day of the weigh ins Freire was pulled from the card due to an "undisclosed injury" and replaced by Saad Awad.
Results

Bellator 88

Bellator 88 took place on February 7, 2013 at The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV.
Background
Bellator 88 featured the opening round of the Season Eight Featherweight Tournament as well as a title fight for the vacant Middleweight title.
A middleweight bout between Kelvin Tiller and Dave Vitkay was originally announced for this card, but failed to materialize.
Results

Bellator 89

Bellator 89 took place on February 14, 2013 at The Bojangles' Coliseum, in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV.
Background
Bellator 89 featured the opening round of the Middleweight tournament.
The event also featured the first defense for Eduardo Dantas of the Bantamweight Title since he won it from Zach Makovsky in May 2012. It marked the first time two training partners and friends have fought for a title in the Bellator promotion.
Results

Bellator 90

Bellator XC took place on February 21, 2013 at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV.
Background
Bellator 90 featured the finals of the.
The card also featured the Light Heavyweight and Welterweight tournament semifinals.
Results

Bellator 91

Bellator 91 took place on February 28, 2013 at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV.
Background
Bellator 91 featured the first title defense by Light Heavyweight champion Christian M'Pumbu, despite having won the belt in May 2011.
Alexander Sarnavskiy was originally scheduled to face David Rickels in the semifinals. However, Sarnavskiy fractured his hand during his first fight and had to withdraw from the tournament. He was replaced with Jason Fischer.
Results

Bellator 92

Bellator 92 took place on March 7, 2013 at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, California. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV.
Background
The card was originally scheduled to have the season 7 Lightweight tournament final between Dave Jansen and Marcin Held. However, Held was injured and the fight was delayed two weeks to Bellator 93.
Results

Bellator 93

Bellator 93 took place on March 21, 2013 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisée in Lewiston, Maine. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV and featured the Season Seven Lightweight Tournament Final.
Background
Ben Saunders and Douglas Lima were scheduled to have a rematch on this card to decide the winner of the. However, Lima broke his hand and the match was delayed until later in the year.
Heavyweights Brett Rogers and Eric Prindle were scheduled to face each other on this card. However, the week leading up to the show it was announced that Prindle had pulled out of the bout due to an injury.
Jon Lemke defeated Jesse Erickson to kick off the event for the night and marked Bellator's 800th Fight in the history of the company.
Results

Bellator 94

Bellator 94 took place on March 28, 2013 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV and featured the Light Heavyweight and Lightweight Tournament Finals.
Background
Tony Fryklund made his return to mixed martial arts on this card after a 6-year absence. His last fight was a losing effort against Cung Le at a Strikeforce event in June 2007.
A bout between middleweights Ivan Devalle and Rory Shallcross was originally announced for this card, but failed to materialize.
Results

Bellator 95

Bellator 95 took place on April 4, 2013 at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The event was distributed live in prime time by Spike TV.
Background
The event was initially scheduled to feature a championship match for the Featherweight Title between Pat Curran and Daniel Mason-Straus. However, on February 26, it was announced that Straus had broken his hand and had to pull out of the fight. On February 27, it was announced that recent tournament winner Shahbulat Shamhalaev would advance with his title shot and he faced Curran on this card.
The card was to feature the #1-ranked 125-pound female fighter according to the Unified Women's MMA Rankings Jessica Eye vs. Munah Holland in a Women's Flyweight bout, but Eye had to withdraw due to a back injury.
Results

Tournaments

Featherweight tournament bracket

Lightweight tournament bracket

Welterweight tournament bracket

Light Heavyweight tournament bracket