Champ Cole Konrad vs. Eric Prindle off Bellator 65, moved to Bellator 70

This week's Bellator 65 event has lost a title fight.

A fight between heavyweight champion Cole Konrad (8-0 MMA, 6-0 BFC) and de facto tournament winner Eric Prindle (7-1 MMA, 3-0 BFC) has been moved to Bellator 70 on May 25.

Prindle, who suffered a hand injury, today tweeted news of the change.

Bellator 65 takes place Friday at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Konrad vs. Prindle was expected to join Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky (14-2 MMA, 6-0 BFC) and fellow headliner Eduardo Dantas (13-2 MMA, 3-0 BFC) on the MTV2-televised main card.

Instead, it'll take place next month at a currently unannounced Bellator 70 show.

The title fight came about after two meetings between season-five tournament finalists Prindle and Thiago Santos were scrapped in recent weeks.

Prindle and Santos first fought at Bellator 59, where the tourney championship went unresolved after Santos accidentally kicked his opponent in the groin. With Prindle unable to continue, the fight was rebooked for Bellator 61 this past month. However, Prindle suffered from flu-like symptoms, and the fight was postponed a week. Then at Bellator 62 weigh-ins, Santos failed to make weight, and Prindle was declared the tournament champion.

Konrad hasn't fought since August, when he earned a unanimous-decision victory over Paul Buentello in a non-title fight. Prior to that, the two-time NCAA Division I national champion and current Team DeathClutch fighter won Bellator's season-three tournament with victories over Rogent Lloret, Damian Grabowski and Neil Grove. That earned him Bellator's inaugural heavyweight title.

Before the Santos fiasco, Prindle advanced to the season-five tourney finale with victories over Abe Wagner and Ron Sparks. It was part of a seven-fight win streak that followed his pro-debut loss to Jimmy Ambriz in 2008.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28174/champ-cole-konrad-vs-eric-prindle-off-bellator-65-moved-to-bellator-70.mma

Yeah, it sucks the HW division schedule is pushed once more. Wish this fight would happen already and Bellator would get another HW tournament going. They do not plan on another HW tournament until Season 7 but they should also include a small tournament as part of their summer series to keep the division more active. HW and LHW are the two best divisions in MMA in my opinion and Bellator needs to focus more on these divisions and less on the women's divisions.

^^^^agreed Christian has to redeem himself and a LHW tournament is need more. I would have thought that season 6 would have showcased LHW after Christian Mpumbu losing to travis wiuffe.

ZuffaKiller wrote:^^^^agreed Christian has to redeem himself and a LHW tournament is need more. I would have thought that season 6 would have showcased LHW after Christian Mpumbu losing to travis wiuffe.

Totally agree. M'Pumbu needs to rematch Wiuff ASAP for the title so the title means something again. Right now the title is meaningless in my opinion and Wiuff is the undeclared champion and higher ranked fighter. They signed some awesome LHWs and they need a tournament ASAP who should fight the winner of a M'Pumbu/Wiuff fight. I was hoping season 6 would have the LHW tournament as well. Hopefully they hold this in the summer and another one next fall.

CDF47 wrote:

ZuffaKiller wrote:^^^^agreed Christian has to redeem himself and a LHW tournament is need more. I would have thought that season 6 would have showcased LHW after Christian Mpumbu losing to travis wiuffe.

Totally agree. M'Pumbu needs to rematch Wiuff ASAP for the title so the title means something again. Right now the title is meaningless in my opinion and Wiuff is the undeclared champion and higher ranked fighter. They signed some awesome LHWs and they need a tournament ASAP who should fight the winner of a M'Pumbu/Wiuff fight. I was hoping season 6 would have the LHW tournament as well. Hopefully they hold this in the summer and another one next fall.

What a mess for Bellator. LHW and HW are the most important divisions and maybe they should reconsider the tourney format.

Johan Lofgren wrote:

CDF47 wrote:

ZuffaKiller wrote:^^^^agreed Christian has to redeem himself and a LHW tournament is need more. I would have thought that season 6 would have showcased LHW after Christian Mpumbu losing to travis wiuffe.

Totally agree. M'Pumbu needs to rematch Wiuff ASAP for the title so the title means something again. Right now the title is meaningless in my opinion and Wiuff is the undeclared champion and higher ranked fighter. They signed some awesome LHWs and they need a tournament ASAP who should fight the winner of a M'Pumbu/Wiuff fight. I was hoping season 6 would have the LHW tournament as well. Hopefully they hold this in the summer and another one next fall.

What a mess for Bellator. LHW and HW are the most important divisions and maybe they should reconsider the tourney format.

Agreed. They need to be a bit more flexible with the tournament format. The tournaments are great and are a great way to earn a title shot but when fights absolutely make sense outside of the tournament format they need to happen. Chandler and Eddie should rematch if Eddie gets by Aoki and if he stays contracted with Bellator because the fight makes sense. M'Pumbu absolutely needs to rematch Wiuff for the title since he just lost to him while holding the title. If top ranked fighters from other organizations are brought in, like hypothetically King Mo, Rumble Johnson,..., they should be able to get a title shot immeditately or after a single fight as well. Plus, Bellator needs more cross-promotional super fights like Eddie vs. Aoki, Khalidov vs. Lombard,... They could make some outstanding fights with DREAM, M-1, KSW, ONE FC, Legend FC,...

CDF47 wrote:
Agreed. They need to be a bit more flexible with the tournament format. The tournaments are great and are a great way to earn a title shot but when fights absolutely make sense outside of the tournament format they need to happen. Chandler and Eddie should rematch if Eddie gets by Aoki and if he stays contracted with Bellator because the fight makes sense. M'Pumbu absolutely needs to rematch Wiuff for the title since he just lost to him while holding the title. If top ranked fighters from other organizations are brought in, like hypothetically King Mo, Rumble Johnson,..., they should be able to get a title shot immeditately or after a single fight as well. Plus, Bellator needs more cross-promotional super fights like Eddie vs. Aoki, Khalidov vs. Lombard,... They could make some outstanding fights with DREAM, M-1, KSW, ONE FC, Legend FC,...

Good points, maybe the strict tourney schedule is holding Bellator back.

Johan Lofgren wrote:

CDF47 wrote:
Agreed. They need to be a bit more flexible with the tournament format. The tournaments are great and are a great way to earn a title shot but when fights absolutely make sense outside of the tournament format they need to happen. Chandler and Eddie should rematch if Eddie gets by Aoki and if he stays contracted with Bellator because the fight makes sense. M'Pumbu absolutely needs to rematch Wiuff for the title since he just lost to him while holding the title. If top ranked fighters from other organizations are brought in, like hypothetically King Mo, Rumble Johnson,..., they should be able to get a title shot immeditately or after a single fight as well. Plus, Bellator needs more cross-promotional super fights like Eddie vs. Aoki, Khalidov vs. Lombard,... They could make some outstanding fights with DREAM, M-1, KSW, ONE FC, Legend FC,...

Good points, maybe the strict tourney schedule is holding Bellator back.

Yeah, I think it is to an extent.