The heavyweight division is notoriously difficult to put together streaks in, but Russian Vitaly Minakov went 9-0 in regional events, before signing with Bellator. Then he went 2-0 in the Bellator 2013 Summer Series Heavyweight Tournament, and beat heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov, and defended it successfully vs. Cheick Kongo on April 14, 2014.

On May 14, 2015, Minakov was stripped of his Bellator heavyweight title for inactivity.

He then won four more in a row at EFN Fight Nights in Russia, as he waited for the term of his contract to expire. His stated goal is to fight in the UFC.

However, in a discussion with the Russian language .Izvestia.ru, the heavyweight said he may not be able to fight in the UFC until 2017 due to Bellator’s “strange” behavior.

“I had signed a contract with [Bellator], not based on the number of matches, but for a certain period of three years,” said Minakov, as translated by Karim Zidan for BE. “The three years have elapsed but the conditions if you are the champions of the organization, and I was to them, is that they have the right to extend once for six months and twice for three months. And they did.

“My agreement with Bellator will expire in a few months. But now there is strange behavior on their part. They insist that I have to perform a few more fights under their banner, although the contract does not have a word about the number of fights. Now this issue is being studied by my lawyer.”

“I will say this: as soon as my contract expires with Bellator, I’ll be ‘free agent’ for no more than day. In the near future I will sign a new contract with one of the world’s major promotions.”

Minakov is one of the world’s great heavyweights outside the UFC, and would be an excellent addition to what was once the league’s weakest division.