An undisclosed injury has forced Carrington Banks to pull out of his lightweight bout against Mihail Nica at Bellator 176 on Saturday and stepping up on five days notice to meet Nica will be Samba Coulibaly.
The fight change was confirmed to The MMA Report on Monday evening.
Coulibaly (11-4) is coming off a submission victory last month against Christopher Sengele and six of his eleven wins have come by submission. He enters Bellator 176 with eight victories in his last nine fights and six of those wins have come by submission. Nica (5-0) has won all of his fights by finish and three of his five wins have come by TKO/KO. His most recent win came in October as he defeated Aldo Cirillo by TKO.
Bellator 176 will come from the Pala Aplitour in Turin, Italy and will be headlined by a title fight rematch as Rafael Carvalho will defend the middleweight title against Melvin Manhoef.