16 pro fighters who are based in Ireland have been snapped up by Bellator.
Bellator MMA are going all in on the Irish market. The second largest MMA promotion in the world are after signing 22 European fighters, 16 of which fight out of Ireland. Ariel Helwani of ESPN was first to report the story.
TUF: The Smashes champion and UFC veteran Norman Parke is the most high-profile name on the list. The Bushmills lightweight announced that he had signed with the promotion through social media earlier this week.
Arklow’s Richie Smullen, who most recently competed in the UFC’s Octagon, has also been signed. The SBG fighter became a free agent after losing his UFC debut to Luis ‘Violent Bob Ross’ Pena via first-round guillotine earlier this month.
"I was on the piss the night before, I turned up hungover." @RichardKielyMMA https://t.co/kO48xUBFbN
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 25, 2018
Dubliners Kiefer Crosbie, Richard Kiely, John Redmond and Kilkenny’s Myles Price are among the new Ireland-based fighters added to the roster. You can check out the list below.
- Dylan Logan (2-3; fighting out of Ireland)
- Pedro Carvalho (8-3; fighting out of Ireland, by way of Portugal)
- Constantin Gnusariev (1-0; fighting out of Ireland, by way of Moldova)
- Luka Jelcic (10-3; fighting out of Ireland, by way of Croatia)
- Norman Parke (25-6-1, 1 NC; fighting out of Northern Ireland)
- Myles Price (10-7, fighting out of Ireland)
- Daniele Scatizzi (9-4; fighting out Ireland, by way of Italy)
- Sam Slater (2-0; fighting out of Ireland)
- Richie Smullen (3-1-1; fighting out of Ireland) Welterweight:
- Ruben Crawford (16-3; fighting out of Ireland, by way of Germany)
- Kiefer Crosbie (4-0; fighting out of Ireland)
- Richard Kiely (2-1; fighting out of Ireland)
- Ion Pascu (18-8; fighting out of Ireland, by way of Romania) Middleweight:
- Claudio Conti (7-5-2; fighting out of Ireland, by way of Italy)
- John Redmond (7-13; fighting out of Ireland) Women’s Flyweight:
- Antonela Orlic – (pro debut; fighting out of Ireland by way of Croatia)
