Next month’s Bellator Paris card has been hit with a major shake-up.
On Monday, promotion officials announced that the planned main event between Usman Nurmagomedov and Alexander Shabliy was off, the result of an undisclosed injury sustained by lightweight champ Nurmagomedov. As a result, the planned co-headliner between bantamweight champ Patchy Mix and Magomed Magomedov now shifts to the main event slot.
Nurmagomedov vs. Shabliy, which closes out Bellator’s lightweight grand prix (seemingly without the million dollars in prize money, since the promotion was scooped up by the PFL and rebranded as the Bellator Champions Series), is expected to be rebooked for a later date.
Additionally, French star Cedric Doumbe has been added to the Bellator Paris card; he’ll face Bellator vet Derek Anderson in the new co-main event.
Doumbe was last seen fighting under the PFL Europe banner last month, were a freak accident – a splinter in his toe – led to the first loss of his career. The injury TKO came against fellow French standout Baissangour Chamsoudinov, who has reportedly singed on with the UFC.
Bellator Paris is set to take place at the Accor Arena in Paris, France on May 17, 2024. The following match-ups have been announced for the event:
- Patchy Mix (c) vs. Magomed Magomedov – for the Bellator MMA bantamweight championship
- Cédric Doumbé vs. Derek Anderson
- Gregory Babene vs. Costello van Steenis
- Yves Landu vs. Jonas Bilharinho
- Archie Colgan vs. Thibault Gouti
- Slim Trabelsi vs. Louie Sutherland
- Mansour Barnaoui vs. Yusuke Yachi
- Imamshafi Aliev vs. Mike Shipman
- Aspen Ladd vs. Ekaterina Shakalova
- Asael Adjoudj vs. Bruno Fontes
