(Aoki vs. Alvarez 1, 12/31/08)
Cripes, is it April 19th already? We didn’t burn a lot of calories discussing this fight, but the long-awaited rematch between former Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez and DREAM lightweight champ Shinya Aoki is happening tomorrow night at the I-X Center in Cleveland, as the main event of Bellator 66.
Aoki and Alvarez originally met at Dynamite!! 2008, with Aoki wrenching out a heel-hook victory in just 92 seconds. Now he’s agreed to meet his old foe on American soil, which is very sportsmanlike of him — but keep in mind that the last time he gave an American a rematch on their own turf he got dominated by Gilbert Melendez. Aoki has won all seven of his fights since that loss to El Niño, while Alvarez is coming off his submission loss to Michael Chandler in their Fight of the Year candidate at Bellator 58.
Bellator 66 will also feature the semi-finals of their season 6 lightweight and middleweight tournaments, and get this: We’ll be streaming the Bellator 66 prelims on CagePotato.com tomorrow starting at 7 p.m. ET. So be sure to come back for that, and check out the full event lineup after the jump…
MAIN CARD (MTV2)
Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki (lightweight non-tournament fight)
Brian Rogers vs. Andreas Spang (middleweight semifinal)
Maiquel Falcao vs. Vyacheslav Vasilevsky (middleweight semifinal)
Rick Hawn vs. Lloyd Woodard (lightweight semifinal)
Thiago Michel Pereira Silva vs. Brent Weedman (lightweight semifinal)
PRELIMINARY CARD (CagePotato.com, Spike.com)
Jessica Eye vs. Anita Rodriguez (131 pounds)
Frank Carabello vs. Donny Walker (BW)
Tyler Combs vs. Jason Dent (LW)
Dan Spohn vs. Attila Vegh (LHW)
John Hawk vs. Marcus Vanttinen (LHW)
Joe Heiland vs. Julian Lane (LW)
