A knee injury has forced heavyweight Vinicius Spartan out of the Summer Series Heavyweight Tournament, and has been replaced by fellow heavyweight Ryan Martinez. With the change, the night will now see Rich Hale battle Martinez for a spot in the Bellator Heavyweight Summer Series Tournament Finals.
Ryan Martinez replaces Vinicius Spartan in Bellator MMA Heavyweight Tournament
“I’m looking at this opportunity as a blessing,” Martinez said. “Rich is a very qualified and tough guy, but I’m ready. I’ve been training with King Mo and Roy Nelson over the last few months, so I basically went through a normal training camp and haven’t stopped training. This is a huge chance for me, and I’m ready.”
“Ryan’s a huge potential player in our HW division,” Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said. “We had him slotted for our next HW tournament, but paid him to be here and make weight as if he was going to fight, just for this reason. And, his back to back camps with Mo and Roy have him ready for tomorrow night’s fight.
The full fight card for Bellator MMA on Wednesday, June 19th is below:
MAIN CARD:
Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament: King Mo Lawal (9-2) vs. Seth Petruzelli (14-7)
Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament: Renato “Babalu” Sobral (37-10) vs. Jacob Noe (11-2)
Bellator Heavyweight Tournament: Ryan Martinez (9-2) vs. Rich Hale (21-5)
Bellator Heavyweight Tournament: Vitaly Minakov (10-0) vs. Ron Sparks (8-1)
Welterweight Feature Fight: War Machine (12-4) vs. Blas Avena (8-6)
PRELIMINARY CARD:
Bantamweight Feature Fight: Justin McNally (1-1) vs. Steven Artoff (5-1)
Lightweight Feature Fight: Brandon Girtz (8-2) vs. Derek Campos (10-3)
Light Heavyweight Feature Fight: Brandon Halsey (3-0) vs. Joe Yaeger (5-1)
Heavyweight Feature Fight: Jeremiah O’Neal vs. Raphael Butler (5-0)
Lightweight Feature Fight: Keith Miner (5-4) vs. Damon Jackson (4-0)
Bantamweight Feature Fight: Mike Maldonado (4-0) vs. Chavous Smith (2-3)
Middleweight Feature Fight: Keith Berry (14-10) vs. Cortez Coleman (9-3)
Featherweight Feature Fight: Jarrod Card (13-6) vs. Chas Skelly (10-0)
For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA, follow Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney @BjornRebney and check out Bellator on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BellatorMMA
