The Bellator MMA season nine featherweight tournament opening round bouts took place on the Bellator 99 main card on Friday night with Patricio Pitbull, Fabricio Guerreiro, Justin Wilcox and Joe Taimanglo advancing to the semifinals.
Following the fight card, Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney announced at the post fight press conference that the semifinals will take place at Bellator 103 next month.
Bellator 103 on October 11th at the Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane, Kansas and the semifinal bouts will be Pitbull vs. Guerreiro and Wilcox vs. Taimanglo.
Pitbull defeated Diego Nunes in the main event of Bellator 99 as he became the first person to defeat Nunes by stoppage. He landed a left hook that dropped Nunes in the opening round and referee John McCarthy immediately came in to stop the fight.
Guerreiro secured his spot in the semifinals by defeating Desmond Green in the co-main event of Friday night’s card. He was able to do enough on the judges scorecards in the first and second round to secure a decision victory.
In what was the best fight of the night, Wilcox had to come from behind to get his spot in the semifinals as he defeated Akop Stepanyan in the second round by submission. Stepanyan was able to use his leg kicks in the first round to limit what Wilcox could get done. However, Wilcox got the fight to the ground in the second and finish the fight with a rear-naked choke.
Taimanglo was the first fighter to advance into the semifinal round as he defeated Andrew Fisher by unanimous decision in the opening bout of the Bellator 99 card. He was able to use his effective striking to secure the victory and improve to 2-0 in Bellator.
The current Bellator 103 card is below and Bellator will be announcing more fights in the near future.
Patricio Pitbull (18-2) vs. Fabricio Guerreiro (18-2, 1NC)
Justin Wilcox (12-5) vs. Joe Taimanglo (19-4-1)