In the Cage – Bellator Announces Title Bout, Drops Women; Fight Master Moves

Each day, The MMA Corner will provide a recap of results, event announcements, fight match-ups, and injuries/cancellations from throughout the world of MMA.

Bellator’s first pay-per-view card already has a main event, but the promotion has announced that the highly anticipated rematch between Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez will also take place on the card. Chandler and Alvarez engaged in a “Fight of the Year” candidate back in 2011.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Tito Ortiz is scheduled to headline the card and more bouts are expected to be announced. Bellator’s first venture into pay-per-view is slated for Nov. 2.

Although no official statement claiming the promotion is entirely done with women’s MMA has been made, Bellator has released the remaining women on its roster. However, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney was able to give some insight into why the move was made.

“I’ve said many times that fighters need to fight and fight often,” Rebney said. “Given our current focus, we are not in position to provide these very deserving women regular and reoccurring fights on a large platform.”

Popular women’s strawweight fighter Felice Herrig has signed an exclusive multi-fight agreement with Invicta FC. Herrig has won four straight and is a protege of MMA fighter Jeff Curran. Her most recent MMA outing was a split decision victory over Heather Clark back in March.

Herrig is expected to make her Invicta debut later this year.

After a season filled with what can only be desribed as disappointment, Bellator has opted to shift the remaining episodes of Fight Master to Thursday nights at 11 p.m. ET/PT. The promotion did not provide a reason for the move, but it’s widely suspected the move was made to piggyback off of viewers tuning in to TNA: Impact!, which airs prior to the 11 p.m. timeslot.

Photo: Bellator Lightweight champ Michael Chandler (Jeff Cain/MMA Weekly)