McCullough First Confirmed for Bellator Lightweight Tournament
Sherdog.com Staff Feb 2, 2011
“Razor” Rob McCullough | Jeff Sherwood/Sherdog.com
With its 135- and 170-pound tournament rosters set, Bellator Fighting Championships has begun to fill its 155-pound bracket, today officially naming former World Extreme Cagefighting lightweight champion “Razor” Rob McCullough as the first participant in the eight-man field.
“We’re excited to add a championship quality fighter like Rob McCullough to this tournament,” Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney said in a press release. “Rob’s fights are always entertaining, and I expect nothing less this season.”
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Expected to join McCullough in the draw are recent Bellator signees Marcin Held, Lloyd Woodard and Patricky “Pitbull” Freire, as well as Carey Vanier, who earned his spot by winning a qualifier in Season three. Last October, Rebney told Sherdog.com that two-time tournament finalist Toby Imada, Olympic judoka Ferrid Kheder, and collegiate wrestling convert Michael Chandler were all likely participants.
McCullough, a 33-year-old muay Thai specialist, has won back-to-back bouts under the Tachi Palace Fights banner since being released by WEC in late 2009. Last July, he scored a first-round knockout of TPF featherweight champ Isaac DeJesus in a 160-pound matchup. In September, he took a unanimous decision against “The Ultimate Fighter” Season five participant Corey Hill.
Since beginning his MMA campaign in 2001, McCullough has amassed a record of 19-6 and has been stopped only once. That knockout came at the hands of Jamie Varner, who took McCullough’s WEC title in 2008.
“I’ve been training for the last six months straight, twice a day, every day,” McCullough said. “I’ve been adding new elements to my game, tweaking things and working on old techniques. I've got nothing but positive people surrounding me and I'm ready to get back to the top.”
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