The lineup for next week’s Bellator return to its Northern California home base is set with the addition of four new fights on the preliminary card.
[autotag]Rhalan Gracie[/autotag] (0-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) will return to MMA for the first time since 2007 when he takes on [autotag]Shane Keefe[/autotag] (1-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) at welterweight.
Plus, [autotag]Eddie Abasolo[/autotag] (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) meets [autotag]Art Hernandez[/autotag] (4-5 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) in a 160-pound contract weight fight; [autotag]Edwin De Los Santos[/autotag] (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) takes on [autotag]Jon Adams[/autotag] (0-1-1 MMA, 0-1-1 BMMA) at flyweight; and [autotag]Jesse Delgado[/autotag] (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) fights [autotag]Joshua Dillon[/autotag] (1-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) in a 130-pound contract weight bout.
Bellator 266 takes place Sept. 18 at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie. The card will be Bellator’s first in San Jose in more than two years.
In the main event, [autotag]Yoel Romero[/autotag] (13-5 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) finally will make his Bellator debut when he takes on former light heavyweight champion [autotag]Phil Davis[/autotag] (22-6 MMA, 9-3 BMMA).
Romero signed with Bellator in December 2020 after a seven-year run with the UFC. He was booked to make his promotional debut against Anthony Johnson to open the Bellator light heavyweight grand prix in May, but was forced to withdraw because of concerns over his eye following a pre-fight medical exam.
Romero, 44, hasn’t fought since March 2020 when he dropped a unanimous decision to UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 248, which marked his third consecutive loss. His other two defeats in the skid came against Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa. Romero hasn’t won since a February 2018 knockout of Luke Rockhold at UFC 221.
Davis is coming off an April unanimous decision loss to champion Vadim Nemkov in the Bellator light heavyweight grand prix, which snapped a three-fight winning streak.
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The Bellator 266 lineup includes:
MAIN CARD (10 p.m. ET, Showtime)
- Phil Davis vs. Yoel Romero
- [autotag]Neiman Gracie[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Mark Lemminger[/autotag]
- [autotag]DeAnna Bennett[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Alejandra Lara[/autotag]
- [autotag]Georgi Karakhanyan[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Saul Rogers[/autotag]
- [autotag]Christian Edwards[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Ben Parrish[/autotag]
PRELIMINARY CARD (MMA Junkie, 7 p.m. ET)
- [autotag]Grant Neal[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Alex Polizzi[/autotag]
- [autotag]Anthony Adams[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Khalid Murtazaliev[/autotag]
- [autotag]Albert Gonzales[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Abraham Vaesau[/autotag]
- [autotag]Socrates Hernandez[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Pedro Juarez[/autotag]
- [autotag]Erin Hunter[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Bobby Seronio III[/autotag]
- Rhalan Gracie vs. Shane Keefe
- Eddie Abasolo vs. Art Hernandez
- Jon Adams vs. Edwin De Los Santos
- Jesse Delgado vs. Joshua Dillon