Very little in Eduardo Dantas’ time as Bellator champion has come easy. The fighter who made his debut for the promotion back in 2011, and ran through a bantamweight tournament to dethrone then champ Zach Makovsky, hit an immediate roadblock with a trip to Shooto Brazil and a bout outside the promotion against Tyson Nam.
Nam sparked Dantas out with a counter hook. And while the Brazilian would go on to defend his Bellator title twice more, the loss took a lot of the steam off his status as the promotion’s undisputed champion.