Bellator officially adds Zac George to season-four featherweight tourney

Earlier this week, Bellator Fighting Championships brass officially announced the promotion is featuring a 145-pound tournament in the promotion's upcoming fourth season.

Now the company is busy revealing names for the eight-man bracket.

Bellator officials recently announced Zac George as the second official participant in their forthcoming featherweight playoff.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) first reported George's inclusion in the tourney.

"Zac George finishes fights and often finishes them early," Bellator chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney stated in the official release. "Anyone he faces in our featherweight tournament this March will need to be at the very top of their game to hope to get out with a victory."

George makes his Bellator debut on the heels of a six-fight win streak that includes five stoppage victories. In fact, 17 of the seven-year vet's 20 victories have come via stoppage. Most recently, he submitted Bellator vet Bryan Goldsby at an October 2009 C3 Fights show.

However, injuries and a contract issue with Shine Fights have kept him sidelined since then. The 27-year-old Oklahoma native and Team Quest fighter now makes his Bellator debut.

"I've wanted to fight for Bellator for a while now," George stated. "It's an exciting weightclass, and Bellator has a bunch of really talented fighters with records similar to mine. They're hungry guys looking for their shot and they all want to go out there to beat some people up and make some money. I'm really excited about it."

George joins Eric Larkin (3-0 MMA, 1-0 BFC) as officially confirmed participants in Bellator's featherweight tournament.

As MMAjunkie.com previously reported, Georgi Karakhanyan (14-2-1 MMA, 2-1 BFC), Wilson Reis (11-2 MMA, 3-2 BFC), Daniel Straus (14-3 MMA, 1-0 BFC) and Nazareno Malegarie (19-0 MMA, 0-0 BFC) also are expected to take part in the featherweight tourney. Additional entrants will be announced in the coming weeks.

The tournament, which runs over the full 12-week season, kicks off in March on MTV2. Bellator, which aired past seasons on ESPN Deportes and then FOX Sports Net, also is expected to host season-four tournaments in the lightweight, welterweight and light-heavyweight divisions.