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Bellator 228 Preview: Former Champions and a Family Affair

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The Bellator Featherweight tournament continues this weekend at Bellator 228, taking place on Saturday, September 28th in Inglewood, California. This comes on the same weekend as Bellator Dublin, as Bellator will be having two shows in Ireland. One is headlined by James Gallagher and Roman Salazar, and the other will be headlined by Benson Henderson and Myles Jury.

Father And Son On The Same Card

For the first time ever in the United States, a father-son combo will be fighting at Bellator 228 together. Aj McKee will be fighting Georgi Karakhanyan as part of the featherweight tournament. His father Antonio McKee will be fighting William Sriyapai in a middleweight preliminary bout. Antonio McKee hasn’t fought since 2014 and will be making his return at the age of 49.

Mousasi vs. Machida

The co-main event of Bellator 228 will be former Bellator middleweight champ, Gegard Mousasi taking on Lyoto Machida. Mousasi is looking to bounce back after his title loss to Rafael Lovato Jr. Machida, on the other hand, is on a two fight winning streak since coming to Bellator. He has defeated Rafael Carvalho via decision and Chael Sonnen via flying knee KO.

The Return Of Aj Agazarm

Aj Agazarm is back to fight in his third MMA bout. He will be taking on Jonathan Quiroz who holds a 3-3 pro MMA record. Agazarm has an extensive background in the submission grappling world, as he has won ten gold medals in submission grappling tournaments. Agazarm is a product of the Nick Diaz Academy out in Stockton, California. His opponent Quiroz has fought in promotions such as Combate Americas and LFA. He also trains in California, fighting out of California Mixed Martial Arts in Long Beach. 

Chasing More Gold

After losing his bantamweight title to Kyoji Horiguchi earlier this year, Darrion Caldwell will go up in weight to go after the featherweight title. He has a tough task in front of him, drawing Henry Corrales in the first round of the tournament. Corrales is currently riding a five fight win streak, with the most recent win coming by knock out over Aaron Pico. Although Caldwell has two back to back losses to Horiguchi, he only has one other loss in his pro career. Whoever wins this fight will certainly be a heavy favorite to be in the finals.

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My name is Michael Lynch. I’m originally from Long Island, NY, but I reside in Columbia, Sc. I’ve been covering MMA for almost two years now. I’ve covered events such as Island fights and the PFL. I also have a YouTube channel where I do fight companions and UFC fight previews. I have recently started to train in mma and would like to have my first fight in 2020. I believe that as a journalist I need to experience what these fighters go threw, in order to understand their POV.

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