Per an @arielhelwani
report, add UFC vet Brett Johns (17-2) to this list! Leaves UFC on
a 2W streak. https://t.co/YwHEjJWe4s— Michael Fiedel (@MichaelFiedel)
October 2, 2020
Bellator
MMA is making some big moves lately.
On Friday, the promotion sent out a press release to announce that
it had signed Usman
Nurmagomedov (11-0), the cousin of
Ultimate Fighting Championship star Khabib
Nurmagomedov. This signing of the lightweight joins several
other recent high-profile acquisitions from the California-based
organization. ESPN
reported that several UFC vets have joined the ranks including
Brett
Johns (17-2),
along with Rustam
Khabilov (24-4) and
featherweight Jeremy
Kennedy (15-2, 1 NC).
Nurmagomedov has yet to taste defeat as a professional, much like
his cousin. Across his 11 career bouts, the Dagestan native has
finished 10 of his opponents within two rounds. Competing three
times in 2020 with knockouts of Svyatoslav
Shabanov, Jerry
Kvarnstrom and Ruslan
Tuyakov, the promising prospect has rattled off ten of his wins
since December 2018.
“The Pikey” left the UFC on a two-fight win streak over Montel
Jackson and Tony
Gravely this year. The winningest Welsh fighter in UFC history,
Johns fought out of his contract and elected to test the free agent
market. His last appearance in July, the Welshman was not on the
shelf for long before being picked up. Like the other Bellator
acquisitions, Johns does not currently have a debut set.
Khabilov will be fighting under a different banner for the first
time since 2012. The lightweight fought 13 times for the promotion,
winning ten including a decision over Jorge
Masvidal. Along with Johns, Khabilov leaves the promotion with
a win, as he defeated Sergey
Khandozhko in November 2019 in his last bout. Each of the
Dagestani fighter’s last nine bouts have all reached the
scorecards, and “Tiger” sports a paltry finish rate of 37
percent.
Kennedy fought with the UFC four times from 2016 to 2018, and his
only loss with the company was a knockout at the hands of current
featherweight king Alexander
Volkanovski. After that four-fight stretch, Kennedy picked up a
pair of knockouts with Brave Combat Federation before signing up for
the 2019
Professional Fighters League season. Reaching the playoffs only
to lose to Daniel
Pineda – who later failed a post-fight drug test – the PFL
decided to give Alex Gilpin
a place in the finals instead of Kennedy.
These fighters will join others like Corey
Anderson and Cat Zingano,
who recently moved on from the UFC to become part of the Bellator
roster. Other names from various organizations that have elected to
sign with Bellator of late include Jared
Scoggins, Jaleel
Willis and Bryce Logan.