Patricky Pitbull won’t be able to defend his Bellator Lightweight Championship later this month.
The current champ has suffered an injury that forced him out of his July 22nd booking against Sidney Outlaw, per Tristen Critchfield of Sherdog.
The fight was set to headline Bellator 283 at the Emerald Queen Casino and Hotel in Tacoma, Washington, USA.
Pitbull was aiming to defend his belt for the first time. He took the vacant title late last year, scoring a second-round finish victory over Peter Queally.
Outlaw was given the now-canceled title fight opportunity after winning three of his previous four appearances in Bellator. This run of success from Outlaw includes a victory that he earned last year against veteran Myles Jury.
Outlaw will remain on the upcoming card in a fight against former RIZIN talent Tofiq Musayev, as first reported by Nolan King of MMA Junkie. The fight offers Musayev a big opportunity in his promotional debut, possibly jumping to the front of the lightweight ranks if he can pull off a win.
The recent news means that Outlaw won’t headline the card. A previously booked fight between welterweights Douglas Lima and Jason Jackson will now reportedly serve as the main event for the card and will be a five-round fight because of this change.
Smaller changes to the card were also announced by Bellator on Tuesday. Notably, Justin Montalvo will now face Archie Colgan instead of Vladimir Tokov, and a fight between Viktor Nemkov and Jose Augusto is out of the lineup.
Here’s an updated look at the show:
Main Card (10:00PM EDT / 7:00PM PDT) (Showtime)
Bout 13: Douglas Lima (32-10) vs. Jason Jackson (15-4) (Welterweight)
Bout 12: Sidney Outlaw (16-4) vs. Tofiq Musayev (18-4) (Lightweight)
Bout 11: Usman Nurmagomedov (14-0) vs. Chris Gonzalez (7-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 10: Lorenz Larkin (24-7) vs. Mukhamed Berkhamov (15-1) (Welterweight)
Bout 9: Davion Franklin (5-0) vs. Marcelo Golm (9-3) (Heavyweight)
Preliminary Card (7:00PM EDT / 4:00PM PDT) (Youtube)
Bout 8: Romero Cotton (6-0) vs. Dalton Rosta (6-0) (Middleweight)
Bout 7: Veta Arteaga (6-4) vs. Vanessa Porto (23-9) (Flyweight)
Bout 6: Gadzhi Rabadanov (17-4-2) vs. Bobby King (12-4) (Lightweight)
Bout 5: Jaylon Bates (5-0) vs. Mark Coates (10-7) (Bantamweight)
Bout 4: Roman Faraldo (7-0) vs. Luis Iniguez (5-1) (Welterweight)
Bout 3: Justin Montalvo (5-0) vs. Archie Colgan (4-0) (Lightweight)
Bout 2: Ethan Hughes (3-0) vs. Kevin Hand (2-0) (Welterweight)
Bout 1: Kai Kamaka III (9-5-1) vs. Akhmed Magomedov (8-0) (Featherweight)
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