Former UFC light-heavyweight fighter Ryan Bader will make his Bellator debut against Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal in New York City on June 24th.
It should be noted this bout won’t feature on the Bellator: NYC pay-per-view card that also takes place in Madison Square Garden that night.
Instead it will headline Bellator 180, which will be marketed seperately and airs free on Spike TV as a lead in to the PPV offering.
The fight was announced last night after ‘King Mo’ emerged victorious via unanimous decision against Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson in their rematch at Bellator 175.
That brought Lawal back to winning ways after having suffered a TKO loss to Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic in Rizin’s end-of-year openweight grand-prix back in December.
As for Bader, he departed the UFC on a two-fight winning streak, having stopped both Ilir Latifi and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira with strikes.
Aside from a KO loss to Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, Bader had won seven of his last eight bouts in the UFC, defeating the likes of Rashad Evans, Phil Davis and Ovince St. Preux along the way.
Bader Vs ‘King Mo’ will offer a meaningful fight on free-TV to lead into Bellator’s pay-per-view event later that evening, which will be headlined by Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva and also includes a heavyweight co-main event between Fedor Emelianenko and Matt Mitrione.
