.@BellatorMMA’s
return to @Accor_Arena
is booked for May 12 featuring a wealth of European talent.Former champion Gegard @Mousasi_MMA
will return against @FabianEdwards24
in the main event, while @MansourBarnaoui
faces @SidOutlaw
in a LWGP quarterfinal. https://t.co/5e1Zz4dHHx pic.twitter.com/0nG36XANHF— Bellator Public Relations (@BellatorPR)
January 12, 2023
Bellator MMA is officially going back to France
this year.
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Via press release on Thursday, the organization announced that its
return trip to Paris on 2023 will take place on May 12. Posting up
once more in the Accor Arena, Bellator will bring a tournament
quarterfinal and a middleweight headliner that has major
championship implications to the
currently unnumbered event. The main event sees ex-champ
Gegard
Mousasi (49-8-2) seek his 50th pro victory against the
resurgent Brit Fabian
Edwards (11-2). In the second-to-last tilt, Sidney
Outlaw (16-5) battles Mansour
Barnaoui (20-4) for a place in lightweight grand prix
semifinals.
Mousasi saw his championship run at 185 pounds come to a grinding
halt at the hands of unbeaten Johnny
Eblen in June 2022, suffering his first defeat since winning
his belt back in 2020. The loss to Eblen put an end to his second
reign – a feat no other middleweight titleholder has achieved in
Bellator – and one that saw him register at least one defense in
each run. “The Dreamcatcher” posts a solid finish rate of 82% as a
pro, with a career littered with wins over names like Chris
Weidman, Dan
Henderson, Vitor
Belfort and Mark Hunt, to
name a few.
Edwards rebounded off a pair of decision defeats to Costello
van Steenis in 2020 and Austin
Vanderford in 2021 by putting on a decent 2022 campaign. A
first-round knockout over Lyoto
Machida led to a match with Charlie
Ward, and Edwards had his hand raised courtesy of the
scorecards in his favor. Before losing to van Steenis, Edwards had
strung together nine straight wins to begin his career, including
five in the Bellator ranks.
Carrying on the 155-pound quarterfinals – a tournament that will
commence in March – Outlaw and Barnaoui will throw down to advance.
The brackets are not yet determined, but the victor may square off
against the winner of the unannounced A.J. McKee vs.
Patricky
Freire battle likely coming in the first quarter of 2023.
Outlaw has gone 2-2 in his last four dating back to late 2019, with
first-round knockout defeats to Michael
Chandler and Tofiq
Musayev bookending wins over Adam
Piccolotti and Myles Jury.
His foe Barnaoui, the lone representative in the tourney from
France, made his successful promotional debut in October 2022,
where he submitted Piccolotti in Round 2 to make a statement. That
triumph extended the win streak of “The Afro-Samurai” to eight,
with all eight coming inside the distance.
In addition to the two main card matches, Bellator also released a
pair of lightweight bouts on the preliminary portion of the lineup
– both of which include Frenchmen against Englishmen. Saul Rogers
(15-5) will face France’s Davy Gallon
(21-8-2), and Thibault
Gouti (16-6) throws down with Manchester’s own Kane Mousah
(14-4). Rogers, Gallon and Gouti are all coming off decision losses
at Bellator 287 in Italy, while Mousah won his last fight – albeit
against the Bellator
fighter with the most defeats in Georgi
Karakhanyan.