The opening round of the season nine welterweight tournament took place on Friday night at Bellator 100 and the semifinals are set for October 18th at Bellator 14 as Brent Weedman meets Rick Hawn and Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver faces Ron Keslar.
Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney announced the matchups during the Bellator 100 Post Fight Press Conference.
Bellator 104 will come from the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on October 18th and tickets for the event are currently on sale.
Weedman defeated Justin Baesman in the opening bout of the Bellator 100 card to secure his spot in the semifinals. He won the fight in the opening round by armbar submission and he will meet Hawn who defeated Herman Terrado by unanimous decision. This will be the second time that they will meet as Hawn won the first meeting by unanimous decision in the season six lightweight tournament final.
Keslar was a late replacement in this tournament and he pulled off an upset on Friday night as he defeated Sergio Junior by unanimous decision. He was able to use his ground control to win the fight and weathered a late storm to hold on for the victory and he will meet War Machine who defeated Vaughn Anderson by submission in the second round.
Bellator will be announcing more fights for this card in the coming weeks and the current card is below.
Rick Hawn (16-2) vs. Brent Weedman (22-8-1)
Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver (14-4) vs. Ron Keslar (10-4)