The new Bellator Featherweight champion will have to wait a bit longer to defend his belt. Pat Curran has been forced out of his match up against Patricio Freire at Bellator 73 due to an injury.
MMAWeekly is reporting that Curran suffered a broken orbital bone during a sparring session. The injury is likely to sideline Curran for at least a couple months.
MMAWeekly, along with an ESPN report, said that Bellator will now bump up the bantamweight tournament finals featuring Marcos Galvao vs. Luis Nogueira to main event status.
When Curran returns, he will have a couple of hungry title challengers awaiting him. Freire has been waiting to get his title shot after winning a featherweight tournament and Daniel Straus also won a Bellator tournament to earn a title fight.
However, it seems Bellator’s Bjorn Rebney is already set on having Curran face Freire when the champion is healthy:
“Right now the focus is Pat healing and getting back to 100 percent and we will get that fight rescheduled as quickly as Pat’s health will allow us to,” Rebney said (via ESPN).
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