Champ Eduardo Dantas vs. Rafael Silva set for Bellator 111 on March 7
The second event of Bellator MMA’s upcoming 10th season is slated for March 7 with a headlining title fight, as well as the opening round of an eight-man heavyweight tournament, the organization today announced.
Headlining the card is a bout between bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas (15-3 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) and 2013 Summer Series tournament winner Rafael “Morcego†Silva (21-3 MMA, 2-0 BMMA).
The card takes place at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla. The main card, including the title fight and tourney bouts, airs on Spike TV following prelims on Spike.com.
Dantas, who’s ranked No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA bantamweight rankings, looks for his second consecutive title defense. After submitting Zach Makovsky to win the title in 2012, the Brazilian and Nova Uniao member suffered a knockout loss to Tyson Nam in a non-title bout at Shooto Brazil 33. However, the 24-year-old rebounded with a knockout victory over friend and mentor Marcos Glavao at Bellator 89 this past February.
After recovering from a leg injury, he now meets Silva, who defeated Rodrigo Lima and Anthony Leone to win his tournament title this past year. The 28-year-old Brazilian has now won 13 straight fights, with 10 of the victories coming via stoppage.
The heavyweight tourney, meanwhile, features some familiar names. The matchups include recently dethroned champ Alexander Volkov (19-4 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) vs. Mark Holata (12-4 MMA, 3-2 BMMA), and former tourney finalist Ryan Martinez (10-3 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) vs. UFC/Stikeforce vet Lavar Johnson (17-8 MMA, 0-1 BMMA).
Other matchups include Peter Graham (9-6 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) vs. Siala Siliga (5-2 MMA, 2-0 BMMA), and Blagoi Ivanov (9-0 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) vs. Rich Hale (21-6-1 MMA, 6-3 BMMA).
