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Bellator MMA has added a pair of fun matchups
to its year-end event.
On Thursday, a source close to the situation revealed a pair of
fights added to
Bellator 254 on Dec. 12. The final 2020 show for the promotion
will take place at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The
first fight sees a pair of unbeatens clash at 205 pounds, as
Tyree
Fortune (5-0) takes on Grant Neal
(4-0). The other match pits undefeated Romero
Cotton (4-0) against Justin
Michael Sumter (7-3). Both fights will take place on the
preliminary portion of the card.
Fortune, twin brother of heavyweight standout Tyrell
Fortune, will look to keep his perfect record intact for his
first appearance in 2020. The Oregon native known as “X-Man” has
set foot in a cage just once a year dating back to 2017, although
he has won each of them. Before turning pro in 2016, Fortune
maintained a lengthy amateur career that saw him win north of a
dozen bouts while only dropping two.
Neal is also unbeaten as a pro, with three victories inside the
Bellator cage dating back to his promotional debut in November
2019. “The Truth” first fought as a pro at a Sparta Combat League
show in February 2019, where he tapped out Juan Molina
in 46 seconds. Like Fortune, Neal had a solid amateur career, where
he won every bout along the way.
Unlike the two light heavyweights, NCAA Division II wrestling
standout Cotton made his pro debut without ever competing as an
amateur, instead signing an
exclusive deal with the organization in 2016. He took his first
trip to the cage with Bellator in 2017, where he captured a split
verdict over Aaron
Rodriguez. A trip of stoppages within two rounds over Justin
Reeser, the extremely heavy Willie
Whitehead – Whitehead missed weight by nearly 15 pounds in that
contest – and Jason
Perrotta have kept Cotton’s record flawless.
Sumter is the only one of the four to have ever lost as a pro,
dropping his debut in Bellator to Tim Caron in
2016. Since then, “The Fort” has performed well in the CES MMA organization, but a pair of first-round
knockouts in Dana White’s Contender Series have derailed his
ascent. This will be Sumter’s first appearance since Maki Pitolo
stopped him in 90 seconds in July 2019.
Bellator 254 goes down on Dec. 12 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in
Uncasville, Conn. Headlining the card is a women’s flyweight
championship affair as Ilima-Lei
Macfarlane puts her belt on the line against the unbeaten
Juliana
Velasquez. Joining them on the main card is a thrilling
bantamweight battle between Bellator newcomers as Magomed
Magomedov takes on Matheus
Mattos.