The Bellator 131 card gets it’s fourth fights, and boy is it ever good. Two very exciting world class kickboxers will meet in the form of Melvin ‘No Mercy’ Manhoef and Joe Schilling.
The bout was confirmed live during the Bellator 127 broadcast on Friday night.
Manhoef (29-11-1) made his Bellator debut in mid-September with a win over former title challenge Doug Marshall. He won via knockout in round one. Manhoef was supposed to be given the winner of Alexander Shlemenko vs. Brandon Halsey, but after Halsey stopped Shlemenko quick, the promotion clearly had different plans for the veteran kickboxer.
Schilling (1-3) has not competed in a mixed martial arts fight since September of 2008, losing to Damion Douglas at ShoXC 8. All 3 of Schillings losses come by way of choke, and his only win, ironically enough, comes by way of a choke as well. Since then, Joe Schilling has been climbing the middleweight ranks in kickboxing, emerging as one of the most entertaining fighters in Glory. He was the Glory middleweight champion in 2013 and was most recently a runner up in Glory’s one night, eight man middleweight tournament in June. He has a kickboxing record of 17-7 with 11 knockouts.
This bouts will be featured on the main card.
Bellator 131 is set to take place on November 15 at the Valley View Casino Center in California. It will be headlined by a light heavyweight fight between UFC hall of famers Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar.
In a recent episode of the Couch Warrior Podcast, host Mike welcomed Charalampos Grigoriou, who recently won a contract during season 7 of Dana White's Contender Series after knocking out Cameron Smotherman one minute into the fight. The conversation delved into Grigoriou's martial arts journey, his feelings on representing Cyprus and Greece, and future plans.
