With Bellator Fighting Championships announcing it’s official move to Spike television, the promotion has announced the first key-matchups for it’s upcoming Season Eight opening event.
The opening Bellator 85 event will feature a lightweight title bout between champ Michael Chandler (10-0), who looks to solidify his championship after winning the title in November 2011, and season six 155-lbs tournament winner Rick Hawn (14-1).
While Pat Curran (17-4) also looks to do the same, having captured the Bellator featherweight title earlier this year, when he takes on Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire (17-1), the season four tournament winner, in the co-main event.
Also featured on the Season Eight main card is a light heavyweight quarterfinal between former Strikeforce champ Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral (37-9), who makes his Bellator debut by taking on fellow newcomer in Russian fighter Mikhail Zayats (19-6).
Bellator 85 will take place on January 17, 2013 at The Bren Center at the University of California in Irvine, CA with the main card airing live on Spike TV starting at it’s new time of 10pm EST (7pm PST) on Thursday’s. The prelim card is still expected to stream live at Spike.com.
Expect more Bellator 85 matchups to surface in the coming weeks.
The Bellator 85 card:
Main Card (Spike TV)
Lightweight title bout: (c) Michael Chandler vs. Rick Hawn
Featherweight title bout: (c) Pat Curran vs. Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire
Light heavyweight tournament quarterfinal: Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral vs. Mikhail Zayats