The
Bellator 286 lineup continues to grow with the addition of two
new bouts, as Aaron Pico
faces Jeremy
Kennedy at featherweight, whle Juan
Archuleta meets Enrique
Barzola at bantamweight.
Advertisement
The promotion confirmed the pairings following an initial report
from
ESPN. Bellator 286 takes place on Oct. 1 at Long Beach Arena in
Long Beach, Calif., and is headlined by a featherweight title tilt
between Patricio
Freire and Adam
Borics. In the co-main event, A.J. McKee
makes his lightweight debut against Spike
Carlyle.
Four preliminary bouts were also confirmed for the event: Max
Rohskopf vs. Mike Hamel
at lightweight; Islam
Mamedov vs. Nick Browne
at lighweight; Keoni Diggs
vs. Ricardo
Seixas at lightweight and Khadzhimurat
Bestaev vs. Khalid
Murtazaliev at middleweight.
Pico and Kennedy were initially slated to lock horns at Bellator
277 in April before Kennedy withdrew from the bout. Pico remained
on the card and defeated Adli
Edwards via third-round technical knockout, his sixth
consecutive victory within the California-based promotion. All but
one of those triumphs have come inside the distance.
Kennedy last appeared at Bellator 272, where he took a unanimous
decision over former 145-pound title challenger Emmanuel
Sanchez on Dec. 3. The 29-year-old Canadian went 3-1 during a
UFC stint from 2016 to 2018, with his only setback coming to
reigning featherweight king Alexander
Volkanovski. He’s also competed in Professional Fighters League
and Brave Combat Federation while compiling a 17-3 career mark.
A former bantamweight champion, Archuleta is currently on a
two-bout skid. After losing the belt in a five-round decision
defeat to Sergio
Pettis at Bellator 258, “The Spaniard” suffered a third-round
knockout loss to Raufeon
Stots in the quarterfinals of the bantamweight grand prix at
Bellator 279. The former King of the Cage champion is 7-3 during
his Bellator tenure.
Barzola, meanwhile, signed with Bellator after a 6-3-1 stint in the
UFC. He began his tenure with wins over Darrion
Caldwell and Nikita Mikailov before suffering a fourth-round
submission defeat to Magomed
Magomedov in the quarterfinals of the 135-pound bracket at
Bellator 282.