Former interim heavyweight champion Valentin
Moldavsky will square off against Linton
Vassell in a rematch on the
Bellator 292 main card.
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Promotion officials announced the pairing on Wednesday. Moldavsky
defeated Vassell via unanimous decision in their first meeting at
Bellator 218 in March 2019. Additionally, two preliminary bouts
were confirmed for the event: James
Gallagher vs. Leandro
Higo at bantamweight and Keri
Melendez vs. Bruna Ellen
at flyweight.
Bellator 292 takes place at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on
March 10 and is headlined by a lightweight grand prix quarterfinal
matchup pitting Usman
Nurmagomedov against Benson
Henderson. Another 155-pound quarterfinal between Tofiq
Musayev and Alexandr
Shabliy is also set for the card. The Bellator 292 main card
airs on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on
the Bellator MMA YouTube channel, the Showtime Sports YouTube
channel and Pluto TV at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Moldavsky captured the interim heavyweight crown with a five-round
verdict over Timothy Johnson at Bellator 261 before dropping a
unanimous decision to Ryan Bader in
a title unification bout at Bellator 273. Most recently, the
30-year-old Russian saw a clash with Steve Mowry
at Bellator 284 end in just 54 seconds due to an accidental eye
poke.
A former light heavyweight title challenger, Vassell has won four
consecutive contests since falling to Moldavsky. In his lone
appearance of 2022, “The Swarm” scored a first-round TKO against
Johnson at Bellator 277 this past April.