Sherdog.com’s 2014 Breakthrough Fighter of the Year

4. Will Brooks

How do you top the biggest victory of your burgeoning MMA career? If you are Will Brooks, you do so by repeating the feat in even more decisive fashion.

Brooks marked himself as Bellator MMA’s finest 155-pound fighter in the process. In May, “Ill Will” eked out a short-notice, split-decision victory against Michael Chandler to claim the Bellator interim lightweight title. The matchup, which served as co-main event on one of the organization’s most heavily promoted cards of the year, catapulted Brooks from solid prospect to MMA titlist over the span of 25 minutes. The win was not without controversy, as the majority of MMA media scored the fight as a draw or a narrow win for Chandler.

With no titles to unify after Eddie Alvarez departed for the UFC’s Octagon, Brooks once again faced Chandler in November to crown an undisputed champion. “Undisputed” proved the proper term for Brooks’ second victory. It came in the fourth round at Bellator 131, where the 28-year-old American Top Team fighter punched Chandler senseless, forcing the former titleholder to quit the fight.

Although Brooks’ options remain limited in terms of facing elite competition in the Bellator cage, there is now no question as to who rules the company’s lightweight roost. As Bellator continues to push names from MMA’s past, Brooks is looking more and more like its future.

Continue Reading » Carla Esparza