Bellator 136 is shaping up to be a pretty deep card.
A lightweight matchup between Marcin Held and Alexander Sarnavskiy has been added to the main card for the April 10 event in Irvine, Calif., Bellator announced Thursday. And a potential slugfest between Joey Beltran and Brian Rogers will be one of the highlights of the prelims. Beltran, a UFC veteran, is moving down to middleweight after spending much of his career at heavyweight and then light heavyweight.
Held (20-3) is coming off a win in Bellator’s season 10 lightweight tournament, knocking off Patricky Freire, Nate Jolly and Derek Anderson. In all, the Polish leglock specialist has won five straight and could be closing in on a lightweight title shot. The bout against Sarnavskiy might very well be No. 1 contender matchup. Held, 23, is currently training at Roufusport in Milwaukee.
Sarnavskiy (30-2) has won five straight, but only one of those has come in Bellator, a first-round submission over Dakota Cochrane last October. “Tiger” also fought four times in his native Russia over the last 15 months, winning each. The 26-year-old Sarnavskiy’s only career losses have come to current Bellator lightweight champion Will Brooks and Rich Clementi.
Beltran (15-11, 1 NC), known for his toughness and grit, is coming off a knockout loss to Emanuel Newton in a Bellator light heavyweight title bout last September. The 33-year-old Alliance MMA product only has two wins in his last nine fights. Rogers (11-7), one of Bellator’s most exciting knockout artists, has just one win in his last four fights and is coming off a knockout loss to Rafael Carvalho last September.
Also added to Bellator 136 was a bout between lightweights Saad Awad and Rob Sinclair.
The Bellator 136 headliner will be a lightweight title fight between Brooks and Dave Jansen. Joe Schilling meets Carvalho in the co-main event. The main card will air live on Spike TV from the Bren Events Center.