Bellator Makes a Splash with Signing of Joe Warren

Bellator made a big splash today with the announcement that the promotion signed top MMA prospect Joe Warren (2-1) to compete in season two's featherweight tournament.

Warren has won three gold medals for Greco-Roman wrestling including a first place finish in the 2006 Pan American Championships in Rio de Janeiro. Joe was expected to compete in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 but a positive THC test (the active ingredient in marijuana) prevented him from competing.

Warren made his MMA debut in 2009 in Japan where he defeated former WEC champion Chase Beebe in the opening round of DREAM's featherweight tournament. In Warren's second MMA fight he defeated the highly touted "Kid" Yamamoto via split decision. The Cinderella run ended in the finals though, as Joe lost to Bibiano Fernandes, the current DREAM featherweight champion.

Warren joins William Romero (5-0), Bao Quach (17-9-1), Patricio "Pitbull" Freire (12-0) and Georgi Karakhanyan (12-1-1) as the announced participants of the featherweight tournament.

Bellator's current featherweight champion is Joe Soto (8-0).

Read full press release after the jump.

CHICAGO, Ill. (February 1, 2010) - Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that three-time world champion Greco-Roman wrestler and highly-sought-after MMA prodigy Joe Warren has signed a long-term promotional agreement with Bellator and will compete in the promotion's upcoming featherweight (145 lbs.) tournament this April on FOX Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo..

Warren is known throughout MMA for making one of the most remarkable debuts in the sport's history, knocking off former WEC Champion Chase Beebe and Japanese superstar Kid Yamamoto in his first two professional fights. The Beebe bout, Warren admits, "was the first time I ever taped my hands or wore a cup," and it came just three months after he first began MMA training.

"We are very excited about this signing and being the MMA organization that brought Joe back to the states," said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. "Joe has the ability, drive, confidence and personality to become a star in our sport. His first two wins would make a good career for most fighters and as his stand-up continues developing, the sky is the limit for Joe Warren."

The 33-year-old Warren has been competing at a world-class level for years, training with the U.S Olympic Team and taking home gold medals at the 2006 Pan-Am Games, the 2006 FILA Wrestling World Championships and the 2007 Wrestling World Cup. Before that, he was an All-American freestyle wrestler at the University of Michigan. He made his stunning MMA debut last spring in Japan's DREAM Grand Prix tournament.

"I competed for the USA for 10 years and I bleed red, white and blue," Warren said. "So I'm ready to come back to this country, make my U.S. debut and fight in front of the American MMA fans. I love everything that Bellator is doing and I'm just honored to be a part of their organization."

Warren, who is a member of the famed Team Quest, said he is focused now on continuing to hone his stand-up game, an education that has been accelerated by his experiences training with other top-caliber fighters including former WEC Champion Urijah Faber, Pride FC Champion Dan Henderson and WEC standout Scott Jorgensen.

"My hands are getting quicker, I'm seeing the openings quicker ... I'm just getting better every single day. I'm already 1,000 times better than I was in my last fight," he said. "With my style and my experience and my never-lose, never-die attitude, it's gonna be really exciting for Bellator and for everyone who'll be watching on TV."

Among those who'll certainly be watching are Warren's wife, Christy Cech, and their 18-month-old son, Xandr Achilles Warren. The couple is expecting their second child in March.

"My family has always been behind me and they believe in me a lot, which drives me," Warren said. "I'm a family man, but I'm also a warrior. I've been through a lot of battles in my life so I thrive on it. In the heat of battle, some people turn, some people run and some people stand up and fight. I see this as a battle and I can promise that I'm gonna stand up in fight."

Warren is entering a lions den in Bellator's eight-man Season 2 featherweight tournament where competitors include Georgi Karakhanyan, William Romero, Patricio Pitbull and Bao Quach. Bellator will also conduct tournaments at 155, 170 and 185 lbs. during Season 2, which begins April 8th. The winners in each division will be declared No. 1 contenders to the current roster of champions.

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.

For more information, visit Bellator.com , follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator.

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.