By FCF Staff
As widely expected, Bellator Fighting Championships has announced that veteran Jay Hieron will compete in the promotion’s upcoming, Season Four, welterweight tourney, completing the line-up for the competition.
“Jay’s the perfect fighter to round out our stacked welterweight tournament,” said Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney in the official announcement. “He’s a true mixed martial artist who has very few weaknesses and a ton of strengths inside the cage. Jay will be a tremendous test for anyone and everyone in this talent rich tournament.”
Hieron (19-4) will enter the tournament having not lost since June, 2007, when the Xtreme Couture vet was defeated by Brad Blackburn while competing for the International Fight League. Since then the 34 year-old-fighter has won seven straight, a streak which includes decision wins over UFC vets Jesse Taylor and Joe Riggs.
“I feel great right now. I turned a negative into a positive with my time off and just took the opportunity to sharpen my skills,” said Hieron. “When you're training for a fight, the pressure's on, so it's hard to learn and evolve. It's straight business. With this time off I've been able to focus on a lot of new techniques. Now I'm just excited to get back in there and show off my new arsenal.”
Bellator’s welterweight tourney is set to begin in March; however, no opponent or date for Hieron’s debut has been announced.
“This is the exact type of situation I wanted to be in right now. With the tournament format, there's no politics, no golden boys, and nobody getting protected, there's none of that. If you win you move forward, and that's that. That's the bottom line and that's exactly what I was looking for,” said Hieron, whose aforementioned win over Riggs marked the only time he fought in 2010. “I feel like I've been through as bad a situation that somebody can go through in their career, and I'm still here. Not only that, but my body's right, I'm healthy, and I feel like it's my time.”
Hieron joins former champion Lyman Good, Dan Hornbuckle, Rick Hawn, Steve Carl, Chris Lozano, “Judo” Jim Wallhead, and Brent Weedman as tourney competitors. The season will be broadcast live on MTV 2.
