Bellator MMA is headed back to pay-per-view, and it seems like the promotion is committed to giving fans their money’s worth.
According to reports, two title fights have been added to the Bellator NYC weekend: Michael Chandler vs. Brent Primus for the lightweight title and Douglas Lima vs. Lorenz Larkin for the welterweight title.
Chandler vs. Primus (which was first reported by MMAFighting.com‘s Marc Raimondi) is a bit of an odd fight. Chandler instantly staked his claim as the top 155-pound fighter in the promotion by steamrolling Patricky “Pitbull” Freire last year to take the vacant strap and cemented himself as a top-10 fighter by defeating former UFC champion Benson Henderson.
A six-year veteran of the promotion, there are few new opponents left for Chandler, which opened the door for somebody like Primus. The 7-0 contender (5-0 in Bellator) has slowly worked his way up the card since debuting in 2013 and with wins over Derek Anderson and Gleristone Santos finds himself as the last man standing in the division. Unfortunately, while he has solid ground skills, he likely has little to threaten Chandler with.
The welterweight title matchup (which was first reported by Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times), by comparison, is considerably more competitive.
Despite being largely forgotten about in his always competitive weight class, Lima has quietly established himself as one of the best 170-pound fighters in all of MMA. While he has been consistently dogged by injuries and his 2013 loss to then-champion Ben Askren, his pure finishing skills have held up against some solid competition, and his 2016 wins over Paul Daley and Andrey Koreshkov proved that he is indeed an elite-level talent.
He will have a tough out in his first title defense, though. A top-10-level competitor, Larkin is the latest free agent to jump from the UFC to Bellator and did so riding a solid 4-1 wave at 170 pounds. He enters the fight coming off back-to-back wins over Jorge Masvidal and Neil Magny and should combine with Lima for an action-packed bout.
Worth noting is that these title fights are slated for the Bellator NYC pay-per-view card, not the recently announced Bellator 180 event that will air immediately beforehand on Spike TV. No bouts have been attached to the latter card, while Lima vs. Larkin and Chandler vs. Primus join the previously announced Fedor Emelianenko vs. Matt Mitrione and Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva matches.
Bellator NYC is slated to go down in New York City’s Madison Square Garden on June 24. Keep an eye out over the coming weeks for more details on both cards as they become available.
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