Three-round main events for Bellator will soon be a thing of the past.
The promotion has decided to move away from the three-round non-title bout main events and will make all of them five rounds starting in 2022. The news was announced by Bellator president Scott Coker on Wednesday’s edition of “The MMA Hour.”
“This is something that a lot of fans feel this happened in the last two or three months because of the way the chips fell in some of these fights, but really we’ve been talking about this for the last six to eight months,” Coker said. “We decided that starting January 1st that all the main events fights will be five rounds.”
The remaining non-championship main events for 2021 will be contested as three-round fights.
The promotion recently came under criticism after headlining bouts left fans, and even the fighters themselves, wanting more. Phil Davis vs. Yoel Romero and Michael Page vs. Douglas Lima 2 were contested over 15 minutes. In both cases, many fans were left wondering “what if” two more rounds were included.
