Bellator MMA and Monster Energy have announced that the MMA promotion will host 3 fights on Saturday night in Las Vegas at the Monster Energy Drink Cup event in Las Vegas.
The event will come from the Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas and the three Bellator fights will be James Wilson vs. Dan Charles, AJ Williams vs. Adrian Hadribeaj, and Sean Cantor vs. Gustavo Lopez.
The fights will begin at 5pm PT on Saturday and will take place directly outside the entrance to Sam Boyd Stadium. Anyone with a ticket to the Monster Energy Cup can attend and the event will not be streamed.
Wilson (3-1) is making his Bellator debut and he opened his career with three straight victories. His most recent bout came in March as he lost a decision to Carl Culpepper at a King of the Cage event. Charles (8-2) lost his Bellator debut last year to Mighty Mo Siliga. After taking a fight outside of the promotion, he returned in September and defeated Stuart Austin by knockout at Bellator 126.
Williams (1-0) made his professional debut in June at World Series of Fighting 10 and defeated Tanner Cowan by knockout in 44 seconds. According to his Sherdog page, he went 3-1 as an amateur and two of those wins have come by knockout in the first round. Hadribeaj (2-0) turned professional in June and both of his wins have come by decision, including a split decision victory against Michael Hamida at Bellator 124.
Cantor (1-1) won his professional debut in 2012 by split decision and will enter this fight following a defeat to Bryson Hansen at World Series of Fighting 9. He went 3-1 as an amateur according to his Sherdog page and two of those wins came by decision. Lopez (2-1) is out of Washington and this will be his Bellator debut. Both of his wins have come by TKO and his last win came in July against Dylan Atkinson.
“This was a unique opportunity to align two hugely exciting brands in Bellator and Monster, and we are excited to be a part of it,” Bellator President Scott Coker said. “I know over 50,000 people will be in attendance for the Monster Energy Cup on October 18th and those fans are also going to be treated to some incredible action inside the cage before the racing begins. There is a huge crossover in terms of demographics so this made all the sense in the world to collaborate on this, and take the next step in our partnership with Monster Energy.”