Former Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren will return to the Bellator cage this fall and he will be one of the fighters in the season nine bantamweight tournament. 
Warren will face Nick Kirk in the opening round of the tournament on September 7th at the Mohegan Sun and tickets are set to go on sale for the fight card.
The fight was announced during the Bellator 96 main card broadcast on Spike TV and it was the only fight announced to take place on the season nine debut show.
Warren (8-3) dropped down to the bantamweight division permanently late last year after losing the featherweight title to Pat Curran. His last fight took place at Bellator 80 and he defeated Owen Evinger by unanimous decision. He is currently a coach on the Spike TV reality show “Fight Master: Bellator MMA” and the live finale of the reality show will be apart of the season nine debut on September 7th.
Kirk (10-2) has lost both of his fights in Bellator and has won three of his last four fights. After losing to Tony Zelinski at Bellator 87 by split decision earlier this year, he defeated Ben Miller by triangle choke submission at Impact Fighting Championship in April. Both of his losses in Bellator came by decision and three of his career wins are by submission.
Bellator will be announcing more fights for this card in the coming weeks and stay tuned to TheMMAReport.com for updates on this upcoming Bellator card.