The Bellator season 10 calendar continues to fill out as the promotion announced Monday Bellator 116 would feature the semifinals of their welterweight tournament. That event – scheduled for April 11 at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif. – will also play host to a light heavyweight bout between UFC veterans Vladimir Matyushenko and Joey Beltran. All of those bouts will air live on Spike TV.
Beltran is now scheduled to make his second appearance in the Bellator cage. He first competed for the Viacom-backed organization in November at Bellator 108 where he lost to Quinton Jackson via first-round TKO. His record stands at 14-10 with 1 no-contest.
Matyushenko is also set to fight for Bellator a second time, having first won a unanimous decision against Houston Alexander at Bellator 99 in September. His record is currently 27-7.
The April Bellator event will also play host to the second stage of season 10’s welterweight tournament. The welterweight quarterfinals are scheduled to kick off at Bellator 112 on March 14th. As Bellator announced on Monday, his season’s tournament now features the return of Andrey Koreshkov as well as UFC and Showtime veteran Nah-Shon Burrell. Also in this season’s tournament is Joe Riggs, War Machine, Sam Oropeza, Mark Scanlon, Adam McDonough and Jesse Juarez. The brackets for the tournament are as follows:
The winners from the Bellator 112 match-ups will compete as part of the semifinals at Bellator 116. The winners of those bouts will compete at a later date to determine who will face the winner of the bout between Douglas Lima and Rick Hawn, which will crown the Bellator welterweight champion. Long-time welterweight champion Ben Askren vacated his title when he parted ways with the organization late in 2013.
No other bouts have been announced for this card at the time of this writing.