Bellator MMA’s final event of 2023 will proceed without a pair of
its originally scheduled preliminary matchups.
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The California-based promotion announced on Monday that a flyweight
bout between Juliana
Velasquez and
Paula Cristina dos Santos Silva and a heavyweight clash pitting
Daniel
James against Ali Isaev
have both been canceled. As a result, the card will move forward
with 16 fights.
Bellator 301 takes place on Friday at Wintrust Arena in Chicago
and is headlined by a welterweight championship showdown between
Yaroslav
Amosov and Jason
Jackson. In the co-main event, Sergio
Pettis and Patrick Mix
will square off in a bantamweight title unification bout. The main
card airs on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, while prelims begin
on the Bellator YouTube channel and Pluto TV beginning at 5 p.m.
ET/2 p.m. PT.
Velasquez, 38, is coming off back-to-back losses to Liz
Carmouche in flyweight title bouts, the most recent of which
occurred this past December. The Team Nogueira representative began
her professional tenure with nine consecutive triumphs — including
seven under the Bellator banner. She captured 125-pound gold with a
five-round verdict over Ilima-Lei
Macfarlane at Bellator 254 and defended the strap once in a
split-decision triumph against Denise
Kielholtz at Bellator 262.
Anchored at Nova Uniao, dos Santos Silva has lost two of her last
three professional outings. She made her promotional debut at
Bellator 296, where she dropped a decision to Kielholtz on May
12.
James saw a five-fight winning streak come to an end in his last
outing at Bellator 297, where he dropped a unanimous decision
against Gokhan
Saricam on June 16.
Isaev, who won the Professional Fighters League heavyweight
championship in 2019, returned to action following more than a
three-year hiatus at Bellator 290, where he battled Steve Mowry
to a unanimous draw on Feb. 4.