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Bellator 244 is scheduled to take place on August 21st.
Ahead of last night’s Bellator 243, which saw Michael Chandler KO former UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson, the promotion announced a few fights to round out their next offering.
Bellator 244 is scheduled for August 21 at the Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Uncasville, CT. The headliner for that event, which had already been announced, is a light heavyweight title fight between champion Ryan Bader and challenger Vadim Nemkov.
The newly announced fights are Julia Budd vs. Jessy Miele and Roy Nelson vs. Valentin Moldavsky.
Budd had been Bellator’s featherweight champion since defeating Marloes Coenen at Bellator 174 in 2017. She defended that title three times before losing it to Cris Cyborg at Bellator 238 in January.
That was Budd’s first loss since being armbarred by a 3-0 Ronda Rousey at Strikeforce Challengers 16 in 2011. Budd’s only other professional loss is to current UFC bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes. Budd lost to Nunes in the second fight of her pro career.
Miele debuted for Bellator at Bellator 231 last year. There she defeated Talita Nogueira by split decision. Prior to that she had a successful two fight stint with CES, where she defeated Elizabeth Phillips and Kylie O’Hearn.
Roy Nelson is a former The Ultimate Fighter winner. He claimed that reality show’s top prize during its 10th season, defeating Kimbo Slice and Brendan Schaub along the way. Nelson would go on to fight for the UFC on 19 more occasions, defeating Antonio Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Chieck Kongo and Matt Mitrione.
Nelson joined Bellator in 2017 and won his promotion debut, over Javy Ayala, by unanimous decision. Since then he has gone 0-4 with losses to Matt Mitrione, Sergei Kharitonov, Miko Cro Cop and Frank Mir.
Moldavsky has 30 fewer fights than Nelson. The 28-year-old Russian moved his pro record to 9-1 by beating Javy Ayala in February. Prior to joining Bellator in 2017, Moldavsky went 2-1 with RIZIN.