Bellator’s lightweight division is in a weird spot. After reigning as champion for over two years – and never actually defending the belt – Patricio Pitbull relinquished the title late last year, saying that he didn’t deserve to be 155-pound champion after losing his featherweight title to A.J. McKee.
That’s part of the story, at least. The other part is that his big brother Patricky was one of the top contenders for the lightweight belt, and Patricio giving up the title would set Patricky right up to have a shot at winning a championship for the first time in his decade-long Bellator career.
Patricky did his part, TKOing Peter Queally in November to become lightweight champion. And despite a strong influx of new Russian talent, the pecking order at 155 is far from clear. And on Monday, Bellator went out and signed another fighter who will likely immediately enter into the title picture: former RIZIN champion Tofiq Musayev.
What makes Musayev so interesting? Well, outside of the fact that he was one of the best lightweights outside of a major American promotion – Musayev earned that title by winning the 2019 RIZIN Lightweight Grand Prix – there’s the matter of who he beat in the finals of that tournament: a Bellator emissary named, you guessed it, Patricky Pitbull.
Musayev is the most recent unavenged loss on Pitbull’s record: Pitbull lost to Queally by cut stoppage in May before returning to beat him in the rematch for the now-vacant title. And in turn, Pitbull is the most recent win on Musayev’s record. Musayev sat out for a year and a half after claiming the RIZIN belt – at least part of that was spent serving in his native Azerbaijan’s military during a flare-up of conflict with Armenia last year – and finally returned in June, submitting to an early triangle choke from Roberto “Satoshi” de Souza, one of the world’s best submission specialists at the top of his game.
The Satoshi fight was a tough ask for a fighter who had been out for so long, with a good part of that time off unable to train. That loss hasn’t dimmed his star for me in any way – he’s in his prime at 32 years old, and the win over Pitbull was the culmination of a 14-fight win streak that included impressive beatdowns of UFC vets Daron Cruickshank, Damien Brown and Johnny Case.
Musayev is relentless. His boxing style is a bit wild, but he throws with all the heat he can muster, and he’s got the toughness and energy to push himself through danger. He pounces violently on any moment of vulnerability – like many other Eastern European fighters he’s a good grappler with some nice takedowns, especially out of the clinch, but most of his fights end with him throwing as many punches as he can in as little time as possible.
Against Pitbull, he looked outgunned early. Musayev had won all his earlier fights in the tournament by first-round KO, but Pitbull is an excellent striker, and was much cleaner with the hands. But by the end, Musayev’s pressure had broken Pitbull – Musayev was going harder at the end of the 15 minutes than he did at any other point of the fight.
That’s the promise Musayev brings to Bellator, coming from a promotion in RIZIN that still only does three-round title fights. Musayev looks like he’d be an absolute demon in a five-rounder, and Bellator would be dumb to not build him up to that level quickly.
They’re getting a fighter who has already competed at a championship level in another major promotion, winning a title on a big stage against their own champion. In a very real sense, he has a case for an immediate title shot against Pitbull, although that likely won’t occur.
But even so, Bellator is getting a dynamic, entertaining talent that it can instantly insert into the upper echelon of its rankings. This is one heck of a signing, and I can’t wait to see Tofiq Musayev once again fighting regularly in 2022 and beyond.
The Big Fight 