An all-Russian rumble at Bellator MMA‘s welterweight division will be coming to
the Moscow card in October.
Igor Lazorin
was the first to announce on Friday that the Andrey
Koreshkov (24-4) and Rustam
Khabilov (24-4) had agreed to face one another at
Bellator 269. The Moscow card on Oct. 23 will be held at the
VTB Arena, and the 170-pound matchup was subsequently confirmed by
ESPN
and then Bellator
itself shortly after the news broke.
Since suffering the first decision defeat of his career – a split
decision setback to Lorenz
Larkin in 2019 – Koreshkov left Bellator for a single
appearance with AMC Fight Nights, the renamed league of Fight
Nights Global. The former champ hit a first-round armbar on
Adriano Rodrigues de Oliveira to put himself back on the
winning track, and he came back in August against Sabah
Homasi. At Bellator 264, Koreshkov outworked Homasi en route to
a one-sided unanimous verdict in his favor. Over the years,
Koreshkov has defeated the likes of Douglas
Lima, Benson
Henderson, Lyman Good
and Marius
Zaromskis.
Although Khabilov
signed with Bellator in 2020, this will be his first appearance
inside a cage since late 2019 when he beat Sergey
Khandozhko at the
UFC Moscow event of UFC Fight Night 163. The Khandozhko bout
marked the first time Khabilov had competed at 170 pounds since a
one-off appearance with One Championship in 2012. His own resume
includes victories over Jorge
Masvidal, Desmond
Green and Chris Wade
after a 13-fight career inside the Octagon.
Bellator’s debut in Russia will go down at the VTB Arena in Moscow
on Oct. 23, and it will be placing Fedor
Emelianenko in the headliner spot against ex-title challenger
Timothy
Johnson. The likely co-main event also stays in the heavyweight
division, as former champ Vitaly
Minakov looks to work his way back up the ladder against
one-beaten wrestler Tyrell
Fortune. Additional, Usman
Nurmagomedov is targeting an appearance at the event, but no
opponent has been designated yet.