Two championship bouts will top the lineup for Bellator MMA’s
return to the Windy City.
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The promotion announced on Wednesday that Bellator 301 will take
place at Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Nov. 17 and features a
welterweight championship clash between Yaroslav
Amosov and Jason
Jackson as well as a bantamweight title unification bout
pitting Sergio
Pettis against Patrick
Mix. The evening’s main card will also include a lightweight
grand prix semifinal matchup between Patricky
Freire and Alexandr
Shabliy and a rematch between Raufeon
Stots and Danny
Sabatello. The main card will air on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET/6
p.m. PT.
After going on hiatus to defend his native Ukraine from Russian
invasion, Amosov made a triumphant return at Bellator 291, where he
took a clear-cut unanimous verdict against Logan
Storley on Feb. 25. “Dynamo” owns a perfect 27-0 career mark
and has notable wins over the likes of Douglas
Lima, Roberto
Soldic, Ed Ruth,
Erick Silva
and Gerald
Harris on his resume.
Jackson has compiled a six-bout winning streak under the Bellator
banner to cement his status as the welterweight division’s No. 1
contender. In his most recent outing, “The Ass Kicking Machine”
took a five-round verdict over Lima in the Bellator 283 main event
in July 2022. The former Dana White’s Contender Series competitor
also owns wins over the likes of Paul Daley,
Neiman
Gracie, Benson
Henderson and Jordan
Mein.
After a knee injury sidelined him for all of 2022, Pettis made a
successful title defense in his return, as he outpointed
featherweight king Patricio
Freire at Bellator 297 on June 16. “The Phenom” has won his
last six professional appearances, including victories over
Kyoji
Horiguchi and Juan
Archuleta in championship bouts.
With Pettis on the mend, Mix claimed the interim crown by making
his way through the Bellator 135-pound grand prix in 2022. His run
culminated with a first-round submission of Stots at Bellator 295
on April 22.
Six preliminary contests were also confirmed for Bellator 301:
Daniel
James vs. Ali Isaev at
heavyweight; Tyrell
Fortune vs. Marcelo
Golm at heavyweight; Timur
Khizriev vs. Justin
Gonzales at featherweight; Mike Hamel
vs. Tim Wilde at
lightweight; Denise
Kielholtz vs. Sumiko
Inaba at flyweight and Islam
Mamedov vs. Killys Mota
at a 160-pound catchweight. The Bellator 301 prelims air on the
Bellator YouTube channel, the Showtime Sports YouTube channel and
Pluto TV at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.