It isn’t currently known what will happen to the current Bellator champions after Ariel Helwani stated that the promotion is “dead” from here on out. The Bellator Champions Series, which was established by the PFL in 2024, suffered from some major issues which as a result, has led some of the top fighters on the roster voicing their criticisms of the way that they have been treated since their contracts were acquired by the PFL in 2023.
These events are set to be replaced by the PFL Champions Series which will introduce new PFL titles instead of having the belts up for grabs in the regular season format as has been the case in previous years. It now appears that the final fight that still has the Bellator name attached to it will be on January 25 where Usman Nurmagomedov defends the Bellator lightweight title against Paul Hughes in Dubai.
One of the current champions of the promotion that is set to be fazed out of the PFL brand spoke out on social media following this news. Corey Anderson claimed that rather than being contacted by someone from the PFL, he found out that the brand which he is the light heavyweight champion of will cease to exist via his wife.
“Imagine being the champion of an organization chilling on the couch and your wife walks in and tells you “did you see this? Bellator is dead now?”… and all you can do is shrug your shoulders in confusion…. CUZ you still haven’t heard a thing. Lol Yeaaaah, that was me.”
Anderson has been particularly vocal in recent times due to the booking and subsequent cancelation of his matchup with Vadim Nemkov which was booked for the first “Road to Dubai” event on January 25. Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen also took to social media to raise the question of what this news means for his current status.