Bellator MMA/Lucas Noonan

John McCarthy assigned as referee for Eduardo Dantas vs. Leandro Higo

The main event of Friday’s Bellator 177 will be a title fight as Eduardo Dantas will defend the Bellator bantamweight title against Leandro Higo and John McCarthy will the third man in the cage.

Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletics Director Mike Mazzulli confirmed to The MMA Report on Wednesday that McCarthy will be the referee for the main event. Along with assigning McCarthy as the referee, Mazzulli has assigned Dave Tirelli, Jeff Mullen and Bryan Miner to be the judges for the title fight.

Bellator 177: Dantas vs. Higo will come from the Budapest Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary and the fight card lineup is below.

Main Card: (Spike – 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT)
Eduardo Dantas (19-4) vs. Leandro Higo (17-2)
Daniel Weichel (38-9) vs. John Teixeira (21-1-2)
Lena Ovchynnikova (11-4) vs. Helen Harper (4-1)
Adam Borics (5-0) vs. Anthony Taylor (1-2)

Preliminary Card: (Unaired)
Brian Moore (9-5) vs. Michal Horejsi (5-2)
Patrick Szombat (1-2) vs. Mate Kertesz (3-0)