If you thought your job can get you into awkward situations, think again.
Former UFC staffer Burt Watson was hired by Bellator back in 2021 to be a site coordinator. But when he was hired there’s no way he was told he’d be tasked with holding a blank paper in front of UFC branding during weigh ins.
This is exactly what happened yesterday during weigh ins for Bellator 289.
The card is set to be headlined by an anticipated clash between salty Donny Sabatello and Raufeon Stots.
The co main event will be a flyweight championship rematch between Liz Carmouche and Velasquez.
But our attention was pointed down the card to the curious case of Kai Kamaka III.
Kamaka has an MMA record consisting of 9 wins, 5 losses and 1 draw. He’s currently 27 years old. Kamaka had been with LFA upto 2020 at which point he stepped up and signed with UFC.
While his tenure in UFC started off with a win over (controversial) Tony Kelley, he went on a two loss skid after and after a draw against Danny Chavez he was let go. He went straight to Bellator but he didn’t exactly throw out his UFC issued gear.
In fact, he showed up to the weigh ins for UFC 289 wearing UFC’s venum collab boxers to the chagrin of Bellator employees present at hand.
While there are promotions that claim to be second only to UFC, that position is likely Bellators. The Scott Coker helmed promotion has been going strong and is a part of Viacom family.
This meant Burt Watson had to go there and awkwardly try to cover up Kamaka’s awkward choice of clothing with a single piece of A4 paper.
If you think this is petty from Bellator, you might want to reconsider. UFC had refused to even call Chandler a Bellator champion during his walkouts. This has only been addressed semi recently.
Main Card (Showtime at 9 p.m. ET)
Raufeon Stots (134.4) vs. Danny Sabatello (135) – interim bantamweight title fight
Liz Carmouche (124.8) vs. Juliana Velasquez (124.2) – flyweight title fight
Magomed Magomedov (134.4) vs. Patchy Mix (135)
Dalton Rosta (185.6) vs. Anthony Adams (185.4)
Preliminary Card (5:30 p.m. ET on MMA Fighting)
Denise Kielholtz (124.2) vs. Ilara Joanne (124.8)
Cody Law (145.4) vs. Cris Lencioni (146)
Jaleel Willis (170) vs. Kyle Crutchmer (170.8)
Kai Kamaka III (145.2) vs. Kevin Boehm (145.1)
Mark Lemminger (170.8) vs. Michael Lombardo (169.8)
Pat Downey (185.8) vs. Christian Echols (185.4)
Jared Scoggins (135.2) vs. Cass Bell (136)