MMA: Bellator Kicks Off Season 8 Tonight With Two Title Fights

Bellator – Sobral

Bellator 85 takes place at The UCI Bren Center in Irvine, California on Thursday evening and features two pivotal title bouts. Not only is this the promotion’s debut event of season eight, it is also their debut on prime time television with Spike TV.

Michael Chandler will try to secure his first lightweight title defense against Season 6 lightweight tournament winner, Rick Hawn. Chandler defends his title for the first time since his illustrious performance against former Bellator Champion, Eddie Alvarez at Bellator 58. Hawn has only lost once in his professional career, consisting of fifteen bouts.

Bellator Featherweight Champion Pat Curran will battle Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, who beat Daniel Straus at Bellator 45 in the featherweight tournament finals. Curran, who is riding a four-fight win streak, has defeated Joe Warren, Marlon Sandro and Ronnie Mann on route to the championship.

UFC and STRIKEFORCE veteran Renato “Babalu” Sobral takes on Mikhail Zayats, in an intriguing fight that rounds up the main card. Both “Babalu” and Zayats make their Bellator debuts.

The preliminary card will be available on Spike.com and features Seth Petruzelli, a household name thanks to his win over Kimbo Slice, face Jacob Noe. Other fights on the preliminary portion features Hector Ramirez vs. Jason Lambert, Jamie Yager vs. Joe Williams and Mike Guymon vs. Savant Young.

Main Card (Spike TV)

Bellator Lightweight Championship
Michael Chandler (c) vs. Rick Hawn

Bellator Featherweight Championship
Pat Curran (c) vs. Patricio Freire

Renato Sobral vs. Mikhail Zayats

Preliminary Card (Spike.com)

Seth Petruzelli vs. Jacob Noe
Emanuel Newton vs. Atanas Djambazov
Jason Lambert vs. Hector Ramirez
J.J. Ambrose vs. Brian Warren
Mike Guymon vs. Savant Young
Joe Williams vs. Jamie Yager
Cleber Luciano vs. Mario Navarro
Joe Camacho vs. Aaron Miller