HONOLULU – It’s fight week for Bellator in Hawaii, but two bouts have been removed from Friday’s event, including the return of “Goyito” [autotag]Erik Perez[/autotag].
Bellator 278 takes place at Neal S. Blaisdell Center with the main card airing on Showtime after prelims on MMA Junkie. The event is the first half of a two-night doubleheader for the promotion at the same arena.
Perez (20-8 MMA, 1-2 BMMA) withdrew from his scheduled bantamweight bout against [autotag]Cee Jay Hamilton[/autotag] (15-9 MMA, 0-2 BMMA) for undisclosed reasons, multiple people with knowledge of the situation informed MMA Junkie.
Hamilton will be paid his show money, despite not weighing in or fighting.
Additionally, the previously-scheduled bout between former RIZIN lightweight champion [autotag]Tofiq Musayev[/autotag] (18-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) and [autotag]Zach Zane[/autotag] (15-11 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) is off for undisclosed reasons. Zane withdrew, a promotion official confirmed to MMA Junkie after an initial report by MMA Fighting.
With the cancellations, the Bellator 278 lineup includes:
MAIN CARD (Showtime, 10 p.m. ET)
- Champ Juliana Velasquez vs. Liz Carmouche – for women’s flyweight title
- Enrique Barzola vs. Nikita Mikhailov – bantamweight grand prix wild card
- Jornel Lugo vs. Danny Sabatello – bantamweight grand prix wild card
- Christian Edwards vs. Grant Neal
- Nate Andrews vs. Manny Muro
PRELMINARY CARD (MMA Junkie, 9 p.m. ET)
- Weber Almeida vs. Fabricio Franco
- Scotty Hao vs. Dante Schiro
- Makoa Cooper vs. Blake Perry
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