Bellator made the second of its anticipated four fighter signing announcements today, bringing in undefeated Canadian fighter William Romero to join its featherweight tournament in April.  Romero sports a 5-0 record and is coming off a highlight reel 17 second knockout victory over Guillaume Lamarche.

Romero becomes the second fighter signed that will seek to gain a tournament victory for an automatic shot at current titleholder, undefeated Joe Soto (8-0).  Bellator announced just two days ago the signing of former MISL soccer player and budding MMA star Georgi Karakhanyan (12-1-1).  Rumors are also swirling that the remaining announcements for the featherweight division may include highly regarded fighters Eric Marriott (17-2) and Patricio Freire (12-0).

Romero was born in Canada but spent a large chunk of his childhood living in Ecuador, where his family traces its ancestry. At 17, he enlisted as an infantry soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces, became a paratrooper and served overseas in Bosnia. He was introduced to MMA by famed Canadian trainer Randy Grant. Once Romero left the military at the age of 25, he started fighting full time.

Romero said he’s relishing the opportunity to compete on an international stage. “I watched Season 1 of Bellator and I was very, very impressed,” Romero said. “The level of competition is just awesome. Now I’m hoping to make my mark and to show the world what people in Canada already know.”

“MMA fans north of the border know the name William Romero and now fans in the U.S. are going to have the chance to know it too,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “We are excited to welcome him to our organization.”

Rebney has reason to be excited given how Romero dispatched his last opponent seen here on YouTube:

And those Canadian fans will be able to see Romero make his run at the title thanks to Bellator recent broadcasting deal. Bellator’s 24 fights during Seasons 2 and 3 will be distributed live in primetime on Thursday nights on FOX Sports Net and its regional sports network affiliates. The top moments from each week’s live events will then be condensed into an action-packed 30-minute highlight show, broadcast every Saturday night, late night, on NBC. A one-hour highlight show will air in Spanish on Telemundo every Saturday night from midnight to 1 a.m.

Tags: bellator, bjorn rebney, eric marriott, georgi karakhanyan, joe soto, patricio freire, william romero

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 10:41 am and is filed under bellator, mma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.