Bellator MMA recently announced a slew of changes to its upcoming slate of fight cards, beginning with Bellator 256, which is set to go down on April 9, 2021 inside Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
The co-main event between Corey Anderson and Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov — which is an opening round match up of the promotion’s Light Heavyweight Grand Prix — will now co-headlined Bellator 257 on April 16. The Headlining bout to that event will also feature a Grand Prix bout between Phil Davis and 205-pound champion, Vadim Nemkov.
As far as Bellator 256 goes, that event — which airs exclusively on Showtime — will still be headlined by a quarterfinal tournament fight between Lyoto Machida and Ryan Bader.
Also, the highly-anticipated debuts of Anthony Johnson and Yoel Romero — which was originally set to go down on April 16 — will now serve as the co-main event to Bellator 258 on May 7. That event will be headlined by a Bantamweight title fight between division king, Juan Archuleta, taking on Sergio Pettis.
As far as why the changes were made, Scott Coker gave some insight via a press release.
““I’m thrilled to begin the BELLATOR MMA Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix featuring the best 205-pound fighters in the world, Like everyone, we had a few hurdles with travel issues and had to move some things around, but I’m pleased that we were able to reschedule these bouts quickly,” he said.
“We now have three stacked events in a row featuring quarterfinal matchups on Showtime, while also adding other incredible fights to each of these cards.”
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