Following an
injury to lightweight champion Patricky
Freire, a welterweight showdown between Douglas
Lima and Jason
Jackson has been elevated to the
Bellator 283 main event.
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Meanwhile, Tofiq
Musayev will step in against Sidney
Outlaw in the co-headliner. Outlaw was originally slated to
challenge Freire for lightweight gold, while Musayev was booked
against Adam
Piccolotti, who also withdrew from the card due to injury.
Promotion officials announced the changes on Tuesday. Lima vs.
Jackson will now be contested over five rounds.
Bellator 283 takes place at Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Wash.,
on July 22. The main card airs on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT,
while prelims stream on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel, the
Bellator MMA YouTube channel and Pluto TV at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m.
PT.
On the preliminary draw, new signee Archie
Colgan will replace Vladimir
Tokov and face Justin
Montalvo in a lighweight bout, while a proposed light
heavyweight scrap between
Jose Augusto Azevedo Barros and Viktor
Nemkov was canceled due to a Nemkov injury.
A former welterweight champion, Lima is mired in the first
three-fight losing streak of his professional career. The American
Top Team Atlanta standout lost a five-round verdict to Gegard
Mousasi in a bid for 185-pound gold before relinquishing the
welterweight strap to Yaroslav
Amosov in a decision loss at Bellator 260. Most recently, Lima
dropped a split decision against Michael
Page in a rematch at Bellator 267 this past October.
Jackson, meanwhile, has compiled a five-bout winning streak to
emerge as a top contender at 170 pounds. During his run, “The Ass
Kicking Machine” has earned notable triumphs over the likes of
Benson
Henderson, Neiman
Gracie and Paul Daley to
run his career mark to 15-4.