#Bellator284 Card Update:Canada’s @aajmma (12-3)
has stepped in on short notice to face #2-ranked 185lb contender
@austinv170mma
(11-1) on the 8/12 @SHOSports
main card.Advertisement
Jeffery will look keep up the mullet magic after a debut KO at
#Bellator282. pic.twitter.com/xkiWV4qWLW
— Bellator Public Relations (@BellatorPR)
August 4, 2022
Bellator MMA will be rocking the mullet on Aug.
12.
At
Bellator 284, Austin
Vanderford (11-1) plans on coming back from his first career
defeat, and he was expecting to face Anthony
Adams. For currently unclosed reasons, Adams is out of their
middleweight contest, and Bellator has already acquired and
announced the replacement on Thursday: Aaron
Jeffery (12-3). The two will square off inside the Sanford
Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Aug. 12, and they will be
competing on the main card.
In his last time out, Vanderford put his undefeated record on the
line as he vied for the middleweight strap, only to be staved off
in 85 seconds by champ Gegard
Mousasi. The setback, a quick first-round knockout, put an end
to an 11-fight run that started with his pro debut in March 2017.
Along the way, “The Gentleman” had prevailed on the 2018 season of
Dana White’s Contender Series, and although he
did not get signed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he moved on to
Bellator one win later. Vanderford debuted with the
California-based league in 2019, stringing together five wins over
names like Fabian
Edwards and Vinicius
de Jesus before getting a title shot.
The mullet-sporting Canadian Jeffery made a splash in his Bellator
debut by pounding out Fabio
Aguiar with a knee and follow-up punches in June. The two-time
DWCS participant – unsuccessful in both attempts in 2019 and 2021 –
only suffered loss in that company’s banner, with nine wins dating
back to 2016 to earn a callup from Bellator. With a finish rate of
exactly 75%, and stoppages in six of his last eight victories,
Jeffery will be stepping in against a ranked middleweight on just
over a week’s notice.
Bellator 284 will go down on Aug. 12 at the Sanford Pentagon in
Sioux Falls, S.D. The main event will see Neiman
Gracie tangle with Goiti
Yamauchi in a battle of welterweight grappling supremacy. The
co-headliner brings ex-interim champ Valentin
Moldavsky back to the Bellator cage against undefeated wrestler
Steve
Mowry. A rare amateur bout is slated as the event opener, with
Brett
Bye taking on Mattia Ioi
at a pre-planned 175-pound catchweight.