The season nine middleweight tournament begin this past Saturday night at Bellator 98 with Mikkel Parlo, Jason Butcher, Perry Kilkins and Brennan Ward 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 would take place on October 4th at Bellator 102.
Along with announcing the date of the semifinal round of this tournament, Rebney confirmed that the semifinal bouts would be Parl0-Butcher and Filkins-Ward.
Parlo (10-1) defeated Brian Rogers on Saturday night by unanimous decision to secure his spot in the semifinals and Butcher (7-0) stopped Giva Santana in the second round by TKO.
Ward (7-1) was not initially booked for this tournament, but was placed in the tournament last Friday when Andreas Spang was pulled from tournament and he defeated his former training partner Justin Torrey by TKO in the second round. Filkins (8-1) advance to the semifinals with a third round submission victory over Jeremy Kimball.
Bellator 102 takes place from the Visalia Convention Center in Visalia, California and former UFC heavyweight Lavar Johnson is expected to make his Bellator debut on the card.