Bellator MMA will wrap up its eight season on Thursday night at the Revel Resort in Atlantic City with Bellator 85, which will feature a title fight and two tournament finals.
The preliminary card is scheduled to have eight fights and will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on Spike.com. After the preliminary card is finished, the main card will begin at 10 p.m. ET with four fights.
The fight card will be headlined by Pat Curran (18-4) making his second featherweight title defense during the current season of Bellator as he is challenged by season seven tournament winner Shahbulat Shamhalaev (12-1-1).
Curran was originally scheduled to defend the title against Daniel Straus, but a broken hand forced Straus to pull out of the fight.
Curran recently told TheMMAReport.com that he is excited for every fight and he believes that the fight on Thursday night will be an exciting one.
“I am excited for every fight and anybody that goes through that tournament definitely deserves a title shot and they deserve to be there,” Curran told TheMMAReport.com. They are two different fighters as Straus likes to wrestle and get you to the ground and Shamhalaev has been knocking everyone out. It’s going to make for an entertaining fight and I consider both of us good strikers, good counter strikers and it’s going to be an interesting matchup.”
Along with the title fight, the main card on Spike TV will have the finals of the featherweight and middleweight tournaments. In the featherweight final, Mike Richman (15-2) will meet Frodo Khasbulaev (20-5) and Brett Cooper (19-7) will take on Doug Marshall (17-6) in the middleweight final. The winners of the tournament finals will win $100,000 and a guaranteed shot at the Bellator title.
The current Bellator 95 fight card is below and stay tuned to TheMMAReport.com this week for coverage of Bellator 95 from Atlantic City.
Main Card: (Spike TV – 10 p.m. ET)
Pat Curran (18-4) vs. Shahbulat Shamhalaev (12-1-1)
Brett Cooper (19-7) vs. Doug Marshall (17-6)
Mike Richman (15-2) vs. Frodo Khasbulaev (20-5)
Rick Hawn (14-2) vs. Karo Parisyan (22-9, 1NC)
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com – 8 p.m. ET)
Lyman Good (14-3) vs. Dante Rivera (15-6)
Kevin Roddy (12-14) vs. Brylan Van Artsalen (7-5)
Anton Talamantes (5-3) vs. Liam McGeary (3-0)
Michael Brent Hass (3-1) vs. Will Martinez (5-2)
Jimmie Rivera (11-1) vs. Brian Kelleher (8-3)
Carlos Brooks (4-2) vs. Tom DeBlass (7-2)
Shedrick Goodridge (3-4) vs. Sami Oropeza (7-2)
Phillipe Nover (6-4) vs. Darrell Horcher (7-0)