Rafael Silva was scheduled to challenge Eduardo Dantas for the Bellator bantamweight title at Bellator 111 on March 7th, but a knee injury pulled him out of the bout and he was replaced by Anthony Leone.
Bellator announced the injury to Silva earlier this month, but did not go into details on the extent of the knee injury that forced him to pull out of the fight.
Earlier this week, Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney told TheMMAReport.com that the 2013 Summer Series Bantamweight Tournament winner is likely out at least four months and has ruled him out of the upcoming tenth season and Summer Series.
“The news we have gotten from him and we talk to his camp pretty regularly is that it will probably keep him out at least four months or more,” Rebney said. “Not a horrible nine to twelve month type situation but he is going to be out for awhile. We will definitely not compete in this season or probably in the Summer Series. Really heart breaking for him because he worked incredible hard and won a tough tournament to earn this shot against Dantas but it will have to wait. Right now, he just has to worry about getting healed.”
Silva (21-3) will likely get his bantamweight title shot during season eleven, which is slated to begin in September. Prior to this title shot, the bantamweight title is expected to be defended on two occasions with the Dantas/Leone winner defending the title at the beginning of May against season nine tournament winner Joe Warren.