Brian Rogers once again has a new opponent for next week’s Bellator 125 in Fresno, California as Brett Cooper has pulled out of the fight with an injury and Rogers will now meet Rafael Carvalho in the co-main event of the fight card.
The fight change was announced by Bellator on Tuesday and Cooper tweeted after the announcement that a broken foot forced him out of the fight.
Bellator 125 will come from the Save Mart Center on September 19th and will be headlined by a middleweight bout as former title challengers Doug Marshall meets Bellator newcomer Melvin Manhoef.
Carvalho (9-1) will be making his Bellator debut in this bout and has won nine in a row after losing his pro debut in 2011. Eight of his nine victories have come by TKO/KO and his most recent win came in May as he defeated Mauri Roque in the first round.
Rogers (11-6) has been in Bellator since 2011 and will be looking for back to back victories next week in California. He is coming off a knockout win at Bellator 119 in May and he is tied for the third most knockout victories in Bellator middleweight division history.
The current Bellator 125: Marshall vs. Manhoef fight card is below.
Main Card: (Spike TV – 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT)
Doug Marshall (18-7) vs. Melvin Manhoef (28-11-1)
Rafael Carvalho (9-1) vs. Brian Rogers (11-6)
Martin Stapleton (13-3) vs. Goiti Yamauchi (17-2)
Javy Ayala (7-3) vs. Raphael Butler (8-0-1)
Preliminary Card: (Spike.com – 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT)
Ron Keslar (11-6) vs. Jesse Juarez (21-9)
Aaron Wilkinson (11-6) vs. Chris Honeycutt (4-0)
Julio Cesar Neves (29-0) vs. Poppies Martinez (29-10)
Granson Clark (2-1) vs. George Zuniga (2-0)
Jonny Bonilla-Bowman (2-0) vs. Sergio Cortez (9-8)
Oscar Ramirez (3-1) vs. Matt Ramirez (debut)
Joe Neal (3-0) vs. Paul Ruiz (5-1)
Nate James (13-8) vs. Anthony Ruiz (33-18)