Bellator Fighting Championships
Bjorn Rebney
['saint anthony', 'fumimaro konoe', 'brunel', 'chris dewolfe', 'thomas green clemson', 'conrad hilton', 'don zientara', 'mike wengren', 'parnell', 'anorthosis', 'king henry viii', 'dave rubinstein', 'henry vi', 'glenn beck', 'shiv nadar', 'biafra', 'leo fender', 'freudian', 'ussr', 'george lucas', 'belarusian', 'mercer', 'henry dunant', 'usa', 'del close', 'william randolph hearst', 'david stirling', 'paul mccartney', 'yoshisuke aikawa', 'century 21', 'nurhaci', 'dayananda saraswati', 'daptone records', 'omar torrijos', 'charles cecil', 'steven spielberg', 'umberto bossi', 'robert stewart', 'john dewey', 'nikolai rubinstein', 'ivan shuvalov', 'king menelik i', 'simon zavarian', 'larry sanger', 'brian epstein', 'berry gordy', 'sukarno', 'the netherlands', 'george washington', 'robyn miller', 'creed taylor', 'antony jay', 'sherman fairchild', 'rafic hariri', 'brian grazer', 'william howard taft', 'christapor mikaelian', 'will ferrell', 'zhukovsky', 'king henry i', 'amenhotep iv', 'milton bradley', 'donald watson', 'vincenzo lancia', 'david dunbar buick', 'manfred eicher', 'ingvar kamprad', 'rudolf dassler', 'sergey brin', 'daptone', 'deepak chopra', 'transcaucasian sfsr', 'catherine ii', 'jenna jameson', 'larry harvey', 'papandreou', 'klimt', 'steve jackson', 'crown prince oscar', 'robert de sorbon', 'tech n9ne', 'brian slagel', 'belarus', 'saint dominic', 'thales', 'hetfield', 'olympiakos nicosia', 'gustavus adolphus', 'mario illien', 'william james mayo', 'bertrand piccard', 'joseph goebbels', 'si', 'franklin delano roosevelt', 'joseph henry', 'hironobu sakaguchi', 'gucci mane', 'panhellenic socialist movement', 'ukraine ssr']
List of Bellator champions
Bellator MMA (formerly known as "Bellator Fighting Championships") is an American mixed martial arts promotion, and the following is a history of its champions in each weight class. At the time of its inception in 2008, CEO Bjorn Rebney founded Bellator Fighting Championships as a tournament based organization. The inaugural champion for each weight class was determined by the winner of an eight-man tournament. All subsequent title challengers were required to first win an eight-man tournament in a specific weight class in order to earn the right to challenge that division's reigning champion. Dethroned champions were required to re-enter the tournaments in order to attempt to regain their title. Under Bjorn Rebney's sole leadership, Bellator MMA would strictly adhere to these rules during the first four years of its operation. The first changes to this format would begin to appear not long after Viacom, Inc. purchased a controlling stake in the organization. In November 2012, CEO Bjorn Rebney announced the introduction of a "championship rematch clause". This would allow Bellator to schedule an immediate title-fight rematch if officials deemed the fight necessary. The next major change occurred during Bellator's 2013 Summer Series when it was announced that all three tournaments would be shorter, four-man affairs instead of the standard eight. Though originally stated to return to the eight-man only tournaments afterwards, officials instead decided to add two additional four-man tournaments to the existing tournament lineup in a effort to provide a more consistent flow of title challengers for their champions to face. Two additional rule changes would be announced. The first was the "tournament champion replacement clause" introduced in August 2013. This allowed officials to grant title shots to replacement fighters when tournament winners were injured, or otherwise unavailable, through a complex voting and points system. Then, in June 2014, CEO Bjorn Rebney made an announcement stating that any fighter who had previously won a Bellator tournament would maintain permanent eligibility to fight for a title without having to re-enter another tournament. Neither of these changes would ever be implemented, however, as one week later Bellator MMA and its founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney parted ways, bringing about an end to the organization's tournament based model.