Shawn Bunch File Photo
Bellator announced the signing of Bunch on Monday. He is a former U.S. National champion in freestyle wrestling, but he’s also been training in MMA, where he is expected to compete at 135 pounds.
“You’re talking about a world-class athlete,” Rebney said. “You’re talking about a guy who has competed at the very, very highest level in a sport that I think we can all agree makes the most seamless transition into mixed martial arts.”
Wrestlers have had plenty of success in Bellator. Askren is one example: A former U.S. Olympian, he joined the promotion with just three fights under his belt, has gone undefeated and is the current welterweight champion. Of course, Bunch has not fought even once.
“We’ve got a developmental process,” Rebney said. “We’ve got about 25 events next year. We thought we’d team up with Shawn and try to develop him as opposed to waiting for him to get four or five fights under his resume and see where he is from there. … The consensus opinion was this guy’s got the opportunity to be something really explosive in short order. You try to put that [Michael] Chandler-Askren model in place and see if he can actually do it that quick. We’ll see. We’ll all get to watch it unfold together.”
Bunch is expected to make a quick rise, but Bellator doesn’t plan on debuting him on national television.
“He’ll be part of a Spike.com show here and there,” Rebney said. “He’ll get developmental bouts on undercards. We’re not going to take Shawn and suddenly throw him in against Eduardo Dantas, but the development is going to be there. … We’ll get to see it on Spike.com, and then when the time’s right, we’ll make that jump to Spike network. … We’re going to take nice, slow, methodical steps to develop him underneath this banner. Hopefully what we come out with is a Ben Askren, we come out with a Mike Chandler, we come out with a Pat Curran. [Hopefully] that’s the maturation he follows, but we’ll all see whether it succeeds or doesn’t.”
Listen to the full interview (beginning at 17:03).