Bellator Clears Roster of 13 Fighters, Including Karakhanyan, Gonzalez, Carmont

Bellator MMA has done some serious housecleaning in recent weeks, clearing its roster of several recognizable names.

All told, the California-based promotion has parted ways with 13 fighters: L.C. Davis, Steve Garcia, Steve Kozola, Kendall Grove, Georgi Karakhanyan, Fernando Gonzalez, Kevin Casey, Francisco France, Mike Rhodes, Francis Carmont, Philipe Lins, Ben Reiter and Alexis Dufresne.

In many cases, the aforementioned fighters weren’t necessarily released but are simply no longer under contract with Bellator. Sherdog.com confirmed the news with a promotion official on Tuesday following an initial report from Jason Floyd via Twitter.

Among the notables on the list is Georgi Karakhanyan, the former World Series of Fighting champion who faced the likes of Daniel Weichel, Pat Curran, Bubba Jenkins and Emmanuel Sanchez during his second Bellator tenure. Most recently, “Insane” suffered a decision loss to Henry Corrales at Bellator 192.

Gonzalez, meanwhile, went on an unlikely 7-2 run in the organization, posting notable victories over the likes of Karo Parisyan, Curtis Millender, Karl Amoussou, Brennan Ward, Gilbert Smith and Brandon Girtz, to name a few. He last appeared at Bellator 193, where he dropped a unanimous verdict to Lorenz Larkin in the evening’s headliner on Jan. 26.

Carmont, a nine-time UFC veteran, went 3-2 in Bellator. In his last outing, the 36-year-old Tristar Gym representative lost a three-round verdict against Linton Vassell at Bellator 165.