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Bellator President Scott Coker, while in Connecticut, as the organization preps for Bellator 245 tonight and 246 tomorrow, confirmed some monstrous news.
While they had to sadly cancel some normal location events, they have shuffled their October lineup. The big event they had to scratch their October 1st card in Dublin. As well as their cards in Israel.
The Milano card will be highlighted by the 1st time a major company holds an MMA event in France. The Paris card will be the main event by Cheick Kongo and Timothy Johnson's rematch. The first time around was Bellator 208 where Kongo finished the fellow former UFC fighter in the 1st round. The co-main event as of now is Michael Venom Page versus Ross Houston.
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Scott Coker confirms big news for Bellator MMA
So while the UFC was the 1st sport to come back from the coronavirus break, it was Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship that was 1st to have a partial live attendance. Add Bellator to that now. For the October 10th card, Bellator will be allowed to have 5,000 in attendance. That card will also feature some boxing as well. The event will be watched over by The French Boxing Commission, fghters like Francis Ngannou have begged the UFC to be first.
Another confirmed announcement made by Scott Coker was the move to CBS Sports Network for the company. That means events around the world will have more fan-friendly airing times, as opposed to tape delays. Scott Coker spoke highly of the organization's time on Paramount. But the merger between CBS Sports and Viacom set all this in motion.
While Scott Coker's promotion heads away from the Mohegan Sun Arena for a while, he also announced some huge events for their return to Connecticut. Bellator's normal fight night is Friday. When they come back to the States, they are also moving to Thursday nights, for a while at least.
October 15th will be headlined by Cris Cyborg's 1st title defense. It'll be against Arlene Blencowe. The 37-year-old is on a 3 fight win streak and since Cyborg dropped the UFC Women's featherweight title to Amanda Nunes, has won 2 in a row.
Then 2 weeks later, on Thursday, October 29th a much-anticipated fight happens. Douglas Lima, the reigning welterweight champion moves up to try for the middleweight strap. It's presently vacant as Rafael Lovato had to relinquish it for health reasons. The man he beat for it, Gegard Mousasi, is the other half of that fight. It'll be the 2nd time "The Dreamcatcher" faces a moving up welterweight, the 1st being Rory MacDonald.
Scott Coker also said to expect more MMA and boxing combined cards as well. And he'd be willing to allow Cyborg to step into the sweet science ring, but only if that boxer would step into the MMA cage. A possible Katie Taylor double fight has been talked on and off for a while, may now get some legs to it.
