Press Release – Newport Beach, Cali. (October 11, 2012) — As Bellator prepares to kick off the Season 7 Featherweight Tournament Quarterfinals, the location for the semifinals have now been set as Bellator announced today the promotion will return to The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on November 9th to host the Featherweight Tournament Semifinals as well as a bantamweight feature fight between former Bellator Featherweight Champion Joe Warren and submission ace Owen Evinger. Tickets for Bellator 80 are on sale now and can be purchased on Ticketmaster.com, Bellator.com and from the Seminole Hard Rock box office.
Bellator 80 will air LIVE on MTV2 and in commercial free HD on EPIX, as well in Spanish language on mun2. As always, the preliminary card will stream exclusively on Spike.com.
After a 5-0 start to his Bellator career that saw “The Baddest Man on the Planet” capture the Bellator Featherweight Title as well as challenging for the Bellator Bantamweight Title, Joe Warren finds himself in unfamiliar territory as the former Pan American wrestler is looking to get back to the top of the MMA mountain top with a big victory over Missouri native Owen Evinger.
Known across the MMA world as the best pound-for-pound female fighter in the game today, Florida’s own Jessica “Jag” Aguilar will make her long awaited return to the Bellator cage on November 9th. The American Top Team product is coming off the biggest win of her career after a unanimous decision victory over Megumi Fujii at Bellator 69, and will attempt to continue her run of dominance inside the Bellator cage with another victory from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
“From Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez in the 2011 Fight of the Year to Pat Curran delivering a devastating Peruvian neck-tie submission, The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has been witness to some of our greatest Bellator moments, and I expect nothing but the same November 9th at Bellator 80,” said Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney.
For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA, follow Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney @BjornRebney and check out Bellator on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator
About Bellator Fighting Championships
Bellator Fighting Championships is the world’s largest tournament based Mixed Martial Arts organization. Televised to nearly 500 Million homes worldwide, Bellator’s majority owner is entertainment giant Viacom. In the United States, Bellator can be seen on MTV2, in commercial-free HD on EPIX. Starting in January of 2013 Bellator will be broadcast on MMA television leader, Spike TV. With over 150 world-class athletes under contract, Bellator is home to many of the sport’s top athletes. Bellator’s founder &CEO, Bjorn Rebney, an experienced fighting sports and entertainment executive with a deep commitment to the purity and integrity of the sport of MMA and its athletes, believed that title shots should be earned, not given. This belief gave rise to Bellator’s real sport, tournament-based format, which gives Bellator’s tournaments a true playoff feel that keeps the sport true and distances itself from the political/subjective side of fighting sports. Bellator Fighting Championships’ executive team is comprised of top industry professionals in television production, live event orchestration, fighter development/relations, venue procurement, sponsorship creation/development, international licensing, marketing, advertising, publicity and commission relations. Bellator is based in Southern, California.
About MTV2
Available in approximately 80 million homes MTV2 is man’s best friend. Since its launch in 1996, the network has reflected the subversive interests and behaviors of young men with a compelling and diverse programming line-up inspired by ordinary guys who do extraordinary things. MTV2 is part of Viacom Media Networks, one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. For more information, go to www.mtvpress.com or follow us on Twitter @MTVPress.
About EPIX
EPIX, a joint venture between Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), its Paramount Pictures unit, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), is a next-generation premium entertainment channel, video-on-demand and online service launched on October 30, 2009. With access to more than 15,000 motion pictures spanning the vast libraries of its partners and other studios, EPIX provides a powerful entertainment experience with more feature films on demand and online and more HD movies than any other service. It is the only premium service providing its entire monthly line-up of new Hollywood titles, classic feature films, original series, music and comedy specials through the linear channel, video-on-demand and online at EpixHD.com, the leading online destination for movies.
EPIX has made the commitment to deliver the industry’s most expansive online collection of movies, making more than 3,000 titles available on EpixHD.com. The service is available to over 30 million homes nationwide through distribution partners including Charter Communications, Cox Communications, DISH Network, Mediacom Communications, NCTC, Suddenlink Communications and Verizon FiOS.
About mun2
mun2 is the leading Hispanic cable network for young millennial adults 18-34. From reality to music, on-air to digital, mun2 creates original content that resonates across a multi-screen platform. Young, vibrant and unabashedly Latino, mun2 has a distribution to over 38 million households. The network is part of Telemundo Media, a division of NBCUniversal.