Undefeated Canadian Featherweight William Romero
signs exclusive agreement with Bellator Fighting Championships
CHICAGO, Ill. (January 7, 2010) – Bellator Fighting Championships announced
yet another major offseason addition on Thursday with the signing of
undefeated featherweight William Romero.
Romero, 27, one of Canada’s most talked-about young mixed martial artists,
boasts an unblemished pro MMA record of 5-0. He was recently touted by
MMAcanada.net – one of that country’s top MMA news sources – as “the real
deal.” His most recent fight ended by KO after just 17 seconds.
“MMA fans north of the border know the name William Romero and now fans in
the U.S. are going to have the chance to know it too,” said Bellator founder
and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “We are excited to welcome him to our organization.”
Romero will compete in Bellator’s eight-man Season 2 featherweight
tournament along with 12-1-1 Russian-born fighter Georgi “Insane”
Karakhanyan and six yet-to-be announced 145s. Additional Bellator
featherweight agreements will be announced next week.
Bellator will also conduct tournaments at 155, 170 and 185 lbs. with the
winners of this year’s tournaments being declared No. 1 contenders to
Bellator’s current roster of champions. Season 2 begins April 8th on Fox
Sports Network.
Romero was born in Canada but spent a large chunk of his childhood living in
Ecuador, where his family traces its ancestry. At 17, he enlisted as an
infantry soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces, became a paratrooper and
served overseas in Bosnia.
At around the same time, he was introduced to MMA by famed Canadian trainer
Randy Grant (the brother of UFC fighter T.J. Grant). Once Romero left the
military at the age of 25, he started fighting full time.
“I quickly found out that MMA is my calling,” said Romero, who now lives
just outside Toronto and fights from nearby Stoney Creek, Ontario. “It’s
what I was born to do.”
Romero said he’s relishing the opportunity to compete on an international
stage for the first time by way of Bellator’s landscape-altering TV
distribution alliance. Under the terms of that deal, each of Bellator’s 24
fights during Seasons 2 and 3 will be distributed live in primetime on
Thursday nights on FOX Sports Net and its regional sports network
affiliates. The top moments from each week’s live events will then be
condensed into an action-packed 30-minute highlight show, broadcast every
Saturday night, late night, on NBC. A one-hour highlight show will air in
Spanish on Telemundo every Saturday night from midnight to 1 a.m.
“I watched Season 1 of Bellator and I was very, very impressed,” Romero
said. “The level of competition is just awesome. Now I’m hoping to make my
mark and to show the world what people in Canada already know.”
For more information, visit Bellator.com , follow on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/bellator or on Twitter @BellatorMMA. In
addition, Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney can also be found on Twitter
@BjornRebney.
About Bellator Fighting Championships
Bellator Fighting Championships is a Mixed Martial Arts promotional company
with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. Bellator’s founder/CEO, Bjorn
Rebney, is an experienced fighting sports and entertainment professional
with a deep commitment to the purity and integrity of the sport of MMA and
its athletes. Bellator Fighting Championships’ executive team is comprised
of top industry professionals in the areas of live event production,
television production, fighter relations, venue procurement, sponsorship
creation/development, international licensing, marketing, advertising,
publicity and commission relations.
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