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MMA has added some important fights to its next offering on
Aug. 7.
Bellator 243 was originally announced by
Combate as taking place on Aug. 7. Like Bellator 242 on Friday,
Bellator 243 will be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville,
Conn. It will be headlined by a rematch between former Bellator
lightweight king Michael
Chandler (20-5) and ex-Ultimate
Fighting Championship lightweight champ Benson
Henderson (28-8).
Chandler, the company’s only former three-time champion,
surrendered his belt in May 2019 to Patricio
Freire by first-round knockout. Chandler rebounded from that
resounding defeat with a quick finish of Sidney
Outlaw at the co-promoted Bellator and
Rizin Fighting Federation event in December, Bellator 237.
“Iron Mike” holds the
second-most wins in promotional history with 17, trailing only
Freire (18). He maintains the record for the most finishes in
Bellator history with 12.
Since a pair of split decision losses to Chandler and Patricky
Freire, Henderson has rattled off four consecutive victories.
Most recently, he topped Myles Jury in
September 2019, and this four-fight win streak is his longest since
he held the UFC lightweight throne in 2012-2013. Despite a
reputation for frequently going the distance, “Smooth” sports an
even finish rate of 50 percent, while recording stoppages in
Bellator over Patricio
Freire and Roger
Huerta.
In addition to the headliner, a pair of key matchups have been
added to the card. First, as initially reported by
MMA Fighting, Curtis
Millender (18-5) will take on Sabah
Homasi (13-8) in the welterweight division. Later on Thursday,
MMA Junkie was first to report that Bellator 243 will be
co-headlined by a heavyweight rumble between Matt
Mitrione (13-7, 1 NC) and Timothy
Johnson (13-6). Sources have confirmed to Sherdog.com the
placement of these three bouts on the card.
Millender made his successful return to the organization in January
when he took a one-sided decision over Moses Murrieta. The
five-fight UFC vet saw his time with the Las Vegas-based promotion
come to an end on the heels of two losses to Elizeu
Zaleski dos Santos and Belal
Muhammad. Facing Millender will be a fellow former UFC fighter
in Homasi, who throughout his career has shone an affinity towards
the knockout, win or lose. A trio of knockout losses expelled him
from the UFC, and two wins including a 17-second bludgeoning of
Micah
Terrill in his Bellator return have righted the ship of “The
Sleek Sheik” of late.
Mitrione has gone through a bit of a rough patch in his last three,
losing two with a no contest due to a groin strike splitting those
losses. Before getting beaten by Ryan Bader in
the heavyweight Grand Prix, Mitrione racked up four straight wins
over the likes of Fedor
Emelianenko and Roy Nelson.
His opponent Johnson reversed his fortune with Bellator by
starching Tyrell
Fortune in February to hand the vaunted prospect his first
career defeat. That victory snapped a two-fight first-round
knockout skid against Cheick Kongo
and Vitaly
Minakov for the North Dakota native.
Bellator 243 will go down on Aug. 7 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in
Uncasville, Conn. Headlining the event is a lightweight rematch
between Michael
Chandler and Benson
Henderson. Serving in the co-headliner spot is a heavyweight
tilt between Matt
Mitrione and Timothy
Johnson.