The already scheduled middleweight bout between Joe Pacheco and Brandon Halsey for Bellator 116 has more meaning as the fight is now a season ten middleweight tournament semifinal bout.
Bellator officials announced the change on Tuesday.
Jeremy Kimball and Dan Cramer were initially booked to meet in the second middleweight tournament semifinal last week, but Kimball was unable to make the middleweight limit of 186 pounds and the fight was pulled from the card.
Sources have told TheMMAReport.com that Cramer was offered two different opponents for this middleweight tournament and he turned down both of those fights.
The bout between Pacheco and Halsey was already scheduled to be a tournament alternate bout according to the press release Bellator issue today. With this now being a tournament fight, the winner will advance to the final to face Brett Cooper later this season.
The current Bellator 116 fight card lineup is below.
Main Card: (Spike TV – 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT)
Blagoi Ivanov (10-0) vs. Lavar Johnson (18-8) *
Nathan Coy (14-4) vs. Adam McDonough (10-0) **
Joey Beltran (14-10) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (27-7)
Mighty Mo Siliga (6-2) vs. Alexander Volkov (19-4) *
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com – 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT)
Joe Pacheco (7-1) vs. Brandon Halsey (5-0) ***
Dave Vitkay (13-12-1) vs. Keith Berry (15-12)
Josh Smith (9-6) vs. Poppies Martinez (28-9)
Brandon Bender (11-1) vs. Mario Navarro (4-3)
Joe Taimanglo (19-5-1) vs. Rob Emerson (15-10)
Ron Keslar (11-5) vs. Karo Parisyan (22-10)
Carlos Eduardo (11-2) vs. Rodney Wallace (19-8)
Philipe Lins (7-1) vs. Travis Clark (7-2)
Ricky Rainey (6-2) vs. Andy Murad (6-1)
* – Heavyweight Tournament Semifinal
** – Welterweight Tournament Semifinal
*** – Middleweight Tournament Semifinal