Bellator 263 has gained a trio of contests while losing an
intriguing bantamweight matchup.
Promotion officials announced Monday that the following three bouts
have been added to the July 31 card: Brent
Primus vs. Islam
Mamedov at lightweight; Vanessa
Porto vs. Ilara
Joanne at flyweight and Gadzhi
Rabadanov vs. Daniel
Carey at 150 pounds.
Missing from the bout order was a previously scheduled bantamweight
matchup pitting Raufeon
Stots against Magomed
Magomedov. Sherdog.com subsequently confirmed that bout has
been removed from Bellator 263 for undisclosed reasons.
Bellator 263 takes place at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and is
headlined by a featherweight championship clash between Patricio
Freire and A.J. McKee.
The main card airs on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while
prelims stream on Bellator’s YouTube channel, Showtime Sports
YouTube channel and Pluto TV at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. Primus vs.
Mamedov is slated for the main draw, while Porto vs. Joanne and
Rabadanov vs. Carey are on the prelims.
A former lightweight champion, Primus has scored back-to-back
first-round submission wins over Tim Wilde and
Chris Bugard since relinquishing the belt in a five-round decision
defeat to Michael
Chandler in December 2018. The 36-year-old Sports Lab product
is 10-1 as a professional.
Mamedov has lost just once in 21 professional outings heading into
his promotional debut. The 31-year-old Dagestan native went 8-0-1
during a stint with Professional Fighters League and World Series
of Fighting from 2015 to 2019, posting notable wins over Thiago
Tavares and Natan
Schulte.
Porto had a four-bout winning streak snapped in her first
promotional foray, as she dropped a three-round verdict to Liz
Carmouche at Bellator 256 on April 9. The former Invicta FC
flyweight queen owns wins over the likes of Roxanne
Modafferi, Jennifer
Maia, Germaine
de Randamie and Tonya
Evinger during her MMA career.
Brazil’s Joanne submitted UFC veteran Bec
Rawlings in her Bellator debut before suffering a third-round
TKO loss to Kana
Watanabe in her sophomore outing at Bellator 237 in December
2019.
Rabadanov enters his first Bellator foray having won seven of his
last eight professional fights. He is a former Eagle Fighting
Championship title holder and has also competed for Fight Nights
Global and Professional Fighters League.
Carey, meanwhile, is 3-3 in the California-based organization. In
his most recent outing, he suffered a second-round knockout loss to
Aaron
Pico at Bellator 238 in January 2020.