Former middleweight No. 1 contender Austin
Vanderford will return to action against Anthony
Adams at
Bellator 284 on Aug. 12.
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Promotion officials confirmed the pairing following an initial
report from
MMAjunkie.com. Bellator 284 takes place at the Sanford Pentagon
in Sioux Falls, S.D., and is headlined by a welterweight clash
between Neiman
Gracie and Goiti
Yamauchi. The main card airs on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m.
PT, while prelims stream on Showtime Sports YouTube channel, the
Bellator MMA YouTube channel and Pluto TV at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m.
PT.
The promotion announced several other bouts for the preliminary
card: Pat Downey III vs. Jeff Souder at middleweight; Said Sowma
vs. Gokham Saricam at heavyweight; Bailey Schoenfelder vs. Mark
Currier at heavyweight; Josh Hill vs. Matheus Mattos at
bantamweight; Mitchell McKee vs. Tony Ortega at bantamweight and
DeAnna Bennett vs. Justin Kish at flyweight.
Vanderford last appeared at Bellator 275, where he suffered a
first-round technical knockout loss to Gegard
Mousasi in a middleweight title bout on Feb. 25. Prior to that,
Vanderford was victorious in his first 11 professional appearances,
including five wins under the Bellator MMA banner.
Adams, meanwhile, scored a unanimous verdict over Khalid
Murtazaliev in his promotion debut at Bellator 266. The
two-time Dana White’s Contender Series competitor was slated to
return to action at Bellator 280 against Lorenz
Larkin before withdrawing from the proposed bout.