This weekend’s Bellator x RIZIN 2 event just got hit with an injury that is changing up the Bellator portion of the main event.
The second edition of the inter-promotional event series between Bellator MMA and RIZIN Fighting Federation goes down on Saturday July 29th and features back to back cards from each promoter. On the Bellator side, former Bellator featherweight champion A.J. McKee was set to face Patricky Freire in a lightweight grand prix quarterfinal bout, but had to withdraw with an undisclosed medical issue.
So here’s what’s happening: Patricky Freire will stay on the card, and he will now be fighting RIZIN lightweight champion Roberto de Souza at 161 pounds.
Because of the last minute weight situation, de Souza’s belt is not on the line. But the bout is still considered part of Bellator’s lightweight tournament. A.J. McKee will now serve as an alternate in the tournament in case other fighters fall out at a later time.
Another last minute change: Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Freire will face Chihiro Suzuki in a 154 pound catchweight bout on the RIZIN FF – SUPER RIZIN 2 portion of the card. A champion for champion card swap!
The lineup as it currently stands for Bellator X RIZIN 2:
- Patricky Freire vs. Roberto de Souza
- Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Makoto Shinryu
- Magomed Magomedov vs. Danny Sabatello.
- Veta Arteaga vs. Kana Watanabe.
- Andrey Koreshkov vs. Lorenz Larkin
The lineup for RIZIN FF – SUPER RIZIN 2:
- Mikuru Asakura vs. Vugar Karamov
- Hiromasa Ougikubo vs. Juan Archuleta
- Patricio Pitbull vs. Chihiro Suzuki
- Seika Izawa vs. Claire Lopez
- Kenta Takizawa vs. Shinobu Ota
- Daichi Abe vs. Igor Tanabe
- Yuki Ito vs. Hiroya Kondo
- Tofiq Musayev vs. Akira Okada
The Bellator X RIZIN 2 portion of the card will be aired on Showtime at 11pm EST. RIZIN events are available to watch live via FITE.tv.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
