Bellator releases Will Brooks and Strips Vitaly Minakov of Hw belt

Will Brooks has been released and they stripped minakov for inactivity but claim he will still be on the roster for now.


Wow frees up money for a big play fir Rory Macdonald just sayin lol and should a stripped minakov already hope he gets a shot to get it back though

That's sucks. I thought they had Minakov deal straightened out.

I thought theyd release Brooks.  He doesn't want to be there and now he can field bids from other orgs. Good for him.  

I imagine with Minakov they'll try to sort it out, but want to get that belt moving.

^yeah, it's been so long since Minakov last fought in Bellator. Unreal this is still going on without him fighting there.

Maybe, just huge maybe they stripped Minakov from belt so that Fedor can fight for Bellator belt (probably against Lashley)?

Rizin=PRIDEFC wrote:Maybe, just huge maybe they stripped Minakov from belt so that Fedor can fight for Bellator belt (probably against Lashley)?

Vs Kharitonov I hope. Been wanting to see that for ages.....years and years.

Been wanting to see Fedor vs. Kharitonov for 12 years.

CDF47 wrote:Been wanting to see Fedor vs. Kharitonov for 12 years.

I'd settle for them kickboxing even.  It isn't the grappling I'm dying to see with SK/FE.  

Fedor trains with the great Ernesto Hoost.  He could do Bellator Kickboxing no problem.  It's one of my dreams, for him to KB.

TeepToTheJunk wrote:

CDF47 wrote:Been wanting to see Fedor vs. Kharitonov for 12 years.

I'd settle for them kickboxing even.  It isn't the grappling I'm dying to see with SK/FE.  

Fedor trains with the great Ernesto Hoost.  He could do Bellator Kickboxing no problem.  It's one of my dreams, for him to KB.

I wouldn't mind seeing that as well. That would be interesting.

If I had my way it would be Fedor vs Bobby Lashley for the title and Kharitonov vs Kongo for the first title shot. Or do a 4-man heavyweight tournament with those 4.

LMAO what a fucking joke bellator is

how do you lose your fucking champions

Pathetic

on the plus side war patricky pitbull NEW CHAMP

fka wrote:Will Brooks has been released and they stripped minakov for inactivity but claim he will still be on the roster for now.


Wow frees up money for a big play fir Rory Macdonald just sayin lol and should a stripped minakov already hope he gets a shot to get it back though

This wouldnt have happened on Bjorns watch

:bjorn:

stu3ufc wrote:

fka wrote:Will Brooks has been released and they stripped minakov for inactivity but claim he will still be on the roster for now.


Wow frees up money for a big play fir Rory Macdonald just sayin lol and should a stripped minakov already hope he gets a shot to get it back though

This wouldnt have happened on Bjorns watch

:bjorn:

LOL. Yeah, it is never good news to lose two champs, let alone in one day. Hopefully they get this fixed up for the future so it doesn't happen again. Not sure what the contract problems were.

Actually it did happen under bjorns watch remember lombard bailed on bjorn so did cole konrad,zach makovsky,and lyman good.......


Will brooks openly wanted out of bellator bjorn woukdnt of done shit...

Minakov is still in bellator just stripped cuz of inactivity.

I dont care brooks left hes a good fighter but a dick and wanted to leave so peace.

Lw is STACKED plenty of worthy guys and hw is getting better im actually excited for new blood.

CDF47 wrote:

stu3ufc wrote:

fka wrote:Will Brooks has been released and they stripped minakov for inactivity but claim he will still be on the roster for now.


Wow frees up money for a big play fir Rory Macdonald just sayin lol and should a stripped minakov already hope he gets a shot to get it back though

This wouldnt have happened on Bjorns watch

:bjorn:

LOL.  Yeah, it is never good news to lose two champs, let alone in one day.  Hopefully they get this fixed up for the future so it doesn't happen again.  Not sure what the contract problems were.

It's been brewing.  Brooks complained about the older big names headlining some tentpoles, and the promotional push they got.  He then publicly stated when freeagency came up he was gone.  Coker/Spike just sped things up instead of drawing it out or using the champion's clause. They waived the option period and matching rights.  He's a free man.  

Brooks is a great fighter, who seemed to really dislike Tito/Bonnar headlining over him (and likely their big pay).  Coker books the big draw last, so it wasn't a good fit for either party.  I like the way it worked out.  When Coker released Alvarez it was good.  If they can't patch it up, let athletes go earn after a while.  

They didn't block Minakov (who might be nonexclusive, not sure), but they don't have to let the title sit around. Strikeforce caught heat for Overeem not defending.  At least overeem was a superstar in KB.  Minakov isn't that kind of name, that they can cite him promotionally for awesomeness while absent.

This all worked out for the best. ill Will got what he wanted, and the HW belt will be in play again.

fka wrote:Actually it did happen under bjorns watch remember lombard bailed on bjorn so did cole konrad,zach makovsky,and lyman good.......


Will brooks openly wanted out of bellator bjorn woukdnt of done shit...

Minakov is still in bellator just stripped cuz of inactivity.

I dont care brooks left hes a good fighter but a dick and wanted to leave so peace.

Lw is STACKED plenty of worthy guys and hw is getting better im actually excited for new blood.

Oh yeah, I remember the Lombard deal. Konrad just kind of retired out of nowhere for a business opportunity.

That Brooks deal sucks. Not sure what he has in mind or what his contract entailed but would have liked to see him continue to fight for Bellator. It is still a really good LW division though.

Minakov has been frustrating for a while. Hasn't defended his belt in long time so it was time to strip him of that.

HW is looking real good right now. I'm excited for that division as well.

