Heavyweight Cheick Kongo (18-8-2) reportedly followed Wolfslair teammate Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson to the No. 2 mixed martial arts promotion by signing with Bellator MMA.
News of the signing was announced by MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday.
A day later those rumors were put to rest by Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney who sppoke to MMAFighting.com.
“He has not [signed],” said Rebney. “Great fighter, fun personality, very good fighter to watch, I’ve been watching him fight for years, but he has not signed with Bellator.”
This doesn’t mean the French heavyweight might not sign with Bellator, Rebney did say that he expects more fighters from the Wolfslair to sign with the Chicago based promotion.
“Part of the magic of this relationship is I got to spend literally months working with the team at Wolfslair,” Rebney said. “They’ve got a terrific stable of talent. You’re going to see some announcements coming out literally in the next couple weeks about more Wolfslair talent that’s going to be coming in with Bellator.”
Kongo completed his contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship last April following a knockout loss to Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson at UFC 159.
The fighter opted not to sign a new contract and will now ply his trade somewhere other than the Octagon.
Overall with the UFC Kongo went 11-6-1 since debuting with the top promotion back in July 2006.