Bjorn Rebney Explains Bellator 84's Removal of Lightweight-Tournament Final

BJORN REBNEY EXPLAINS BELLATOR 84'S REMOVAL OF LIGHTWEIGHT-TOURNAMENT FINAL
BY DEREK BOLENDER ON DEC 15, 2012 AT 7:05 AM ET

HAMMOND, Ind. – Marcin Held was allowed to weigh in for his fight at the casino. He just couldn't fight at the same venue.

In an odd turn of events, the Indiana Gaming Commission barred the 20-year-old Held (15-2 MMA, 4-1 BFC) from competing against fellow lightweight-tournament finalist Dave Jansen (18-2 MMA, 5-0 BFC) at Friday's Bellator 84 event due to his age.

You have to be at least 18 to obtain a license to fight in the state of Indiana, but you must be 21 to enter a casino.

Bellator officials were under the impression they'd jumped through the necessary hoops to make the fight a reality. And it was, in fact, a reality until just a few hours prior to the start time of the event.

CEO Bjorn Rebney attempted to encapsulate his feelings regarding the matter.

"Disappointing, unexpected," he told MMAjunkie.com.

Bellator 84 took place at The Venue at Horseshoe Hammond Casino in Hammond, Ind. Main-card fights aired on MTV2 following Spike.com prelims.

"We thought we had done everything necessary to ensure that in this facility, specifically, which has a 21-and-under rule relative to casino guests on the floor, that we'd covered all the bases and made a series of disclosures relative to his age being 20," Rebney said. "(We) literally just found ourselves in a position where there was a higher authority here from a gaming-commission perspective that was disallowing what had previously been allowed."

The last-minute cancellation caught everyone off guard given the fact that Held had tipped the scales inside the casino just 24 hours prior.

Or so everyone thought.

The fight is now rescheduled for sometime during Season 8, which kicks off Jan. 17 on Spike TV. Rebney said the six- to eight-week range is likely when it will come, but this time it'll be seen by "10 to 15 times the audience (of what it would have been MTV2)."

He's a glass-half-full kind of guy. But lesson learned.

"We'll dig down and figure out what the situation is, and I guess in the future make sure we don't schedule any fights for a facility that has an under-21 policy even if we're following the process and think we're doing everything right," he said.