Bellator Fighting Championships Teams up with Madison Square Garden Sports in Return to Historic Chicago Theatre

CHICAGO (July 08, 2010) — Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that the nationally televised Mixed Martial Arts promotion will return to the Windy City for a Season 3 event at the historic Chicago Theatre on August 19. Bellator 25 will mark the Chicago landmark’s second-ever mixed martial arts event – the first being Bellator 14 which took place on April 15, 2010. The Bellator 25 card will feature two quarterfinal fights in both the Season 3 Heavyweight and Women’s World Championship Tournaments.

Headlining the Fox Sports Network event will be undefeated heavyweight sensation Damian “The Polish Pitbull” Grabowski who will make his U.S. debut in a quarterfinal heavyweight world championship tournament fight against knock-out artist Scott Barrett. Grabowski who is considered one of the top heavyweight free agents in the world, boasts a perfect 13-0 pro record, The Polish Pitbull has not only finished each of his opponents by TKO or submission, but not one of his opponents has yet to see the third round of a fight. The Polish National’s spectacular tenacity was on full display in April 2009, when he competed in a one-night, 16-man heavyweight tournament under an Austrian promotion that featured no-time-limit bouts. Grabowski dismantled each of his four opponents, winning the tournament with his longest fight lasting only 3:48 into the second frame. In his most recent fight (June, 2010) Grabowski TKO’d very highly regarded heavyweight Michal Kita in the first round.

Barrett, who owns a four-fight win streak coming into the tournament, fought earlier this year at Bellator 19 where he knocked-out formerly undefeated Ty Lee just 2:25 into the first round.

Bellator 25 will also feature an opening round World Championship women’s tournament fight between Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto and undefeated world’s No. 6-ranked flyweight Jessica Pene. Frausto was added to the tournament after she shocked the MMA world recently at Bellator 23 with her stunning KO of the world’s top-ranked and heavily favored Rosi Sexton. Sexton was subsequently forced out of the tournament due to a 60-day medical suspension from the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority. Pene debuted for Bellator in May 2009 with a first round TKO against Tammie Schneider at Bellator 5. Her unblemished record also features a submission victory over fellow tournament participant and No. 8 world ranked 115 pounder, Angela Magana.

Aisling Daly, the best female mixed martial artist in Ireland and the world’s No. 3-ranked 125 lbs. female fighter, will drop down to 115 lbs. to face 13-5 submission ace and No. 3-ranked flyweight Lisa Ward in a quarterfinal World Championship women’s tournament fight. The 22-year-old Daly will make her MMA debut in the U.S. backed by a pristine 9-0 record, while Ward enters the fight with one win already coming under the Bellator banner. Just two weeks ago at Bellator 22, she dismantled Stephanie Frausto with a slick rear naked choke 2:01 into the first round.

The Bellator Season 3 Heavyweight and Women’s Tournament begins on Aug. 12 and will once again be televised LIVE in primetime every Thursday night on FOX Sports Net and during special weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and the cable network mun2.

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Bellator. Tickets are priced at $100, $75, $50, and $35, and go on sale via www.Ticketmaster.com beginning Saturday, July 10 at 12:00pm.