Press Release – Newport Beach, CA. (January 4, 2013) – After nearly four months in the making, the Bellator MMA Featherweight Tournament Finals will be concluded from Salt Lake City’s Maverik Center on February 21st as Utah’s own Rad Martinez will battle Russian striker Shahbulat Shamhalaev for a guaranteed World Title Shot and a $100,000 Bellator Tournament prize live on Spike TV. Tickets for the event start as low as $40 and can be purchased by visiting Ticketmaster.com, Bellator.com, and the Maverik Center Box Office.
The event will broadcast LIVE starting at 8 p.m. MST on Spike, as well as in Spanish language on mun2. The preliminary card will be streamed LIVE and FREE on Spike.com starting at 6 p.m. MST.
For Martinez, the West Jordan native makes his Utah homecoming riding an impressive five fight win streak, including Bellator Tournament victories over top featherweights Nazareno Malegarie and Wagnney Fabiano. Already tasked with preparing for the biggest fight of his career, Martinez knows what’s at stake with his hometown crowd behind him.
“To have the opportunity to fight in Salt Lake City for the Bellator Featherweight Tournament Championship is just a dream come true,” Martinez said. “Utah has a great base of MMA fans, but we’ve never had a big MMA promotion come to Salt Lake City, so it’s a great honor to be headlining Utah’s first large scale MMA event.”
Shamhalaev re-enters the Bellator cage after collecting two devastating knockouts and has his sights set on a guaranteed title shot with a victory of Martinez. Armed with an arsenal of explosive jabs and strikes, Martinez is aware of the challenges that await him on February 21st.
“Shamhalaev is incredibly quick and versatile, and brings a lot of things to the table, so I know I have my work cut out for me,” Martinez said. “Fans know that any time I step into the cage you can expect a war, and nothing will change for this fight.”
The night is also scheduled to host Bellator’s Light Heavyweight Tournament Semifinals. The tournament begins January 17th live on Spike, and is headlined by “King Mo” Lawal, “Babalu” Sobral and Seth “Silverback” Petruzelli.
“A fight between Rad and Shahbulat would be special anywhere you put it,” said Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney. “But to have the opportunity to make this fight happen in Salt Lake City with the ties Rad has to Utah is an incredible opportunity we couldn’t pass up. It’s been a long time coming, but February 21st is shaping up to be a huge night of fights.”
“We are proud to host such a prestigious event like BellatorMMA that will showcase our venue, Utah’s own Rad Martinez and, most importantly, our patrons to Spike TV’s impressive viewership”, stated Maverik Center’s Director of Marketing Steve Kun. “This is an event that must be seen in person as one truly receives great value in the number of fights on the card. We expect a huge turn out with Rad competing for the Bellator Featherweight Tournament Championship.”
About Bellator MMA
Bellator MMA is the world’s largest tournament based Mixed Martial Arts organization. Televised to nearly 500 Million homes worldwide in over 107 countries, Bellator’s majority owner is entertainment giant Viacom. In the United States, Bellator can be seen on Spike TV, the MMA television leader. With over 150 world-class athletes under contract, Bellator is home to many of the sport’s top mixed martial artists. 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. Bellator’s core philosophy is 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 subjective side of fighting sports found in organizations that utilize a matchmaking/casting formula. 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 Newport Beach, California.
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 Spike TV:
Spike TV is available in 98.7 million homes and is a division of Viacom Media Networks. A unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), Viacom Media Networks is one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV’s Internet address is www.spike.com and for up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs, visit Spike TV’s press site at http://www.spike.com/press. Follow us on Twitter @spiketvpr for the latest in breaking news updates, behind-the-scenes information and photos.
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.