'One Tough Cookie:' Bellator MMA signs 2016 Olympic hopeful wrestling standout Tyrell Fortune

Bellator MMA has scored another future prospect with Olympic-level medal potential to its growing roster.

Tyrell Fortune was a multi-time state champion in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling as a high school athlete out of Lakeside, Oregon. He's gone on to success as a collegiate and international athlete since, picking up a bronze medal at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia, as a member of Team USA.

Even though Fortune wants to stand on the podium in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 as a gold medalist, he's also training for mixed martial arts (MMA) at the same time he's training for the Olympic trials next April.

"Wrestling in the Olympics and representing The United States of America has always been a dream of mine. Now that the dream is nearly a reality, I have taken the necessary steps to make sure I'm able to provide for myself going forward and there's no better place to do that than with Scott Coker and Bellator MMA. I can't wait to show the heavyweight division what I can do inside the cage and I look forward to being one of the names that continues to propel Bellator MMA to the top of the mixed martial arts landscape."

Fortune is splitting his time between training with Ed Ruth in Arizona and the Blackzilians in Florida, and is expected to make a big splash in Bellator's Heavyweight division next year.

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