The finale of Fight Master was scheduled to take place on the main card of Bellator 98 but a facial injury suffered by Joe Riggs has delayed his bout against Mike Bronzoulis and a new date for the fight has not been determined at this time.
Loretta Hunt of Sports Illustrated reported the injury on Monday and Bellator confirmed the story after it was posted.
According to the Sports Illustrated report, Riggs suffered the injury three weeks ago during training and he suffered a partial orbital bone fracture and retina detachment.
Riggs had surgery and he told Sports Illustrated that he has been cleared to start training. His bout against Bronzoulis will still likely take place in the upcoming ninth season which will begin on Saturday night at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.
With the Fight Master final off the card, the main card on Spike TV will feature a title fight, one of the bantamweight tournament semifinal bouts and the opening round of the season nine middleweight tournament.
The complete Bellator 98 card is below:
Main Card: (Spike TV – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Alexander Shlemenko (47-7) vs. Brett Cooper (19-8)
Joe Warren (8-3) vs. Nick Kirk (10-2) *
Justin Torrey (7-0) vs. Andreas Spang (8-3) **
Perry Filkins (7-1) vs. Jeremy Kimball (10-3) **
Brian Rogers (10-5) vs. Mikkel Parlo (9-1) **
Jason Butcher (6-0) vs. Giva Santana (18-2) **
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com – 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT)
Derek Anderson (8-0) vs. Patricky Pitbull (10-4)
Jeff Nader (5-5) vs. Mike Mucitelli (5-0)
Dave Vitkay (12-12) vs. Brennan Ward (5-1)
Andrew Calandrelli (6-3) vs. Ryan Quinn (7-4-1)
Nick Piedmont (8-3-1) vs. Matt Bessette (11-4)
Glenn Allair (3-1) vs. Riso Disciullo (0-0)
Josh Diekman (12-5) vs. Parker Porter (5-3)
* – Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal
** – Middleweight Tournament Opening Round