Bellator 119 will take place on Friday night from Casino Rama in Canada and the organization has announced that two of the fights on the card have been scratched.
The card was scheduled to be headlined by the season ten middleweight tournament final between Brett Cooper and Brandon Halsey. However, a back injury to Cooper has forced the fight to be delayed.
“After my fight with Kendall [Grove], my back just hasn’t been where I need it to be to have a proper training camp for one of the biggest fights of my career,” Cooper said. “It’s a setback, but with some time off, I should be ready to go by late July. I never like missing time, but I know this is the right move. I’ll be back stronger, and I’m looking forward to winning another tournament and getting another shot against Shlemenko.”
With this fight being off the card, the main card on Spike TV will now be headlined by the season ten featherweight tournament final between Desmond Green and Daniel Weichel. Replacing the Cooper-Halsey fight on the main card will be a welterweight bout as Marius Zaromskis meets Vaughn Anderson.
The other fight that had to be scratched from the card was a featherweight bout between Fabricio Guerreiro and Shahbulat Shamhalaev. According to Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney, there was an issue with the passport of Guerreiro and his fight against Shamhalaev will be moved to another date.
“Unfortunately issues arose in the passport process for Guerreiro, and because the fight is in Ontario, we weren’t confident these issues with be resolved by May 9th,” Rebney said. “However, we should have news shortly on when this fight will be rescheduled, as these are two guys I’ve wanted back in our cage, and it should make for a great fight.”
After the announcement by Bellator on Guerriero, TheMMAReport.com reached out to sources on whether this had anything to do with the fighter’s visa and this is just about his passport, not his visa. Bellator has dealt with visa issues before, but this is just a passport issue with the Brazilian fighter.
The current Bellator 119: Green vs. Weichel fight card lineup is below.
Main Card: (Spike TV – 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT)
Daniel Weichel (33-8) vs. Desmond Green (11-2)
Chris Horodecki (20-4-1) vs. Marlon Sandro (24-5-1)
Marius Zaromskis (19-8) vs. Vaughn Anderson (16-2-1)
Raphael Butler (8-0) vs. Nick Rossborough (23-18)
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com – 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT)
Eric Wisely (22-8) vs. John Alessio (34-17)
Brian Rogers (10-6) vs. Adrian Miles (14-5)
Stuart Austin (7-0) vs. Craig Hudson (4-3)
Jason Meisel (4-3) vs. Remy Bussieres (3-0)
Chris Kelades (6-0) vs. Malcolm Gordon (4-0)
Behrang Yousefi (5-4) vs. Chad Freeman (8-5)