The co-main event of next week’s Bellator 137 will be essentially a number one contenders fight in the Bellator bantamweight division as former champion Eduardo Dantas meets Mike Richman.
This fight was initially scheduled to take place back at the end of March at Bellator 135, but the fight was delayed due to an injury suffered by Richman.
Richman (18-5) recently told The MMA Report that the injury that caused this fight to be delayed was due to his “money makers.”
“The injury kept me out of the gym probably for anywhere between three and three and a half weeks,” Richman said. “I had about two weeks where I could not — it was a hand injury actually. It was a minor hand injury where I could not fully open and close my hand for about two weeks without pain and discomfort.”
“On the night of the March fight, it was probably 60 percent that night if I would have fought. It was one of those things that I have fought threw other minor injuries before. Rolled ankles, popped ankles and stuff like that. This is something in my hands. My money makers. I need them ready to rock 100 percent.”
At this time, Bellator has not come out publicly and stated this is a number one contenders fight. Marcos Galvao won the 135 pound title at Bellator 135 and his first title defense has not been announced yet. While Bellator has not told Richman if this is a number one contender fight, he personally feels that he is fighting for a title shot.
“I am pretty sure this is a number one contender fight,” he said. “I have told this to a couple of other people that have asked this question. After I knocked out Nam Phan and even before that they said if you go out there and defeat Nam Phan impressively, you get a title shot next. After I did that, I realized that Warren and Galvao still had to fight at end of March. So they fight at the end of March and whoever wins that will likely defend in late summer.”
“I was like ‘man, I can’t sit on the shelf that long. I need to get paid.’ I do not get paid enough per fight to go that long of a stretch. Me and my manager where like ‘let’s take a fight.’ We were defintely understanding that there were not just going to give me someone to beat. I was expecting a top contender like Dantas, L.C. Davis, Rafael Silva or someone like that. When they told me Dantas, I was like that’s even better because I am going to have to face someone like him. I want to be one of the best in the world at bantamweight.”