Rickels vs. Amoussou tourney semifinal moves to Bellator 69
Karl Amoussou (14-4-2 MMA, 2-1 BFC) and David Rickels (10-0 MMA, 2-0 BFC) will still meet in a season-six welterweight-tournament-semifinal fight.
They'll just do so on a different date.
While initially targeted for Friday's Bellator 67 event, a source close to the fighters told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) the tourney fight instead takes place next month at Bellator 69.
Bellator 69 takes place May 18 at L'Auberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, La., and the main card airs on MTV2 following Spike.com prelims.
Amoussou made short work of Chris Lozano in Bellator 63's headliner and an opening-round fight. After an intense staredown, Amoussou carried the hard feelings into the event, where he threw a head kick, hit the mat, and quickly transitioned into a fight-ending rear-naked choke just two minutes into the fight.
He looks to continue his first-ever Bellator tourney run against Rickels, who needed just 22 seconds to knock out Jordan Smith, who was a late replacement for medically ineligible Brian Foster, in his opening-round matchup. Rickels stunned Smith with a right, and the submission specialist then pounced with follow-up punches to secure his first KO victory since his pro debut in early 2010.
The Amoussou vs Rickels winner meets the winner of Friday's Ben Saunders (13-4-2 MMA, 4-1 BFC) vs. Bryan Baker (17-3 MMA, 7-2 BFC) bout in the tourney's finale next month.
