He ran his winning streak to nine fights, breezed through the Bellator 8 featherweight tournament, and was all queued up for a title shot. So what happened to “Frodo,” anyway?

We asked Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney about Magomedrasul Khasbulaev (21-5 MMA, 5-0 BMMA), the 27-year-old Dagestani fighter and national sambo champion who had a quick rise before an untimely trip to the sidelines.

Khasbulaev has been MIA since his tournament-final win over Mike Richman more than 13 months ago. Visa issues have been at the root of the layoff and kept the fighter stuck in Russia.

“We did the due diligence with our investigators – just to double and triple check because we usually do a pretty good background check on fighters before we sign them,” Rebney recently told MMAjunkie. “But there’s no history or affiliation with any kind of a foreign group that would be troublesome to the (United States) Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“(He’s got a) wife, kids, solid job, great family. Everything that that kid has would say, why would you not let him in? It’s the weirdest thing. It’s almost like he inadvertently got on the wrong list and couldn’t get off.”

There is some good news, though. The INS recently granted Bellator and the fighter permission to resubmit his application. Rebney said the organization has already done so.

It’s no guarantee, but at this point, it’s progress.

“For the longest time, we had to just sit and bang our head against the wall because they wouldn’t even let us resubmit for whatever reason,” he said.

So what exactly does it mean for Khasbulaev? Hopefully he’ll be permitted to return to the U.S. is short order. After all, the fighter, who’s racked up 18 stoppages in 21 career wins, is finally seeing some clarity in Bellator’s featherweight division. After cutting in line for a trilogy fight, Pat Curran got a shot at Daniel Straus and reclaimed his belt in March.

Now, Khasbulaev and fellow tournament winner Patricio Freire should be up next for a shot at the title.

While the layoff is a concern, and though Rebney said they granted Khasbulaev permission to fight in Russia in the interim, no fights have been booked. However, Rebney said “Frodo” often sends video and photos from his training sessions to assure his bosses he’s remaining in fight shape.

Now, they just need permission for him to come back to the Bellator cage.

“It’s a travesty,” Rebney said. “The kid doesn’t have any kind of background at all.”

For more on Bellator’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.