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| (Image Source: BELLATOR MMA) |
BELLATOR MMA has announced its return to the Hawaiian island of Oahu where Honolulu’s Neal S. Blaisdell Arena will play home to an extremely stacked duo of back-to-back events on Friday, April 22, for BELLATOR 278 and Saturday, April 23, for BELLATOR 279. BELLATOR 278 will be a special event free for current military, veterans, and first responders while BELLATOR 279 will feature the launch of the highly anticipated one-million-dollar BELLATOR Bantamweight World Grand Prix.
The headliner for BELLATOR 279 will see current bantamweight world champion Sergio Pettis (22-5) take on No. 3-ranked Raufeon Stots (17-1) while the co-main event features a rematch between the greatest female mixed martial artist of all time Cris Cyborg (25-2, 1 NC) and Australia’s No. 1-ranked Arlene Blencowe (15-8) who is looking to claim gold in her third attempt at a world title. Also scheduled for a return to action, Honolulu’s own former Women’s Flyweight World Champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (11-1) will return home to compete against Justine Kish (7-5) as the No. 1 ranked women’s flyweight looks to start her journey back to a world title in the same arena two of the most memorable BELLATOR main events in recent memory took place. Opening the four-fight main card is another BELLATOR Bantamweight World Grand Prix quarterfinal matchup between No. 2-ranked bantamweight Patchy Mix (15-1) and former BELLATOR and Rizin Bantamweight World Champion Kyoji Horiguchi (29-4).
Current BELLATOR Bantamweight World Champion Sergio “The Phenom” Pettis sits at No. 7 on the promotion’s pound-for-pound list. He successfully defended his belt for the first time against former BELLATOR 135-pound titleholder Kyoji Horiguchi with a “knockout of the year” style finish at BELLATOR 272 in December. The hard-hitting Midwesterner out of Milwaukee originally captured the crown by outpointing former champion Juan Archuleta. The younger brother of former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis will be in for one of the toughest fights of his career when he takes on Raufeon Stots. Stots, who trained alongside Pettis for several years, has been flawless since making his promotion debut in December 2019. He most recently scored a dominant unanimous decision victory over Magomed Magomedov at BELLATOR 264.
Featherweight world champion and top-ranked women’s pound-for-pound fighter Cris “Cyborg” has made three straight title defenses including a second-round submission of Arlene Blencowe in 2020, which surprisingly is the lone submission victory of her storied career. The Brazilian native who currently fights out of Las Vegas, Nevada is a “Grand Slam Champion” having won belts in four different organizations. She sports 20 wins by finish with victories over elite competition including Holly Holm, Leslie Smith (twice), Gina Carano and aims to further her legacy as the greatest women’s mixed martial artist of all time in the rematch versus Blencowe. Australia’s Blencowe is BELLATOR’s No. 6 pound-for-pound female fighter and the No. 1 ranked featherweight. She has won five of her last six fights and earned her shot at the world title rematch with a unanimous decision over Pam Sorenson at BELLATOR 271 in November.
Currently BELLATOR’s No. 2 ranked bantamweight, Patchy Mix recently defeated James Gallagher via submission in his last outing at BELLATOR 270 in Dublin. Mix has made a name for himself in the BELLATOR cage by displaying impressive submissions and his lone professional loss came to former champion Juan Archuleta. He now faces Horiguchi, another former world champion who hails from Takasaki, Japan. The American Top Team prodigy Horiguchi became a simultaneous, two-promotion champion in 2019 after he upset then-BELLATOR champion Darrion Caldwell while also holding the RIZIN Championship. After he was forced to relinquish his BELLATOR title due to an injury, Horiguchi nearly got his hands back on BELLATOR’s title but was stopped by current champion Sergio Pettis in December. The No. 5 ranked bantamweight now aims to get back in the winning column and recapture his belt, along with the million-dollar prize that awaits the winner of the BELLATOR Bantamweight World Grand Prix.
BELLATOR 279: Pettis vs. Stots/Cyborg vs. Blencowe 2 will be aired on Sunday, April 24, with the preliminary card beginning at 8:00 am Philippine/Singapore standard time (PHT/SGT) and the main card starting at 10:30 am Philippine/Singapore standard time (PHT/SGT) live via streaming on BELLATOR MMA's official YouTube channel. The event will also be aired on SHOWTIME in the United States and BELLATOR's broadcast partners across the globe for the main card and Pluto TV in the US and SHOWTIME Sports' YouTube channel worldwide for the preliminary card.
