UPDATED BELLATOR MMA™ FIGHTER RANKING FOLLOWING HISTORIC, CBS DEBUT OF BELLATOR MMA 290 EVENT AT THE KIA FORUM IN LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES — BELLATOR MMA’s historic CBS Network Television debut, BELLATOR 290: Bader vs. Fedor 2, saw longest-reigning Heavyweight World Champion Ryan Bader (31-7, 1 NC) retain his title against the retiring MMA icon, Fedor Emelianenko (40-7, 1 NC), whose ceremonious final fight was accompanied by a touching in-cage tribute to his legendary career by fellow MMA luminaries Chuck Liddell, Royce Gracie, Matt Hughes, Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, Mark Coleman, Renzo Gracie, Josh Barnett, Dan Henderson, ‘Rampage’ Jackson, and Chael Sonnen. With the victory, Bader also retained his No. 6 pound-for-pound status.
In the card’s co-main event, Middleweight World Champion Johnny Eblen (13-0) solidified his status as the best 185-pound fighter on the planet with a masterful first title defense against Team Fedor’s Anatoly Tokov (31-3). Eblen held steady as the No. 5 pound-for-pound athlete with the performance, while Tokov fell one place in the rankings to No. 4. The resurgent Brennan Ward (17-7) continued his remarkable career comeback and kept his 100% BELLATOR stoppage rate intact with a highlight-reel headkick knockout of Sabah Homasi (17-11) in the promotion’s first-ever fight on CBS. In doing so, Ward took Homasi’s place at No. 8 in the welterweight rankings while Homasi fell to No. 10.
Next on its 2023 schedule, BELLATOR MMA will return to the raucous 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland, for the talent stacked BELLATOR 291: Amosov vs. Storley 2 on Saturday, February 25. Headlining the event will be a Welterweight World Championship unification rematch as Ukraine’s Yaroslav Amosov (26-0), the owner of MMA’s longest-active unbeaten streak, returns from defending his homeland to take on interim champion Logan Storley (14-1), who has only lost to Amosov in his 15-fight professional career.
In the co-main event, SBG Ireland’s No. 3-ranked Pedro Carvalho (12-6) will battle Canada’s Jeremy Kennedy (18-3). Rounding out the main card are the following three fights: Irish fan-favorite and No. 10-ranked lightweight Peter Queally (13-7-1) will clash with South Dakotan Bryce Logan (12-7), Ireland’s own and No. 3-ranked women’s featherweight Sinead Kavanagh (8-5) battles Australia’s Janay Harding (6-6), and unbeaten top prospect Ciaran Clarke (6-0) looks to keep his perfect record intact in front of a hometown crowd against Scotland’s Keir Harvie (5-2-1).
BELLATOR 291: Amosov vs. Storley 2 will air LIVE on SHOWTIME at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, while the preliminary portion of the event will air free-to-watch beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT on the BELLATOR MMA YouTube channel, the SHOWTIME Sports YouTube channel, and Pluto TV. Tickets for the event are selling fast and can be purchased at Ticketmaster.ie and Bellator.com now.
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