TeepToTheJunk wrote:

CDF47 wrote:

stu3ufc wrote:

fka wrote:Will Brooks has been released and they stripped minakov for inactivity but claim he will still be on the roster for now.


Wow frees up money for a big play fir Rory Macdonald just sayin lol and should a stripped minakov already hope he gets a shot to get it back though

This wouldnt have happened on Bjorns watch

:bjorn:

LOL.  Yeah, it is never good news to lose two champs, let alone in one day.  Hopefully they get this fixed up for the future so it doesn't happen again.  Not sure what the contract problems were.

It's been brewing.  Brooks complained about the older big names headlining some tentpoles, and the promotional push they got.  He then publicly stated when freeagency came up he was gone.  Coker/Spike just sped things up instead of drawing it out or using the champion's clause. They waived the option period and matching rights.  He's a free man.  

Brooks is a great fighter, who seemed to really dislike Tito/Bonnar headlining over him (and likely their big pay).  Coker books the big draw last, so it wasn't a good fit for either party.  I like the way it worked out.  When Coker released Alvarez it was good.  If they can't patch it up, let athletes go earn after a while.  

They didn't block Minakov (who might be nonexclusive, not sure), but they don't have to let the title sit around. Strikeforce caught heat for Overeem not defending.  At least overeem was a superstar in KB.  Minakov isn't that kind of name, that they can cite him promotionally for awesomeness while absent.

This all worked out for the best. ill Will got what he wanted, and the HW belt will be in play again.

That's some good info.  Thanks for that.  I was wondering how that played out.

Brooks wanted the full headliner push, but his heafline at B136 drew 655k (3rd out of the 5 cards at that point in 2015), B131 Ortiz vs Bonnar which he fought on averaged 1.24 million domestically.  Him fighting under the "mildly freaky" fight more than doubled his own draw.  

He wants the UFC grind, he can go for it.  Coker is acing it, but not everyone will dig it.  Overall Bellator is a thousand times better under Coker.  They are taking the brand worldwide, but not every fighter is the right fit.

It's a series of value propositions to Coker.  Brooks placed himself outside of being worth it.  He's a badass, and now he can shop around. Everyone wins.

Bendo/Thompson more then compensate for Brooks' departure divisionally. 155 in Bellator is badass.

Lombard is a Bjornator reject .... what has lombard done since? nothing

bjorn was right to let him go

I like Brooks and he's a loss but he's been whining for a year and a head ache. The joke is on him though because he can test the free market but unless ONE or Rizin are interested then the UFC will offer him a shitty deal since there isn't a lot of interest. As for Minakov, I like him but bout fucking time. There is no reason he should've held it as long as it did. The heavyweight division has gotten much better and they deserve a chance to compete it.

TeepToTheJunk wrote:Brooks wanted the full headliner push, but his heafline at B136 drew 655k (3rd out of the 5 cards at that point in 2015), B131 Ortiz vs Bonnar which he fought on averaged 1.24 million domestically.  Him fighting under the "mildly freaky" fight more than doubled his own draw.  

He wants the UFC grind, he can go for it.  Coker is acing it, but not everyone will dig it.  Overall Bellator is a thousand times better under Coker.  They are taking the brand worldwide, but not every fighter is the right fit.

It's a series of value propositions to Coker.  Brooks placed himself outside of being worth it.  He's a badass, and now he can shop around. Everyone wins.

Bendo/Thompson more then compensate for Brooks' departure divisionally.  155 in Bellator is badass.

Some real good points. It is good that even the champions are not locked in forever with a promoter and the promoter has matching rights in the contract to help them keep champions. This type of contract does not lock a fighter in forever and also allows the promoter to do what they can to keep their champs. It is another good incentive to sign with orgs. like Bellator, in addition to fighters being able to obtain their own sponsors, fight on Spike TV, fight in other sports (kickboxing and boxing), fight in Japan in the new PRIDE type org.,....

stu3ufc wrote:Lombard is a Bjornator reject .... what has lombard done since? nothing

bjorn was right to let him go

When he left he was a pretty big loss to the org. at the time due to the run he was on. Eddie was the other big loss. Konrad just retired so that does not really count as a fighter leaving the org.

Rocksoldier84 wrote:I like Brooks and he's a loss but he's been whining for a year and a head ache. The joke is on him though because he can test the free market but unless ONE or Rizin are interested then the UFC will offer him a shitty deal since there isn't a lot of interest. As for Minakov, I like him but bout fucking time. There is no reason he should've held it as long as it did. The heavyweight division has gotten much better and they deserve a chance to compete it.

It is definitely now time to take the title from Minakov. I didn't want to see it happen but it was the right call. It's been too long since he defended the belt.

CDF47 wrote:

Rocksoldier84 wrote:I like Brooks and he's a loss but he's been whining for a year and a head ache. The joke is on him though because he can test the free market but unless ONE or Rizin are interested then the UFC will offer him a shitty deal since there isn't a lot of interest. As for Minakov, I like him but bout fucking time. There is no reason he should've held it as long as it did. The heavyweight division has gotten much better and they deserve a chance to compete it.

It is definitely now time to take the title from Minakov.  I didn't want to see it happen but it was the right call.  It's been too long since he defended the belt.  

He's been holding out for money, as is his right. They, in turn, took their belt back, so now he's doing so without holding up their HW division. Minakov's manager runs FightNights so he'll be ok either way.

CDF47 wrote:

stu3ufc wrote:Lombard is a Bjornator reject .... what has lombard done since? nothing

bjorn was right to let him go

When he left he was a pretty big loss to the org. at the time due to the run he was on.  Eddie was the other big loss.  Konrad just retired so that does not really count as a fighter leaving the org.  

lombard was a big fish in a small pond then. Bellators MW division was never amazing.

Melvin manoeff is getting a title shot for nothing lol