He may already have a WEC bantamweight title to his credit, but Chase Beebe remains a relative unknown in the Bellator world.

A victory tonight in the opening round of Bellator's eight-man bantamweight tournament would be a step in the right direction.

Beebe (19-7 MMA, 1-0 BFC) faces Marcos Galvao (9-4 MMA, 0-1 BFC) on the MTV2-televised main card of Bellator 51, which takes place at Canton Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio.

For many past participants, the tournament format is a physical and mental grind. The possibility of fighting roughly once a month (if you keeping winning) is a daunting task.

For Beebe, it's quite the opposite.

"I've been wrestling my whole life, so this is actually an ideal format for me," he recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). "I think I've had issues in the past with having big layovers in between fights when I fought for DREAM and the other big organizations back then. DREAM would have me fight every six to eight months. I don't like it, man. I'm a fighter. I like to compete."

Beebe has been used to competing on a regular basis since he was a kid growing up in the Midwest and traveling from one wrestling tournament to the next.

"In Ohio I wrestled one time 12 times in one day, on numerous occasions," Beebe said. "It was actually in the Guinness Book of World Records, the biggest one-day tournament ever held. Every 45 minutes I'm wrestling. It's kind of the way I like to compete."

After defeating Jose Vega by first round submission in his Bellator debut in May, he asked for permission to fight outside the promotion in order to stay active before the start of tonight's tournament.

"I actually tried to fight more than just the one I fought in the U.K. in between my Bellator fights," Beebe said. "And the only reason I didn't fight more is because Bellator put the shutdown on it. I had to kind of beg and plead with them to fight whoever I could. I went through a list of opponents, and they finally let me fight out in London."

Beebe defeated an overmatched Ralph Acosta by first-round submission in July under the WCF banner. It also improved his current win streak to five heading into the fight with Galvao.

Galvao is coming off a controversial unanimous-decision loss to Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren in his promotional debut in April. The bout took place at a catchweight of 137 pounds.

"I know everybody who saw that fight – pretty much everyone I've talked to – thinks he won that fight," Beebe said. "I think, obviously, you have to beat the champ effectively. Joe was the champ.

"It's something that is an unspoken thing in fighting that you really have to dominate. That's why my fights I've been trying to finish. I'm not trying to leave it in the judges' hands."

Source - MMAJunkie