Former UFC fighter Gegard Mousasi’s first fight for Bellator will come against former middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 185 in Connecticut on October 20th.
Mousasi confirmed that he’d signed for Bellator earlier this week and he’s a major signing for the promotion as he was one of the UFC’s leading 185lb fighters and is coming off a five-fight winning streak in the Octagon.
Along the way, Mousasi has defeated the likes of Thales Leities, Thiago Santos, Vitor Belfort, Uriah Hall and most recently Chris Weidman, so the 31-year-old will be brimming with confidence that he’s about to take Bellator’s middleweight division by storm.
Standing in his way is the 33-year-old Shlemenko, who has been splitting his time between Bellator and M-1 Challenge since losing his title back in 2014.
Shlemenko defeated Melvin Manhoef after that in 2015, but then saw his victory amended to a no-contest after he tested positive for steroids, though he managed to get his subsequent three-year suspension overturned the following year.
Since then, Shlemenko has racked up a five-fight winning streak, competing mostly for M-1, though he does hold a TKO victory over Kendall Grove in the Bellator cage from last October.
Mousasi Vs Shlemenko is set to headline the Bellator 185 event, which is also expected to feature a solid co-main event pairing of Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal Vs Liam McGeary.
