MMA company Bellator held a press conference today to unveil their latest venture: Bellator Kickboxing. The announcement was made by Bellator President Scott Coker and executives from their US broadcast partner Spike TV. Bellator Kickboxing will air on Spike TV in the US.
The launch of Bellator Kickboxing will be April 16. That event will be produced in collaboration with Italy’s Oktagon Kickboxing, and will be held in Turin, Italy. As fans may recall, last November, Bellator announced that they would be staging a Bellator MMA event on that day in Italy featuring Alessio Sakara. We have known that there would also be a kickboxing portion of the card, however this is the first confirmation that the kickboxing will also be under the Bellator brand.
Though no fights were officially announced for the April 16 Bellator Kickboxing debut, we do know that Giorgio Petrosyan is fighting Enriko Gogokhia that night. If that is indeed part of Bellator Kickboxing, it would be a significant coup for the company, as Petrosyan is one of the top fighters in the world, and also a notable fighter for Bellator’s former station-mates Glory.
UPDATE: A partial line-up for Bellator Kickboxing on April 16 has been announced. Headlining the card will be Melvin Manhoef vs. Alexandru Negrea. Karim Ghajii will take on Mustapha Haida, and Raymond Daniels, Kevin Ross, and Denise Kielholtz will all be in fights to be announced.
Additional fighters announced as taking part in Bellator Kickboxing are Joe Schilling (who fights next Friday for Glory on UFC Fight Pass), Keri Taylor-Melendez and Anastasia Yankova.
We’ll have more information on Bellator Kickboxing as it becomes available.
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