Bellator’s middleweight division just gained a highly regarded prospect.
Ty Gwerder signed a multi-fight contract with the promotion, according to a report by KHON2 Sports Director Rob DeMello.
Gwerder then confirmed the news on his Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B20TFJMAMOL/
“The News is out! All I can say is I’m extremely blessed and grateful,” Gwerder wrote. “I couldn’t have accomplished any of this on my own everyone that supported me the people who vouched for me to put in a good word and believe in me, my team and coaches [at Xtreme Couture MMA] helped me make this all possible.”
The 25-year-old prospect has had a quick rise since making the jump to professional MMA. He debuted on Oct. 11, 2018 with a first-round knockout.
Gwerder then signed with Legacy Fighting Alliance, where he competed three times in 2019. He finished all three of his bouts by KO/TKO, which landed him firmly on Bellator’s radar.
“Man, it’s crazy. Honestly, I haven’t even wrapped my head around it yet,” Gwerder told DeMello. “I made my pro debut a year ago, and I never would have thought that this soon, I would make it this far.”
Gwerder credits his quick rise to the support group he has around him.
“It wasn’t baby steps,” Gwerder said. “I literally jumped mountains within a year, and I know I put in all that work, and my training partners like Brad [Tavares], those guys held me accountable and made sure I was putting in the work. It’s just crazy. I can’t even express to you how my feelings are. Yesterday I was just all high on life.”
Like Tavares, Gwerder is a Hawaiian-born fighter. Bellator has previously held two events in Hawaii in December of last year on back-to-back days.
As KHON2 points out in the original report (as does Gwerder in his Instagram post), the promotion is expected to return to Hawaii this December, which seems to be a likely target for Gwerder’s debut, as he most recently competed on Sept. 6 at LFA 75.
