PECHANGA ARENA TO HOST BELLATOR 300
The biggest card in Bellator MMA’s history is coming to America’s Finest City.
Bellator 300, which will feature four championship fights on one card for the first time in the promotion’s 14-year history, will take place Oct. 7 at Pechanga Arena, a source close to Bellator confirmed.
Ariel Helwani of “The MMA Hour” was first to report the card, which will be headlined by two of Bellator’s most dominant champions.
Heavyweight champion Ryan Bader (31-7, 1 no contest), who has held the title for more than four years, will put the belt on the line in a rematch with top-ranked Linton Vassell (23-8, 1 NC).
Bader, 40, knocked out the Englishman while defending his light heavyweight crown in 2017. Vassell, 40, who followed Bader to the top weight class in ’19, has won his past five fights.
In the co-main event, featherweight champion Cris Cyborg (26-2, 1 NC) and Cat Zingano (14-4) will finally step into the cage after several months of accusations of
ducking one another.
The only fighter to hold world championships across four major MMA promotions, Cyborg debuted in Bellator in 2020 by winning the title. The 38-year-old Huntington Beach Brazilian has since gone 4-0, as has the top-ranked Zingano, 41, since she joined Bellator in ’20.
In a Bellator Lightweight World Grand Prix semifinal bout, champion Usman Nurmagomedov
(17-0) puts his belt on the line against former champion Brent Primus (12-3).
The 25-year-old Nurmagomedov, cousin of UFC lightweight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov, won the title in November and opened the 155-pound tournament in March with a first-round submission of former WEC and UFC champion Benson Henderson. Primus, 38, who won the title from Michael Chandler in 2017, debuted in the grand prix with a decision victory over Mansour Barnaoui in May,
Opening the main card is a flyweight title fight between two San Diego residents who happen to be close friends and former training partners as Liz Carmouche (19-7) takes on former champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (13-2).
Carmouche, 39, became the 125-pound champ in April last year and has successfully defended the strap twice via submission victories. Macfarlane has won her past two fights and calls a clash with Carmouche the “ultimate dream fight.” The San Diego State graduate won the inaugural flyweight title in 2017 and successfully defended it four times in 18 months.
Tickets for Bellator 300 go on sale Aug. 18 at Bellator.com and Axs.com, with special presales on Aug. 16 and 17.
The main card will air live at 7 p.m. on Showtime, with the undercard streaming on the Bellator YouTube and PlutoTV channels.