Seven weeks outside of the return of Bellator MMA, popular light heavyweight Mohammed Lawal has announced his opponent for Bellator 96 along with a poster for the event which shares the rest of the main card matchups.
Standing across the cage from Lawal will be none other than Seth Petruzelli. “The Silverback” is a veteran of the Ultimate Fighter reality program and competed four times in the Octagon. However, the former heavyweight is best known as being the man who infamously knocked out Kimbo Slice and for giving a post-fight interview that led to the collapse of Elite XC.
Lawal will be competing for the first time since being stunned in the Season 7 tournament by Emanuel Newton. After picking apart Newton in the opening minutes of the fight, King Mo was caught with a spinning back fist that turned off his lights. It marked the second loss of Lawal’s professional career.
With the Season 8 tournament switching to a four-man bracket, we now know that the winner of Lawal vs. Petruzelli will square off against the winner of a battle between Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Jacob Noe, who will compete against one another earlier on the same card.
Also announced was a welterweight scrap between the always controversial War Machine and jiu-jitsu practitioner Blas Avena.
War Machine was released from the UFC after the The Ultimate Fighter alum made statements about the death of Evan Tanner, in which he claimed that the former champion had committed suicide and that his death was no accident.
Bellator 96 is headlined by a battle for the Bellator lightweight championship between undefeated Michael Chandler and challenger Dave Jansen, who is fresh off of his Season 7 tournament win.
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